RED CHINESE ESPIONAGE TARGETS CANADA
Fabian Dawson reports (www.vancouverprovince.com, 11/15/99) that "Politicians, bureaucrats, Mounties and spies are all being lined up by Canada's spy watchdog as it launches an investigation to look at why a top-secret probe into Chinese espionage activities was scrapped. ..."
WERE THE MOUNTIES AND THE POLITICOS CORRUPTED?
"Project Sidewinder, a joint CSIS/RCMP [Canadian spy agency/Royal Canadian Mounted Police] study, tracked a myriad of companies linked to Asian tycoons to determine whether they were fronts for Chinese espionage activities between 1994 and 1996. The study also looked at 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' that were being pumped into political parties to see if Canadian MPs were being unduly influenced."
COVERUP SUSPECTED
"Several sources, including senior Mounties, immigration officials and CSIS operatives, allege that 'political influence nixed the project.'"
LI KA-SHING IS ACTIVE BEYOND PANAMA
"The Province has learned that among those probed were Macao casino king Stanley Ho, who has extensive interests in Canada, and Li Ka-shing, one of the world's wealthiest men, known in Vancouver for his Expo lands purchase.
"Other companies tracked were linked to tycoons Robert Kuok, Cheng Yu Tung and Henry Fok and firms with connections to CITIC -- the investment arm of China's People's Liberation Army.
"The tycoons' massive links to Canadian real-estate, banking and finance sectors, ports, the computer and telecommunications industry and immigrant investor funds also were investigated."
CRIMINAL GANGS LINKED TO COMMUNIST SPIES
Andrew Mitrovica adds from Toronto (globeandmail.ca, 11/12/99) that "The watchdog over Canada's espionage agency has launched a formal review of its handling of the highly sensitive and controversial probe into the links between Chinese intelligence and criminal gangs in Canada.
"The Security Intelligence Review Committee body has requested the spy agency's files related to a joint RCMP/CSIS probe, code-named Sidewinder, SIRC chairwoman Paule Gauthier said yesterday. 'We have asked [the] committee's staff to examine the entire file and ask all the necessary questions.' ..."
DOCUMENTS DESTROYED BY TOP-LEVEL OFFICIAL
"The Sidewinder probe was halted in the late 1990s to the chagrin of the RCMP and CSIS agents working on the project;
"Important documents related to the probe were destroyed by CSIS on the orders of a senior spymaster; ...
"At its height in 1996, a team of as many as five civilian and police analysts and investigators from CSIS and RCMP were involved in the Sidewinder probe."
TRIADS LINKED TO PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY
"The probe was born amid concern that leaders of criminal gangs, known as triads, had developed intimate relationships with intelligence agencies associated with the People's Liberation Army. It began with a single triad leader, but was quickly broadened to examine links between triads and the Beijing government generally, as well as links between criminal organizations and Chinese tycoons with business interests in Canada."
CHINESE SEEK FINANCIAL INFLUENCE AND CONTROL OF CANADA'S PORTS
"In July, 1997, CSIS produced a 12-page intelligence report. Based on its still highly classified findings, the Sidewinder team asked its superiors for more money and manpower to launch a wider probe into alleged Chinese activities. However, the request was rejected and the team disbanded.
"The Sidewinder team was busy analyzing how, through a wide and intricate web of front companies and legitimate businesses, triads and the Chinese government allegedly tried to gain a financial foothold in Canada's shipping ports, oil and gas companies, banks and brokerage firms and commercial buildings and hotels."
