FR Current Events Project: Keeping Tabs on the Media's Attacks on Bush and the Republican Party

I have honestly lost count of all the lies and distortions being thrown about in the press these last few weeks concerning Bush and his agenda, and the things going on in and around this country, especially concerning the government, the DOJ, and the Congress.

I would like to use this thread -- and you other Freepers -- to compile a COMPLETE THREAD of all the various errors we find in and among the articles we read on here and the news shows that we see daily on TV.

My thoughts are that if we get them all on one thread, maybe we can figure out what the heck is going on in this country and, more importantly in my opinion, WHO is doing it.

Please include the URL for the article or news report you will add to the list; if it is not from a thread on FR, please copy and paste the article, along with date, time, and source to this thread in order to preserve the information.

I believe we are in a full frontal fight for the life of this country, the Supreme Court, and the things we believe in. We need to prepare ourselves to refute all the distortions being continually spewed over the airwaves and in the papers of this country.

Senate Probes Clinton Loans
For Enron Deals
By Paul Sperry
Washington Bureau Chief
WorldNetDaily.com
2-21-2

WASHINGTON - Under the Clinton administration, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. "gave hundreds of millions of dollars" in loans and other government support to risky Enron-related projects overseas, according to a Senate Finance Committee audit released today.

As WorldNetDaily first reported Jan. 22, Enron became one of OPIC's biggest customers during the Clinton years.

From fiscal year 1993 to fiscal 2000, OPIC gave at least $544 million in loans to Enron-related projects, the agency reported in a letter to the Senate panel. It provided another $204 million in political-risk insurance. OPIC listed only currently supported projects.

The Export-Import Bank, another federal overseas economic-development agency, gave more than $650 million in loans to Enron-related projects, confirming WorldNetDaily's earlier reporting.

The Senate panel asked for data back to 1985. "It appears the agency made no loans to Enron-related businesses from 1985 to 1992," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking committee member.

Current outstanding balance on all the federal loans is $965 million, according to the audit. With the insurance liability, the federal agencies' indirect exposure to Enron-related projects totals nearly $1.2 billion.

"These loans obviously were a tremendous benefit to Enron's operation," Grassley said, particularly since commercial banks rarely finance such long-term projects in unstable foreign markets.

A committee investigator told WorldNetDaily that the panel is reviewing confidential memos written or received by OPIC and Ex-Im Bank officials regarding the Enron transactions.

Former OPIC head Ruth Harkin was appointed by Clinton after her husband, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, campaigned vigorously for Clinton in '92 and '96. The senator was one of the ex-president's biggest boosters during his impeachment trial.

Prior to joining the Clinton administration, Ruth Harkin was a top corporate lawyer at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a Washington firm that includes Clinton pal Vernon Jordan and Democratic power broker Robert Strauss.

Ex-Im Bank board members during the Clinton years include Jackie Clegg, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Maria Haley, a former aide to Clinton in Little Rock and ex-wife of John Haley, who was convicted in the Whitewater investigation.

Dodd served as co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the '96 Clinton-Gore campaign. Clinton appointed Clegg vice chair of the Ex-Im Bank board in June 1997.

Haley has ties to the crooked Riady family who operate the Lippo Group out of Jakarta, Indonesia. The Riadys ran afoul of federal bank regulators after they took control of the Worthen Bank in Little Rock in the 1980s. Haley's long-time law partner, Mark Grobmyer, a Clinton golfing buddy, is a Lippo lobbyist.

While at Ex-Im Bank, documents show Haley OK'd tens of billions of dollars in federal loans for Indonesian projects, including many involving Lippo and its subsidiaries.

Clinton replaced her on the board with Vanessa Weaver, who was forced by the Senate Banking Committee to recuse herself from Lippo transactions after a 1999 Investor's Business Daily story exposed her close ties to Lippo executive John Huang.

Both Huang and James Riady have since been convicted of fraud relating to Clinton-Gore fund-raising.

Two Enron executives -- Joseph Sutton and Rebecca McDonald -- have served on the Ex-Im Bank's advisory committee.

Enron, which usually backs Republicans, gave more than $150,000 to Clinton's party during the 1996 election cycle.

Yet another federal agency, the Trade and Development Agency kicked in more than $1.1 million from 1992 to 2001 for foreign projects involving Enron or its subsidiaries. It also sponsored 11 visits to the U.S. by foreign officials who participated in Enron-related projects.

