Rails are slowly trickling out about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 'secret', 'week-long' trip to China with 'other senators'. The lawmakers have given out minimal information about their itinerary because of supposed “security concerns.”
Harry Reid’s high-stakes China gamble.....Senators’ Chinese junket is shrouded in secrecy..There are junkets, and then there are junkets...
.....The next afternoon, to meet their stated goal of doing ...“site visits of American investments” in China"...... they took a ferry to . . . Macau, a tiny former 'Portuguese enclave' where "major Reid backer and Las Vegas gambling impresario 'Steve Wynn'"... and other American casino operators have invested big-time — and profited enormously. 'Wynn Macau' is one of six casinos — MGM Resorts International and Sheldon Adelson’s Sands' China are also there — 'allowed' in the gambling mecca, the only place in China with legal gambling. Anyone who’s seen a James Bond movie knows casinos are home to an evil assortment of bad guys, assassins and terrorists — even the entire Spectre headquarters.... That’s why the group would have tried to blend in with other tourists — not an easy thing for 10 senators, 10 spouses, five staff members and assorted foreign service officers. Our invitation to the lunch, sent earlier this month to “AmCham Macau Members only,” says the U.S. consul general... and other consulate staff members also will be at the two-hour lunch, making it “a great opportunity to sit down up close and personal for..... 'a private lunch' with distinguished members of the U.S. Senate.” The Senate group included six other Democrats and three Republicans: Richard Shelby R-Ala.) Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) Dick Durbin (D-Ill) Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J) Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) Michael Bennet (D-Colo) Wang, whose government is in the midst of a major crackdown on dissident leaders, told Reid it was “a great pleasure for me to have an opportunity to meet '10 heavyweight' U.S. senators,” according to Xinhua News Agency.... “Such a formulation alone reflected the weight you place on China-U.S. relations,” Wang said. “
Indeed.http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/harry-reids-high-stakes-china-gamble/2011/04/21/AFGH8cKE_story.html#