LI KA-SHING WAS ABLE TO SIDETRACK CANADA'S INVESTIGATION Fabian Dawson reports (www.vancouverprovince.com, 11/17/99) further that "A secret police request to probe tycoon Li Ka-shing's billion-dollar buying spree in Canada was rejected after high-level negotiations between Ottawa and Hong Kong, The Province has learned. ... "Described by various intelligence agencies and in U.S. Senate hearings as a 'front man' for communist Beijing, Li's empire covers the globe." HUTCHISON WHAMPOA BOSS IS RED CHINA'S ARMAND HAMMER "Li was born in Chiu Chow in southern China in 1928. He emigrated to Hong Kong in 1940 and started his first firm at age 22 in 1950, making plastic flowers and toys. "That has grown into an empire that includes major interests in property development and investment, telecommunications, oil and electricity, retail trading and shipping. ..." HONG KONG BILLIONAIRE FRONTS FOR PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY "[A] U.S. Senate hearing last month was told that Li Ka-Shing and his Hong Kong-based company and subsidiaries are closely associated with the Beijing regime and have a history of acting as sources of funding or acting as intermediaries in deals for the People's Liberation Army. "Quoting American intelligence agencies, Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher said Li is a board member of the China International Trust and Investment Corp., CITIC, which is a principal funding arm of the Chinese government and a technology-acquiring source for China's military." CITIC, COSCO, AND CHINA RESOURCES CO. ARE BEIJING'S TROJAN HORSES "Li is also a director of the giant communist Chinese shipping firm COSCO, which in addition to commercial transport, is the merchant marine for the Chinese military. "COSCO has shipped Chinese missile technology and biological warfare components to North Korea, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. "'Li has also engaged in numerous business partnerships with the China Resources Co., a firm that has been identified by U.S. congressional investigators as a front for Beijing's intelligence agencies,' Rohrabacher told the Senate hearing." VANCOUVER IS RED CHINA'S GATEWAY TO NORTH AMERICA "The expansion of COSCO's operations in Vancouver, making the city its gateway to North America, is a key concern for the Americans. "The 1988 request to probe Li was followed by another CSIS investigation in the mid-'90s that attempted to look at the influence of Chinese tycoons in Canada and their political contributions." "SIDEWINDER" SIDETRACKED "The Province revealed the existence of the study called Project Sidewinder last August. It was also hastily scrapped despite objections by investigators and documents pertaining to it destroyed. ... "Brian McAdam, who was the former immigration control officer at the Canadian diplomatic mission in Hong Kong, said Li and several other tycoons were commonly called 'friends of the mission' by Canadian staff there. "McAdam, who prompted the Sidewinder project, said many of the Canadian staff at the mission were treated to luxury cruises, opulent balls and executive suites at race tracks by the so called 'friends of the mission.'"
CLINTON PROVIDES RED CHINESE WITH AWACs INFO Al Santoli reports in China Reform Monitor (11/10/99, American Foreign Policy Council) that "In Worldnet Daily, Charles Smith details a 1999 visit of high ranking members of the PLA Air Force to U.S. airbases. The Chinese Air Force and Navy aviation delegates were given detailed briefings on the coordination of military and civil air traffic control and coordination between AWACs, inflight refueling vessels, and jet fighter squadrons. Between May 14-20, 1999, the PLA officers were taken to the top secret Edwards Air Force Base in California and Tinker Air base in Oklahoma. The visit, part of the U.S./China military exchange program, was sponsored by U.S. aerospace giants MITRE Corporation, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. United Airlines participated as well." TAIWAN'S SECURITY IS JEOPARDIZED "The tour included familiarizing the PLA and Chinese civil aviation delegates with radar data, tracking systems and details on Edwards AFB military operations. At Tinker, the U.S. Air Force briefed the Chinese on 'DOD Testing and Development of Software System for Integration and Interoperability' of civilian airport facilities for military. Smith adds that the Chinese PLA is actively involved in civilian aviation businesses. For example, according to the Congressional Cox Report, 'The PRC has used at least one commercial carrier to assist in its military technology transfer efforts.' A Dragonair Company plane was intercepted carrying missile parts. Dragonair is owned by CITIC, a Chinese government conglomerate [co-founded by tycoon Li Ka-shing of Hutchison Whampoa, now operating ports on the Panama Canal]. "The PLA Air Force air traffic control [ATC] command units control all civil traffic inside mainland China. According to a U.S. defense expert, the same PLAAF ATC officers control Chinese air war, sending fighters, bombers and missiles into combat. 