The Smoke-Filled Room: Handle With Care
Killian, Linda
THE S OKE FILLED ROOM by Linda Killian Handle With Care A s more is known about Chinese efforts to buy, borrow, and steal U.S. commercial and military technology while the Clinton administration...
...They were not allowing things to surface that would generate opposition to their China policy...
...Wen Ho Lee kept his job, even earning a promotion, until early this year when the story was broken in the New York Times...
...Thompson cautioned Cox "not to mess up" that bipartisanship because it will be essential if the Republicans are to successfully move forward on Chinagate...
...Friends don't take advantage of friends...
...To say the Clinton administration handled the situation badly would be an understatement...
...A t best, the Clinton administration was naive in its dealings with China, and one has to wonder how closely its decisions to allow more technology transfers to China were tied to the hefty campaign contributions Democrats received from Chinese sources lobbying for more liberal trade policies...
...ington in 1996 and was introduced to Clin- the Justice Department to the extent that "Whether or not the contributions had ton by Chung...
...By early April, Lee still hadn't been charged with a crime...
...Cox thinks it would be much better for Clinton to deal with this head-on...
...In early February, the White House leaked 19 of those recommendations which were declassified as well as the administration's responses...
...This was a massive bureaucratic mishandling...
...don...
...computers, and the refusal of export licenses for such computers if China failed to comply...
...Thompson, who has been push-not deal with the Chinese government's and military leaders, has pleaded guilty to ing Attorney General Janet Reno for years campaign contributions to the Democrats bank and tax fraud and to making illegal to appoint a special prosecutor to look and the possible link to the Clinton admin- Democratic contributions...
...One Republican said representatives of the U.S...
...This administration's pattern is to put the best interpretation possible on Chinese behavior," he says...
...The Cox committee did events, often escorting Chinese business says Sen...
...She is a Chinese military I can," he says, adding, "We need to get to an impact, I can't prove that," said Wel- official and the daughter of a top-ranking the bottom of this...
...Pentagon workers were directed not to voice opposition, and memos written in opposition to the exports were surpressed or destroyed...
...I'm going to continue to ride herd on "grave national security concerns...
...Porter Goss, chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, agrees that Republican leaders are acting responsibly by "not going out and shooting off LINDA KILLIAN, a Washington journalist, is author of The Freshman: What Happened to the Republican Revolution?, now available in paperpack (Westview...
...Far more important, Cox says, is seriously addressing the problems uncovered by his committee, which could take years to solve...
...Going out there and lambasting and holding press conferences is not the responsible thing to do and it won't do any good...
...Many legislators, including Cox, believe that, had his committee not begun its work, the public might still be unaware of the problems...
...There's bled that suggests it should be looked into...
...The administration's "engagement" policy toward the Chinese—turning a blind eye to human-rights violations, transfers of weapons to rogue or unstable nations such as Iran and Pakistan, and trade policy inequities—appears more like appeasement to some...
...The American Spectator • May 1999 59 But free trade at any cost could have a attended many Democratic fundraising "This has become a criminal matter," very high price...
...Even Norm Dicks, a Democrat, is critical of the administration...
...electronics industry organization...
...Undoubtedly, there was concern within the administration over how this would look at a time when revelations about Chinese infusions of cash into Democratic campaign coffers were coming to light...
...Whether Chinese espionage will be enough to change U.S...
...The Clinton administration had relaxed the rule for the sale of supercomputers to China and reversed a 1993 State Department decision that banned satellite exports to China for two years...
...It is "an irresponsible attitude" says Cox, who blasted Clinton for making a joke about the affair (announcing a "fundraiser at Grauman's Chinese Theater") when he addressed this year's Radio-TV Correspondents Dinner...
...There is no explanation for [their response] other than they don't care — 'What the hell, what harm can come from people stealing our nuclear secrets," said Cox...
...That's sort of the administration's approach — 'What the heck...
...In 1995 U.S...
...Requiring any foreign country to accept visits without notice would be viewed as an infringement of its sovereignty," argued the White House, suggesting that "if China does not permit end-use visits, the administration will continue to implement appropriate measures, including the denial of licenses on a case by case basis...
...U nlike almost everything else that's been going on in Washington recently, the four Democrats and five Republicans on the Cox committee worked together closely in a bipartisan fashion and unanimously approved the report and its declassification...
...Weldon thinks the administration was trying to scare business leaders about the committee's recommendations and their restrictions on trade with China...
...Dicks concedes this much to Republicans...
...Although some in the Clinton administration had been aware of them for several years, Congress had not been fully informed...
...The Republicans are running around like their hair is on fire," said Norman Dicks, ranking minority member of the House committee that investigated Chinese espionage...
...Thompson seemed envious of the bipartisanship...
...Chamber of Commerce urged him not to allow release of the Cox report before Zhu's Washington visit, and there are business leaders suggesting the report should never be publicly released...
...But there's a lot of information assem- Communist Party official...
...It's very difficult to break through the partisan labeling that happens...
...Indeed, the administration's leaked responses to the still-classified report could be found on the website for the U.S...
...Thompson agrees...
...company, China Aerospace International too much here to be spun," he says...
...I never had that for a minute," he said wistfully...
...g 60 May 1999 • The American Spectator...
...The Justice Department, however, refused to grant an FBI wiretap request, and Lee remainedon the job...
...This Johnny Chung, who visited the White Holdings, was reportedly involved in the administration has to account for the last House nearly 5o times from 1994 to '96 and sale of missiles to Pakistan...
