Clinton's China Syndrome
Clinton's China Syndrome Secretary of State Madeleine Albright travels to Beijing next week, and China's leaders undoubtedly will greet her with open arms. Together, they'll be laying the...
...Together, they'll be laying the groundwork for the June Sino-American summit, and Albright may intimate what new goodies the president has in store for China...
...Hear anything about a little place called Hong Kong lately...
...But for the Chinese, "engagement" is a giant pinata: They keep whacking away, and the prizes keep falling out...
...corporations to provide China's own missile program with know-how and sensitive technology...
...We don't expect the White House to place national security, missile proliferation, Taiwan, or human rights ahead of the interests of favored businesses and Democratic donors...
...Thus, in February, Clinton granted Loral a waiver to sell the Chinese the very missile-guidance technology that the company was under investigation for illegally providing two years before...
...Perhaps the senators could bestir themselves to pass that bill and send it to the president's desk before the summit...
...missile sanctions and would expedite somewhat the consideration of MTCR-con-trolled U.S...
...Not a chance...
...At the upcoming summit, President Clinton would like to offer the Chinese a whole host of inducements, including admission to the World Trade Organization and more concessions on Taiwan...
...As for Chinese assurances against further nuclear cooperation with Iran, these were lies, too...
...Even as Clinton was certifying to Congress on January 12 that China was in full non-proliferation compliance, U.S...
...The problem was considered so serious that the Justice Department began a criminal investigation and impaneled a grand jury...
...companies to start building nuclear reactors in China, in return for which China would end nuclear cooperation with Iran and Pakistan...
...Not from the Clinton administration, even though democratic rights are steadily being stripped away by the Chinese authorities...
...intelligence eavesdropped on Chinese and Iranian officials as they arranged a secret sale of hundreds of tons of chemicals to be used by Iran to enrich uranium for use in nuclear warheads...
...In exchange for yet another round of Chinese promises to stop doing what they said they had already stopped doing, the administration would invite China into the international Missile Technology Control Regime...
...In the six months since the last Sino-American summit, the administration has been seeking new ways to make the Chinese happy...
...Is Beijing annoyed by pesky U.N...
...In January, Washington dispatched a group including former secretary of defense William Perry to bully the Taiwanese into repressing any thought of self-determination...
...and the efforts by some U.S...
...Nowhere have the kowtowing and the winking at shady U.S...
...This pleased the American nuclear-reactor businesses, whose financial clout had persuaded the White House to make the certification in the first place...
...The administration announced in March it would no longer support such resolutions, even though last year U.S...
...It turned out there really was no deal on cruise missiles, a fact that the administration let slip just days after the summit...
...But the Chinese reneged...
...Clinton officials quietly let Beijing know it had been caught red-handed...
...then the administration set about to cover up China's violation of its pledges...
...human-rights resolutions at Geneva...
...Some may recall that the much-ballyhooed "centerpiece" of last year's Clinton-Jiang summit was an agreement to allow U.S...
...forces in the Persian Gulf...
...President Clinton publicly praised the Chinese for keeping their agreement "to the letter...
...According to Gerth, two U.S...
...Now, it happens that the heads of these two corporations, Bernard L. Schwartz of Loral and C. Michael Armstrong of Hughes (now chief executive of AT&T), have financial and political influence with Bill Clinton...
...Okay, so the Clinton administration doesn't care much about democracy and human rights in China...
...The Chinese government and American businessmen don't have to worry that this game of pinata will be called off any time soon...
...The Chinese canceled the sale (or so they said...
...Did the president withdraw his certification and put nuclear cooperation with China on hold...
...Well, not exactly...
...Since early this year, the administration has been systematically compromising America's long-term security interests to get short-term trade deals for favored business executives who are also top Democratic-party donors...
...Perhaps, indeed, Congress should challenge an "engagement" with China that is looking more and more like outright appeasement...
...Clinton's high-tech-industry cronies will be overjoyed...
...aerospace companies, Hughes Electronics and Loral Space and Communications, were suspected of giving "the Chinese crucial assistance in improving the guidance systems" of their Long March intercontinental ballistic missiles in 1996...
...Here at home, journalists and foreign-policy sages see the Clinton administration's policy of "engagement" as a sophisticated strategy for gradually "integrating" China into the international system, shrewdly accommodating its rise to great-power status, and providing time for capitalism to work its magic...
...Add to that tale of administration cravenness and deception the story the New York Times's Jeff Gerth broke earlier this month...
...It takes the long view...
...And also more sales of missile technology...
...officials promised to work harder to pass one...
...Clinton overruled both the Justice Department, which argued that the waiver would undercut the ongoing criminal case, and the Pentagon, which opposed the sale on national-security grounds...
...Perhaps they might quiz Secretary Albright on just what the administration plans to offer China this June...
...Armstrong, who over a four-year period effectively lobbied the president to ease licensing restrictions on an array of technology, was named to Clinton's Export Council in 1994...
...But, hey, property values are up...
...And the administration trumpeted a related deal: The Chinese promised Madeleine Albright they would stop supplying Iran with cruise missiles, which directly threaten U.S...
...So far, it hasn't moved an inch in Trent Lott's Senate...
...business dealings been more egregious than on two important national-security issues: China's assistance to nuclear-weapons and missile projects in Iran and Pakistan...
...Perhaps the relevant committees might want to investigate the New York Times's revelations...
...Last year, the House passed rather tame legislation addressing some of these issues...
...In May 1997, the Pentagon produced a classified report concluding that scientists from the two firms had indeed "turned over expertise that significantly improved China's nuclear missiles...
...exports to China...
...But all of this raises one question: Does Congress exist...
...As a result, said the Pentagon, "United States national security has been harmed...
...The Chinese, it appears, still have every intention of supplying missiles to Iran...
...According to a secret administration memo uncovered by Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, entry into the MTCR would give China "substantial protection from future U.S...
...This is the kind of person Clinton listens to...
...But it is concerned about American national security and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, right...
...Is democratic Taiwan getting uppity...
...Schwartz, in fact, was the largest personal donor to the Democratic party last year...
...But some members of Congress have expressed concern...
Vol. 3 • April 1998 • No. 32