'The key here,' says Bill Triplett, an expert on the PLA, 'is vectoring combat aircraft over the Taiwan Strait.'"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of November 30, 1999 CLINTON ADMINISTRATION PRESSES ISRAEL TO STOP AIDING RED CHINA The New York Times (11/11/99, p. 1) reports that "Israel has long had a close, secretive military relationship with China that arms experts say has resulted in billions of dollars of weapons sales in recent years and raised a variety of concerns in the United States." TAIWAN AT RISK FROM TRANSFER OF U.S.-ORIGINATED TECHNOLOGY "But senior Pentagon officials fear that the advanced radar system, in particular, will enhance China's ability to extend its military might beyond its borders and threaten Taiwan. 'It is a significant capability,' a senior official said, 'and it will improve significantly China's ability to conduct operations in and around the Taiwan Strait. That obviously is our major security interest in the region.' "Workers at Elta, a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries, recently mounted the radar system on a Russian-made cargo plane destined for the Chinese Air Force, completing the first part of a complex deal that has been several years in the making. "Elta designed the system, known as the Phalcon, for the Israeli Air Force, to be installed in a Boeing 707. China is reportedly interested in buying four to eight more of the systems and placing them aboard Russian aircraft. ..." PENTAGON REBUTS ISRAELI CLAIM "The Israeli government has assured administration officials that the sale does not involve American technology. But a Pentagon official said that given the amount of weaponry that the United States shared with Israel, it was difficult to separate American military technology from Israel's own. ... "A Pentagon delegation led by Jacques S. Gansler, the under secretary for defense acquisition and technology, arrived in Israel today for a previously arranged visit. Although the sale is not explicitly part of Mr. Gansler's agenda, it is very likely to come up." U.S.-DEVELOPED ASMs BEING SHIPPED TO INDIA "During his visit, Mr. Cohen also expressed objections to Israel's reported plans to sell Popeye air-to-surface missiles to India, particularly at a time of tensions between India and Pakistan, the officials said. The Popeye missile was jointly developed by the United States and Israel. ..." CHINESE AMBITIONS ABETTED BY AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY "Representative Porter J. Goss, Republican of Florida, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said today that the sale underscored the fact that China's military was 'extremely acquisitive' and raised questions about the possibility of 'American parentage' of some of the technology. ... "'What is the point of a long-range radar surveillance?' he said. 'It has to do with an offense that extends their border or certainly their area of hegemony.' "Representative Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said it was 'bad policy' for Israel to sell advanced weaponry to China, particularly since China had a record of selling weapons to countries opposed to the United States and Israel, including Iran. ... "Since the 1990's, China has embarked on a major program to modernize its military and has looked elsewhere. By far its biggest arms supplier has been Russia, which has sold it MIG fighter jets, warships, submarines and missiles." ISRAELI-CHINESE MILITARY COOPERATION IS BAD FOR AMERICA "Israel is China's second-largest supplier. A recent report by Kenneth W. Allen and Eric A. McVadon of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a research organization in Washington, said Israel had provided China with a range of weapons--including electronic components for tanks, communications and optical equipment, aircraft and missiles--during a relationship that began at least two decades ago. Full diplomatic ties were not established until 1997. "'Both China and Israel appear to gain military and political benefits from the arms and technology transfer relationship,' the report said. 