© 2002 WorldNetDaily

Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com

Feeding the Dragon?
by Chuck Missler

It appears that an intelligence coup has been scored against the United States by the First Bureau of the Military Intelligence Department in China, responsible for gathering intelligence abroad.

Last November, a deal was struck between a Canadian firm and China to construct two 700- megawatt nuclear reactors in Qinshan, China.1 Assisting in the project would be the U.S. firm Bechtel.

U.S. participation would be facilitated by a $383 million U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) loan.2

Exploring this and related transactions.3,4 reveals a trail that is both interesting and disturbing.

Presidential Intervention

The 1996 Federal Register documents a series of "Presidential Determinations" authorizing Ex-Im loans, with the statement by Bill Clinton "that it is in the national interest for the Export-Import Bank of the United States" to extend loans to the People’s Republic of China for the Qinshan project and other non-nuclear power plant projects5:

• June 26, 1996, Presidential Determination No. 96-35 authorizing $260 million;

• June 28, 1996, No. 96-37 authorizing $120 million;

• June 29, 1996, No. 96-38 authorizing $56 million;

• November 11, 1996, No. 97-2 authorizing $383 million;

• November 11, 1996, No. 97-3 authorizing $409 million.

Ordinarily, loans involving Ex-Im would be viewed as a positive move to encourage the exports of U.S. goods—however, these transactions deserve scrutiny in light of recent revelations of influence peddling by China.

And finding the loans to be in our "national interest" seems odd, since just one year earlier the U.S. was expressing concern over reports of China’s assistance in the building of nuclear facilities in Iran.

In fact, on February 21, 1993, China and Iran signed an agreement for the construction of two Qinshan-type nuclear power reactors.6

Arkansas Connections

Ex-Im Bank is a government- held corporation, managed by a Board of Directors whose members serve at the discretion of the President of the United States.7 A key player in the China transactions is Board member Maria Haley, who served under Governor Clinton in Arkansas, and who moved from the White House in 1995 to become Ex-Im’s Asia-Pacific Director.8

The Philippines born Haley is an ambassador’s daughter who lived in Asia before moving to the U.S. to marry Arkansas attorney, John Haley.

John Haley, it turns out, is the partner and personal lawyer for former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, who resigned his office after being convicted along with Susan McDougal in connection with a fraudulent loan.9 John Haley is under indictment and awaiting trial by Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr.

Political Corruption or Espionage?

Much has been made in the mainstream media this past month about political fund raising gone awry. But is that the whole story?

Maria Haley’s first job in Washington was in the White House, where she helped John Huang get a job at the Commerce Department.10 In January 1994, on the personal instructions of Ron Brown, the Commerce Secretary, Huang was given top- secret security clearance without background checks by the FBI or the state department’s Office of Security—a strict requirement for somebody born in a foreign country.11

John Huang has emerged as a central figure in both Justice Department and congressional investigations in the foreign-money controversy, including his role as intercessor in meetings at the White House and Ex-Im.12

Secret Service logs show that Huang entered the White House 94 times—an unusual degree of access for a mid-level Commerce official.13

Now we find that the National Security Agency first detected a plot by Chinese intelligence involving the secret and illegal funneling of $2 million and passed this information to Attorney General Janet Reno in May of last year.14

Reno in turn has told reporters that the decision was made to pass this information on to President Clinton’s national security advisor, Anthony Lake (since nominated to the head of the CIA) last June. This is the same month listed earlier as the first of the Presidential Determinations authorizing hundreds of millions in Ex-Im Bank loans to China!

Port of Long Beach

In yet another bizarre twist of this story, news is just emerging that the Long Beach Naval Station, closed in 1993 as part of the downsizing of U.S. bases, is about to be leased to a Communist China-owned shipping company under an agreement that was only made possible by the intervention of the White House.15

One thing seems certain—the Chinese Dragon no longer sleeps —it is awake and hungry!

* * *

NewsMax.com
Sunday, May 20, 2001

Just What The Hell Is Going on Here?

Americans facing blackouts and skyrocketing energy costs this summer will be happy to know their tax dollars helped pay for a nuclear power plant now providing electricity for a Chinese shipyard building warships that someday could be used against the United States.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States coughed up almost $360 million in two low-interest loans to China to help the Red Chinese build the Quinshan nuclear power plant near Shanghai despite US law that specifically bans the financing of loans to "Marxist-Leninist" countries, including the People's Republic of China (PRC) unless the loans are considered to be in the national interest.