...In the wake of the Cox Committee's investigation, authority for sensitive sattelite sales has been transferred back to the State and Defense Departments...
...He has also told into Chinagate...
...their mouths about things they know nothing about...
...Senator Thompson thinks the White House "probably misled Congress" in failing to adequately inform it...
...58 May 1999 The American Spectator more than a year, says Thompson...
...No other country has gotten away with so much," asserts Cox, adding that the U.S...
...If they're going to get it anyway, why don't we put out a catalogue and sell it to them and make some money," says Cox...
...That directive was implemented months after the Cox committee had begun its work...
...The FBI continued to urge for tighter lab security, especially for foreign visitors, but the Energy Department failed to act...
...The Clinton administration has shown an alarming lack of alarm over what some have called the biggest security breach since Ethel and Julius Rosenberg...
...Thompson says he plans istration's beneficial decisions on trade and federal investigators that he funneled more to renew that call...
...Congressional sources say an official who suspected there were problems at the lab was ordered not to tell Congress what he knew because critics would attack the White House's "engagement" policy toward China...
...In fact, the GOP is making a concerted effort to handle this Clinton saga— a tangled web of illegal foreign campaign contributions, nuclear espionage, and loosygoosey technology transfers — differently than the Lewinsky matter...
...policies toward China remains to be seen...
...Both the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans have come under pressure from American companies eager to preserve access to the Chinese market...
...six years...
...The problem is China and its espionage efforts targeted at the United States...
...It is better to have China be your friend than your enemy," says Goss, but adds, "you can't be sure that's going to happen...
...The suspected spy remained in place and the technology transfers continued so that the White House could spare itself embarrassment...
...I think it's naive, I think it's stupid, I think it's unconstitutional," says Curt Weldon, a Republican member of the Cox committee, about the Clinton administration's policies toward China and its handling of the problems at the labs...
...This administration doesn't want to do anything to embarrass the Russian or Chinese leadership, even when they do things that are wrong," says Curt Weldon...
...Halfway through its investigation of these transfers, the Cox committee began investigating security problems at U.S...
...nuclear weapons labs...
...Instead, they're letting the China story run without aggressive stage management, allowing reporters to uncover the story at their own pace...
...But the issue will likely come up during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to the U.S...
...Maybe it's because of the way the news media handles it when we step up to the plate," says Fred Thompson, who chaired the Senate investigation two years ago into Democratic fundraising and who knows a thing or two about being drowned out by spin...
...How could you joke about that and be the president of the United States...
...In February 1998, Clinton finally ordered the labs to increase security...
...If ever there was a technology sales...
...After National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was told about the Chinese security problems, the information fell into a "deep trough" for The GOP cautiously unwraps Chinagate...
...Cox's committee—the nine-member House Select Committee on U.S...
...intelligence realized the Chinese had carried out nuclear blasts with a miniaturized warhead almost identical to the American-made W-88 designed at the Los Alamos lab...
...At first its mission was to look into the Clinton administration's decision to waive export controls on advanced space technology to China for Loral Space and Communications and Hughes Electronics, a decision no doubt influenced by the fact that Loral's CEO, Bernard Schwartz, was a major Democratic contributor...
...I think this should have been handled earlier...
...Maybe the administration was too optimistic about engagement," he says...
...Representative Chris Cox, who led the Chinagate committee, stressed that the issues involved are too serious to "turn this into a partisan mud fight...
...in April, and could derail China's goal of joining the World Trade Organization...
...commercial and military technology while the Clinton administration fiddled, congressional Democrats are eager to label the burgeoning scandal another partisan witch-hunt...
...This is the way the Clinton administration does things, this is their M.O.," said Porter Goss, another member of the Cox committee...
...Liu Chao-Ying's Weldon couldn't agree more...
...security...
...Justice and the FBI "do not have much confidence they have their man or they would arrest him," says Cox...
...In addition to outlining the problems, the Cox report contains 38 recommendations for improving U.S...
...If you raise an issue you're labeled as being partisan...
...He's got a lot to answer for...
...What's more, decision-making about sensitive exports was moved to the Commerce Department, an agency more receptive to the pleas of large American companies eager to make multimillion-dollar sales...
...National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China —began its investigation in June 1998...
...He's instinctively lying about what happened during his administration," said Cox of Clinton, but instructively added: "If we look at this problem as Bill Clinton we miss the point...
...There's plenty of blame to go around...
...The administration objected to a proposal for surprise inspections of Chinese facilities that use high-performance U.S...
...I'm not going to make excuses for why this wasn't done better...
...It is clear that the reaction is a defensive one, but the defensive posture is not in the administration's interest because the problem doesn't get fixed and they look guilty...
...As soon as the Cox report was completed, the White House began the job of spinning its results by leaking the most damaging portions and stressing that the problems occurred during previous administrations, a move that angered Cox and other Republicans on the committee...
...In 1997, another Los Alamos scientist, William Lee, admitted passing weapons information to the Chinese...
...People don't want to tip over the economic apple cart," said the Republican...
...Dicks, who has gone to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to press for improved security at the labs, says he thinks the Department of Energy initially "low-balled" the security risk uncovered...
...Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese-born scientist who worked at the New Mexico facility, was first identified as a possible suspect in 1996...
...should "just stand up to them...
...Cox said that with only six than $300,000 to the Democratic Party on case for an Independent Counsel, this is months to work he was forced to focus on behalf of Liu Chao-Ying, who visited Wash- it...
Vol. 32 • May 1999 • No. 5