'Besides seeking money from China, some Israeli officials claim the sale of military technology to China will secure Beijing's agreement not to sell specific weapons to Israel's enemies in the Middle East.'" RUSSIA IS THE SILENT PARTNER "The sale of the Phalcon radar system is part of a complicated arrangement that began with Israel and Russia competing to sell China an aircraft equipped with an early warning radar system. In 1997, Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel's prime minister, went to Moscow and reached an agreement with Russia to develop the aircraft jointly, with Russia supplying the aircraft itself and Israel adding the radar system. ..." AWACs COULD BE OUTCLASSED "What makes the sale troubling to Pentagon officials is that the radar system is comparable to and might exceed the abilities of the American early warning radar planes, called Awacs, a recent intelligence report concluded, according to a senior military officer. "The system will allow Chinese commanders to collect intelligence and direct aircraft from a distance of 250 miles. Access to advanced electronic and information-gathering equipment has long been one of the weaknesses of China's military, though one that it appears bent on addressing, arms experts say."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of July 31, 1999
HUGHES ELECTRONICS HAS BEHAVED TREASONOUSLY. On March 10, The Conservative Caucus began a campaign to bar from any future government contracts companies whose conduct could be characterized as treasonous, in terms of the strategically significant military secrets which they have provided to Communist China. In a letter which I dispatched on March 10, I pointed out that "Hughes Electronics -- a major contributor to the Democratic and Republican Parties -- has provided Red China with sensitive national security information which greatly adds to the capability of the Communist Chinese to strike the United States with nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads on long-range missiles. ..." GENERAL MOTORS CORP. OWNS HUGHES "Prohibiting Hughes (a subsidiary of General Motors) from receiving any more government contracts would send a clear signal to Big Business collaborators with the Red Chinese that we, the American people, are not going to tolerate having our tax dollars (in the form of government contracts) awarded to any company which undermines our national security! ..." TOSHIBA WAS PENALIZED -- WHY NOT HUGHES? "Congress has already established a precedent for punishing companies which violate our national security. "In 1988, Toshiba of Japan was banned by Congress from selling anything to the U.S. government for three years. "The reason? They sold secret American submarine propeller technology to our Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, earlier in the 1980's!" HUGHES HELPED LOAD RED CHINA'S NUCLEAR GUN "But Hughes's punishment must be more severe. After all, they sold Red China American technology that helps them target nuclear missiles at us! ... "[E]ven Janet Reno's Justice Department 'has initiated a criminal probe of the CIA to determine whether the agency obstructed justice when it provided information to Hughes Electronics Corp. about the scope of an ongoing congressional investigation into the transfer of sensitive U.S. space technology to China, according to senior federal government officials...' (Washington Post, 12/5/98) "The Post [12/9/98] said that the Defense Department 'concluded that Hughes Electronics Corp. provided China with information potentially damaging to U.S. national security following the 1995 crash of a Chinese rocket carrying a Hughes-built commercial satellite, administration officials said.' "The Washington Times [12/10/98] added 'the report concluded that [Hughes] helped Chinese engineers to improve the sophisticated mathematical models necessary to predict the effects of wind, atmospheric buffeting and other forces on moving rockets...the transfer violated American standards against helping the Communist government in Beijing make better missiles and satellites....'" U.S. BUSINESS IN SERVICE TO COMMUNIST MILITARY "The Defense Department report concluded that Hughes's assistance to the Communists allowed the Red Chinese to gain 'specific insight into specific launch vehicle design and operational problems and corrective actions'. "Investors Business Daily [12/10/98] concluded that 'the Chinese now can more effectively target American cities with their new and improved rockets'. "The question now is simple: Will Hughes Electronics Corporation be punished for its sellout of American interests?" AMERICA IS RED CHINA'S "MAIN GLOBAL RIVAL" "China's leaders have left no doubt about their readiness to attack the United States. In 1994, Red China's military and political leaders had a major meeting in which the United States was designated 'China's main global rival'. "And a senior analyst at the Chinese Society for Strategy and Management Research in Beijing openly stated: 'China is growing stronger in the world, and that is affecting the dominant role of the United States...a fundamental conflict will be inevitable.' "China's goal is to overtake the United States as the world's preeminent military power and neutralize our capacity to defend vital national interests."
THIS "PROFIT BEFORE PATRIOTISM" CORPORATION SHOULD BE BARRED FROM RECEIVING U.S. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS. ITS OFFICERS SHOULD BE PROSECUTED.