President Clinton obligingly declared the loans to be in the US national interest according to Human Events, which uncovered the shocking scandal. Moreover, the Republican controlled congress stood quietly by and allowed the loans to go forward.

Among the customers of the nuclear plant is the Jiangnan Shipyards which builds ships for the rapidly expanding Chinese navy.

The Ex-Im loans put up the funding that allowed two American companies - Westinghouse Electric and Bechtel Power - to help the PRC build the strategically important nuclear power plant. The loans were made at an interest rate of 7.49%. at a time when the prime rate in the United States was 8.25% - a rate even lower that the 7.8% then being paid by Americans for a home mortgage.

The first loan guarantee of $36,347,390 ) to help the Chinese buy "steam turbines and auxiliaries" from Westinghouse for the second phase of Qinshan was approved by the Ex-Im bank's directors in July of 1996, The second, for $323 million covered Bechtel's sale of non-nuclear plant components to the China National Nuclear Corp. It was used for the third phase of the Qinshan plant and was approved by the Bank's board of directors on Jan. 14, 1997.

The notification of both loans that the Ex-Im Bank was required to send to Congress were transmitted in the form of a letter to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) and then-Vice President Al Gore in his constitutional role as president of the Senate. According to Human Events Gingrich and Gore forwarded the messages to the banking committees in their respective chambers where the matters languished without any apparent further action.

In addition to helping the PRC build a nuclear power plant that supplies electricity to a key part of their defense industry, Human Events notes that "building the later phases of Qinshan - with financing from U.S. taxpayers - helped the PRC develop its nuclear-reactor-building expertise."

The magazine quotes Xinhua, the Chinese government's official news agency, as having boasted earlier this year that "through the development of . . . Qinshan Phase 3 [and other plants] the corporation has basically mastered the advanced modern methodology for the management of nuclear power development projects."

Both Westinghouse and Bechtel are heavy financial contributors to the Democrat and Republican parties.

The law requires that three of the five Ex-Im Bank's directors must approve a loan to Communist China. At the time of the two loans, there were two vacancies on the board, and the three remaining members - Board Chairman Martin A. Kamarck and Maria Haley and Julie Belaga voted unanimously to send the money to China. Kamarck is the husband of former Gore aide Elaine Kamarck

According to the NY Times On Feb. 14, 1997, a month after she voted to approve the Bechtel-related loan, "Ms. Haley's first job in Washington was in the White House personnel office, where she helped John Huang, the Riady family's senior American executive, get a job at the Commerce Department."

It was Huang, who helped funnel tens of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign contributions to President Clinton and the Democrats. Riady recently pleaded guilty to violating US campaign finance laws.

Julie Belaga was a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and an executive in a public relations firm. She was recommended for the Ex-Im job by Sen. Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.).

When your lights begin to flicker this summer and your energy bill begins to look like your mortgage payment, be comforted in the knowledge that China is enjoying nuclear power at your expense at a time when Democrats and environmentalists battle against building any nuclear plants in the US.

As Americans Await Blackouts, Export-Import Bank Finances Nuclear Power for PRC
U.S. Funding Nuclear Plant in China
By Timothy P. Carney
The week of May 21, 2001

The United States may be facing a national energy crisis—one that will be punctuated by blackouts in California and probably many other states this summer—but across the Pacific Ocean in Shanghai, the Jiangnan Shipyards will be running at full power building warships for the Communist Chinese regime, thanks to funding provided by the U.S. government.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States has provided funding to help two U.S. corporations—Westinghouse Electric and Bechtel Power—to help the People’s Republic of China (PRC) build the Qinshan nuclear power plant near Shanghai.

Thanks to inaction by the Republican-controlled Congress, and a statutory notice of approval signed by President Bill Clinton, the same American families that are now paying sky-high energy prices in the United States are also loaning money at low interest rates to the regime in Beijing to build this nuclear plant.

Two New Reactors

The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency that receives an annual appropriation from Congress. Originally founded in 1934, it was rechartered in 1945, with the purpose of facilitating U.S. exports by providing loans or loan guarantees to U.S sellers or lenders, or to foreign buyers or banks. Despite its name, the Export-Import Bank no longer deals with imports.

Last year, Congress provided it with $863 million in tax dollars.

Although the bank’s board of directors has broad discretion over how to use the tax dollars it is given, it must follow some legal guidelines. For example, it cannot finance loans to "Marxist-Leninist" countries, including the People’s Republic of China, unless the President determines such a loan to be "in the national interest."