CLINTON IS RED CHINA'S NUMBER ONE SPY Mark Levin observes (Washington Times, 5/27/99, p. A21) that "Unlike his predecessors Democrat or Republican, Mr. Clinton transferred primary legal authority for approving export licenses for advanced U.S. technology from the security-conscious State Department to the politically conscious Commerce Department for the purpose of making such exports easier. "Mr. Clinton is also the first and only president to approve an export waiver authorizing two companies -- Loral Space and Communications and Hughes Electronics -- to transfer technological secrets in the face of a criminal investigation involving their prior alleged export violations. Mr. Clinton approved personally the export of their data relating to satellite- and missile-launch technology to China over the objections of his secretary of state, the Pentagon and others." CONGRESS HAS FAILED TO PURSUE EVIDENCE OF TREASON "And Mr. Clinton's political appointees at the Justice Department rejected repeated requests by the FBI to wiretap Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos lab scientist suspected of spying for China. Attorney General Janet Reno's defense of this blunder goes something like this: Even alleged spies have constitutional rights. The Justice Department refused even to bring the matter before a federal judge. ... "During a Senate hearing last week [Notra] Trulock [acting deputy director of the Energy Department's Office of Intelligence] was asked what was done when these national security violations were made known to his superiors. His answer: What was done, in short, was nothing. Nothing. "Mr. Trulock testified that in 1997 he was stopped repeatedly by Mr. Clinton's deputy secretary of Energy, Elizabeth Moler, from taking his concerns about spying to Secretary of Energy Federico Pena. He has also accused Ms. Moler of blocking him from telling Congress about his findings." COMMUNIST CHINESE MILITARY FUNDED CLINTON-GORE "At the same time, the Chinese military was funneling money into the Democratic National Committee and the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. ...One hundred twenty-one people connected with the fundraising scandal have either pleaded the Fifth Amendment or fled the country to evade law enforcement. ... "There have always been spies, during Democrat and Republican administrations, who've succeeded in breaching U.S. national security, including Alger Hiss, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Klaus Fuchs, the Walker family, Jonathan Pollard and Aldrich Ames. What's unprecedented here, however, is that Mr. Clinton himself has taken steps to weaken the government's security apparatus. Moreover, when confronted with evidence of espionage he and senior officials he appointed sat on their hands for years and kept the information from Congress."
CLINTON COVERED UP RED CHINESE ESPIONAGE FOR FOUR YEARS
The New York Times (6/27/99, p. 4) reports that "Senior White House officials were informed that China might have stolen American nuclear secrets nearly a year earlier than the Clinton Administration originally disclosed, according to current and former United States officials....
"Until now, the Administration has left the impression that the White House first learned about the matter in April 1996, when Samuel R. Berger, then President Clinton's deputy national security adviser, was briefed on the case by Energy Department officials.
"But interviews with current and former officials show that warnings about possible Chinese nuclear espionage received high-level attention within the Clinton Administration early in the Government's investigation of the matter."
CIA TOLD BERGER IN 1995
"Indeed, by late 1995, within months of first learning of the case, the Director of Central Intelligence was convinced that the evidence showed that China had stolen design information from America's most advanced nuclear warhead, and had briefed President Clinton's national security adviser on the matter."
"BUNGLING", "INERTIA", OR TREASON?
"Yet the investigation into China's apparent theft of the nuclear secrets languished, plagued for the next four years by what many officials now describe as miscommunication, bureaucratic inertia and outright bungling by several agencies....
"But initially, the C.I.A. did not tell the Energy Department -- or anyone else in the Government -- that it had obtained the W-88 document, officials say.
"A former senior C.I.A. official said that soon after the agency realized the significance of the W-88 document, Mr. Deutch ordered him not to disseminate it to other United States intelligence agencies. ..."
THE FOUR-MONTH COVERUP IN 1995
"[B]y August 1995 Energy Department's analysts had obtained a copy, even though it would not be officially distributed throughout American intelligence agencies until that December.
"By then, analysts had concluded that the document indeed included American nuclear secrets, officials say. At that time, the document did not include a caveat saying that the source of the document was believed to be a double agent."
DID THE FBI TAKE A DIVE? FROM ZERO TO FORTY IN FOUR YEARS
"After the analysts reported to Mr. Deutch in November, a broader review, dominated by the Energy Department, reported similar conclusions in April 1996. Mr. Berger was then briefed that same month, and the F.B.I. opened its criminal investigation on May 30, 1996.
"But in late June or July 1996, the F.B.I. dropped its investigation, a senior United States official said....