Also, it must notify Congress of all loans or loan guarantees over $100 million, or of any action it takes that would help the construction or operation of nuclear power facilities, but congressional approval is not required. The bank’s board of directors serves at the pleasure of the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Ex-Im Bank, together with Westinghouse and Bechtel, has cooperated with the Chinese National Nuclear Corp. and the State Development Bank—both arms of the PRC government—to help build the nuclear power plant at Qinshan.

On March 21, 1995, Nucleonics Week reported that Westinghouse Electric Corp. had announced that it would "provide steam generators, reactor coolant pumps, and related motors" for two new reactors at Qinshan. Qinshan, which is 75 miles south of Shanghai, was already home to one nuclear reactor that had been built in the late 1980s, also with help from Westinghouse.

According to the minutes of a July 9, 1996, Export-Import Bank board meeting, the directors approved a direct loan of $36,347,390 to China’s State Development Bank (which serves as the treasury of the PRC) to help the Chinese buy "steam turbines and auxiliaries" from Westinghouse for the second phase of Qinshan.

Before the loan could be made final, the law required President Clinton to declare that it was in the national interest. He did so in a letter to the secretary of state [pdf] dated June 29, 1996. The letter actually specified an even larger loan. It read: "I determine that it is in the national interest for the Export-Import Bank of the United States to extend a loan in the amount of approximately $120 million to the People’s Republic of China in connection with the purchase of (1) non-nuclear island balance of plant equipment and services and (2) Westinghouse engineering services to the nuclear island."

The notification of this loan that the Export-Import Bank was required to send to Congress was transmitted in the form of a letter to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) and then-Vice President Al Gore in his constitutional role as president of the Senate. Gingrich and Gore forwarded the messages to the banking committees in their respective chambers.

Ex-Im officials told Human Events that Congress rarely acts on such letters, and there is no evidence of any congressional action in this case.

The same process was followed for a second loan of $323 million that was approved by the Export-Import Bank board of directors on Jan. 14, 1997. This loan financed Bechtel’s sale of non-nuclear plant components to the China National Nuclear Corp. Days after winning reelection, Clinton declared [pdf] this loan also to be in "the national interest." It was used for the third phase of the Qinshan plant.

China was required to pay back the Bechtel loan in 30 semi-annual payments beginning no later than April 15, 2004—more than seven years after the loan was approved, and after Bechtel expects to be done with the work, according to information posted on the company’s website. The interest rate on the loan, set by a formula called the Commercial Interest Reference Rates, was 7.49%. At that time, the prime rate in the United States was 8.25%.

The Chinese Communists thus received financing for a nuclear plant from the U.S. government at a cheaper rate than most American businessmen could get financing from a domestic bank. The rate was even below the 7.8% then being paid by Americans for a home mortgage.

The cash from both Export-Import Bank loans was deposited in the PRC’s State Development Bank, which handed the money over to the state-owned CNNP in the case of Qinshan III, and to the China Nuclear Energy Industry Corp. for Qinshan II.

In approving the Bechtel loan, Clinton disregarded an August 1995 "discovery" issued by his own administration revealing that the CNNP had recently sold ring magnets to Pakistan. Ring magnets are a component needed for enriching uranium so that it can be used in nuclear warheads. Pakistan is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and in 1998 tested a nuclear weapon for the first time in an underground explosion.

Nuclear News reported in September 1993, that the CNNP built a nuclear power plant for Pakistan using knowledge it had gained from Qinshan I (a project that involved Westinghouse).

Building the later phases of Qinshan—with financing from U.S. taxpayers—helped the PRC develop its nuclear-reactor-building expertise. Xinhua, the Chinese government’s official news agency, reported earlier this year that "through the development of . . . Qinshan Phase 3 [and other plants] the corporation has basically mastered the advanced modern methodology for the management of nuclear power development projects."

As the law stands, it takes only the President’s signature plus the votes of three out of the five board members of the Export-Import Bank to approve a loan to China. At the time of the Bechtel and Westinghouse-related loans, there were two vacancies on the board, and the three remaining members voted unanimously to send the money to China.

The three were Board Chairman Martin A. Kamarck and members Maria Haley and Julie Belaga. Kamarck is the husband of former Gore aide Elaine Kamarck.

On Feb. 14, 1997, a month after she voted to approve the Bechtel-related loan, the New York Times reported that "Ms. Haley’s first job in Washington was in the White House personnel office, where she helped John Huang, the Riady family’s senior American executive, get a job at the Commerce Department." Huang, Human Events readers will recall, helped funnel tens of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign contributions to President Clinton and the Democrats.