"[W]hile the F.B.I. re-started its investigation, it remained a low priority, F.B.I. officials now concede. Only one or two agents were assigned to the investigation in 1996, officials say.
"By 1997, when the Justice Department denied the F.B.I.'s request to seek court authorization to wiretap and electronically monitor Mr. Lee, a move that has since become the subject of congressional inquiry, the F.B.I. still had only three or four agents on the case. Today, in the midst of a public furor over Chinese atomic espionage, the F.B.I. has assigned 40 agents to the investigation."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of July 15, 1999 DID CLINTON'S DECLASSIFICATION POLICY DO MORE HARM THAN CHINESE ESPIONAGE? Robert Novak observes (Washington Post, 7/12/99, p. A15) that "An experienced weapons scientist found that the Cox Report erred in claiming that Chinese espionage penetrated U.S. weapons laboratories, while failing to recognize Clinton administration culpability. As much as President Clinton would rather not hear this, Republicans like it even less. "That goes for William J. Bennett, Kemp's fellow Republican wise man and co-director of their conservative Empower America organization. The report by Gordon Prather, a nuclear physicist with long experience in government weapons programs....takes 26 pages to demolish the impressions left by the bipartisan report of the select House committee headed by Republican Rep. Christopher Cox of California. He declares that Clinton's unilateral nuclear disarmament opened the nation's nuclear secrets to the world...." RED CHINA WAS INVITED TO USE U.S. TECHNOLOGY "Prather says that Clinton's policy of 'openness' at the U.S. weapons labs 'damages' future national security. The United States let it be known that it never would build another nuclear weapon and 'invited the PRC weapons scientists to come over and check us out.' With millions of pages of secrets made public, there was 'no need to "spy" since the Clinton administration has thrown open the gates.' "Further, the Prather Report suggests that openness was intended to extract Chinese secrets. If China's scientists picking up openly displayed U.S. secrets after being invited to get them is defined as espionage, 'then the Clinton administration asked U.S. lab scientists to "spy."'" GOP SEEKS TO DISTINGUISH CLINTON-ERA LOSSES FROM THOSE OF REAGAN AND BUSH "Prather dismisses highly publicized charges that Taiwan-born Peter Lee, a U.S. scientist employed at the Los Alamos laboratory, stole secrets of the neutron bomb and a miniaturized thermonuclear warhead. Whoever allowed the Cox committee to make these 'ridiculous' allegations, says Prather, 'did so because the alleged spying incident happened on Reagan's, not Clinton's watch.'"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of June 15, 1999 RED CHINA DECLARES U.S. TO BE "INTERNATIONAL ARCH ENEMY" Robert Kagan writes in The New York Times (5/11/99, p. A27) that "Perhaps Beijing is just revealing what it really thinks about the United States. Six years ago, a report prepared by top Chinese foreign and military specialists declared that the United States was China's 'international arch-enemy.' When its military conducts war games, the primary adversary is the United States. When Chinese leaders map out their ambitions -- taking control of Taiwan and becoming the dominant power in East Asia -- they see the United States as the main obstacle. They are right. So far, the United States has insisted on remaining the leading power in East Asia. The Chinese believe their ambitions clash directly with the vital interests of the United States. They're right about that, too. "Would that we in the United States were as clear-sighted. The Administration believes that if we don't treat China as an enemy, it won't become one. Those who recommend a tougher approach, those who call for containing China's ambitions, are usually accused of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. "But what if the prophecy has already been fulfilled?"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of May 30, 1999 U.S. GOVERNMENT OK'D $15 BILLION OF MILITARY COMPUTER HARDWARE TO RED CHINA'S PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and Jordan Richie, senior associate at the project, have written in The New York Times (5/5/99, p. 31) that "Americans are right to be outraged that a suspected Chinese spy may have stolen the computer codes for the entire United States nuclear arsenal. But the loss of this data is only half the story. The other half is about hardware. "Even after stealing the plan for an advanced warhead, one would need high-performance equipment to manufacture and test its precision parts. Sadly, China is getting those machines from the United States -- and it doesn't even have to steal them."