Julie Belaga was a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and an executive in a public relations firm. She was recommended for the Ex-Im job by Sen. Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.).

Bechtel is also working on the Daya Bay Nuclear Plant in China. The Bechtel corporation and Bechtel family have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans and Democrats alike over the last eight years, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

Between corporate gifts and personal gifts from CEO Riley Bechtel and brother Stephen, the Bechtel company has given well over $1 million in federal political contributions since 1992. The contributions have been almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

In an e-mail response to a Human Events inquiry, Nar Goel of Bechtel described the company’s role in the Qinshan II and III projects. "Bechtel is responsible for design and engineering of the major [non-nuclear] structures such as the turbine buildings, intake structure/pumphouse, water treatment plant, standby diesel generators buildings, auxiliary boiler building and outfall structure," he wrote. "Bechtel is also responsible for the procurement of the equipment and materials for the BOP systems in these buildings. . . . Bechtel is also providing some engineering design and equipment/materials for the plant switchyard which is shared with Qinshan II unit."

Goel was forwarded the inquiry by Frank Lopez, who included this warning to Goel: "Please note that this request came to us via the external website, so any information provided should consider that it leaves our control . . . that is, responses should be factual, but not overly specific. Thanks."

Westinghouse, like Bechtel has been very generous to both parties. Since 1992, FEC reports show over $375,000 in contributions to the GOP, and $208,250 to Democrats. Most of the money to Democrats comes from Westinghouse’s Government Services division.

According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, Jiangnan Shipyards, which sit on the power grid fed by Qinshan, is one of the "most important naval shipbuilders" in China for "surface warships."

© Human Events, 2001

September 25, 1997

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS

FROM: GARY SCHMITT, Executive Director

SUBJECT: U.S.-CHINA NUCLEAR COOPERATION

The Reagan Administration negotiated an agreement on nuclear cooperation with China in the early 1980s. In late 1985, Congress passed a joint resolution approving the agreement but noted that, prior to its actual implementation, the Atomic Energy Act requires the president to certify that any state with whom we were signing an agreement not be involved in helping states who did not have nuclear weapons gain that capability. Ignoring China’s history as a proliferator, the Clinton Administration intends to make that certification for China in anticipation of President Jiang Zemin’s visit to the U.S. next month.

Until now, no president has dared take that step. And with good reason. China has, by its actions, made it clear that it believes proliferation is in its interest. Beijing understands that the proliferation of strategic weaponry and weapons of mass destruction has the effect of reducing U.S. military supremacy and complicating the exercise of American leadership in key regions of the world. Since the end of the Cold War, the spread of weapons and weapons of mass destruction has become an integral feature of a Chinese geopolitical strategy designed to undermine what it openly refers to as American “hegemony” and, in turn, enhance its own position as an emerging power.

Turning a blind eye to both China’s proliferation practices and its strategic goals, the Clinton White House will certify that China is, in effect, a reliable partner with whom the United States can share its most sensitive, civilian nuclear technology. Stated simply, the administration’s view is that (based on a few months of apparent good behavior) China deserves certification and that (based on speculative estimates of the corporate profits to be earned) the decision will be good for the U.S. nuclear industry.

But, as Henry Sokolski suggests in the following memorandum written for the Project, the actual result will almost certainly be much different. By certifying China now, the administration will be lowering (once again) our nonproliferation standards. And it will also, in Beijing’s mind, reaffirm the view that the Clinton White House is incapable of carrying out a policy of “engagement” that is both resolute when it comes to American security and above being compromised by elect commercial interests.

Certifying China: A Dubious Nuclear Decision

Henry Sokolski

Having sold China advanced computers, satellites, and a myriad of other militarily useful technology, the Clinton Administration now wants to offer it sensitive, civilian nuclear technology at the upcoming visit of Chinese president Jiang Zemin to Washington. Until now, U.S. law (P.L.99-183 & P.L.101-246) blocked such commerce by requiring the president first to certify that China is not helping other nations acquire nuclear weapons. To date, no president has felt comfortable making such a certification given China’s notorious proliferation record. President Clinton, anxious to please U.S. industry and China, is ready to make that certification and sell that decision to Capitol Hill.

Sixty-two Republican and Democratic members of Congress, however, are not buying. In a letter sent to the president on July 31, they note that no “substantial evidence” exists that China is in fact committed to ending its proliferation practices and that certification will only make it easier for Iran and Pakistan to secure nuclear weapons assistance.

Why would the White House take such a step and risk increasing the very proliferation it claims it wants to stop? First, the State Department has convinced itself that China’s most recent nonproliferation pledges are believable and that nuclear trade is an excellent way “to engage” the PRC’s nuclear and military elites. And, second, the Commerce Department and the U.S. nuclear industry believe there are billions to be made in new reactor sales -- up to $15 billion over the next 14 years.

But is this progress in nonproliferation on China’s part real? And will U.S. sales of nuclear technology actually result in the profits being touted? The answer to both questions is almost certainly no.

As for the profits supposedly to be made by U.S. nuclear vendors, the only U.S. firms to invest heavily in China’s nuclear future so far -- Westinghouse and Bechtel -- have done so, not with their own money, but with $800 million in taxpayer-supported Export Import Bank loans. Why no private financing? The reason is simple: it’s too risky. China’s record of paying off its loans in connection with state-run, high-technology projects is poor. Presumably, once the president certifies China’s compliance with U.S. non-proliferation statutes, and deals between China and U.S. corporations are struck, the U.S. Congress will be asked to approve billions more in Export Import and Overseas Investment Bank loan guarantees to cover possible losses.

And what about the size of the sales claimed by industry? Well, it sounds good but, revealingly, the firm talking the loudest about possible sales to China ($60 billion over the next 25 years) is the same firm -- Westinghouse -- that is reportedly trying to sell off its money-losing nuclear division to the German firm Siemens. For their part, the Chinese have been entirely above aboard about what they expect from these sales. According to their own nuclear engineers, their interest in buying American nuclear technology and plants extends only until they can reverse engineer the technology and build plants on their own.

As iffy as the claims of future profits in making nuclear deals with China are, they are no less dubious than State Department claims about China “getting religion” when it comes to nonproliferation. This is a refrain that State has sung consistently for the past fifteen years. Indeed, in 1983, when the first nuclear coop-eration agreement with China was signed, State Department officials assured Congress that China had pledged not to proliferate. Yet, at that very time, China was helping Algeria covertly build a nuclear reactor suspected of being used to build nuclear bombs and clandestinely giving Pakistan the technology it needed to build its own nuclear weapons. Today, despite all the diplomatic hoopla about China’s new export controls (cynically timed to correspond with the administration’s announcement), not much has changed. China is still suspected of helping Pakistan with its illicit nuclear weapons program and of offering Iran nuclear reactors and the plans for facilities to fabricate materials for making bombs. And the CIA continues to identify China as one of the world’s worst proliferators, providing Iran and Pakistan, for example, with missile and chemical weapons technology as well.

Furthermore, China refuses to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Not a single state that publicly acknowledges having nuclear weapons and with whom the U.S. has signed a nuclear cooperation agreement has failed to become a member. China, however, will not join. Why? Because the NSG prohibits the transfer of nuclear materials to any nation, like Pakistan, that has not yet placed all of its nuclear materials and activities under international inspection.

So, what should be done? President Clinton is expected to make the necessary certification about China’s compliance with the nonproliferation laws sometime before Jiang Zemin’s visit. Before any nuclear cooperation agreement with China goes into force, however, Congress should take the following steps.

1. Make sure that this supposed money-making agreement does not end up burdening U.S. taxpayers. To ensure that it doesn’t, Congress should prohibit the use of U.S. taxpayer loans or loan guarantees to implement this or any other nuclear cooperation accord. This should be U.S. policy whether one is in favor of the agreement of not.

2. At a minimum, Congress should condition implementation of the agreement upon China’s joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Given China’s proliferation history, asking it to abide by the standard that every other nuclear weapons state with which the U.S. has a nuclear cooperation agreement is the least the government should require. Anything less would establish a lower nonproliferation standard for China that is sure to encourage proliferation later.

3. The House and Senate intelligence committees should be asked to examine the intelligence upon which the administration is making its assessment of China’s recent and current nuclear, chemical, biological and missile weapons proliferation activities. The committees should report their findings to the Majority and Minority leadership in both houses and, as needed, to the leadership of relevant committees. The report should be prepared before Congress goes out of session and before the end of the 30-day period between when the determination is announced by the president and when the agreement takes effect. If based on that report, Congress believes the administration’s certification is unwise or premature, then, they should take whatever legislative steps are necessary to block the agreement’s implementation.

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