Time: Mon Mar 24 07:25:34 1997
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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 07:24:17 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: The Washington Times -- Top Story (fwd)
We have MANY foreign investors in this
country. Some of them are in my back
pocket right now, as I speak these words!!
/s/ Paul Mitchell
> [The Washington Times] [Top Story] [Image]
>Published in Washington, D.C. March 23, 1997 -- Edition "America's News=
>paper"
> [Navigation Bar graphic, see text links below.]
> [Image]
> China's California [TWT House Ad 1]
> base stirs a furor
> -----------------------------------------
> By Rowan Scarborough
> THE WASHINGTON TIMES
> -----------------------------------------
> [R]epublicans and Democrats on March 12
> raised national-security concerns
> about Communist China establishing its
> first U.S. commercial beachhead on a
> prime piece of Pacific real estate amid
> a cluster of U.S. Navy bases and defense
> plants.
> The deal to bring a huge Chinese
> shipping fleet to Long Beach, Calif., is
> backed by the Clinton administration,
> and a senior Republican congressman
> suggests it may be linked to the
> Democratic fund-raising scandal.
> California's two senators, both
> Democrats, urged a review to see whether
> national-security interests may be
> compromised by the deal.
> "Everywhere we turn, we see China
> taking active measures to compromise,
> infiltrate, neutralize or otherwise
> undermine American economic and security
> interests," said Rep. Gerald B.H.
> Solomon of New York.
> "Is this what China is getting in
> return for its big donations to Clinton
> and DNC [Democratic National Committee]
> campaign coffers?"
> Mr. Solomon, chairman of the House
> Rules Committee, urged Attorney General
> Janet Reno to appoint a special counsel
> to investigate a plan to lease the
> abandoned U.S. Naval Station at Long
> Beach to Beijing's huge state-owned
> merchant fleet, the China Ocean Shipping
> Co. (Cosco).
> The two senators on March 12 released
> a letter urging the Defense Department
> and White House to review the deal's
> national-security ramifications.
> Questions were raised earlier about why
> the White House National Security
> Council did not conduct such a review
> earlier.
> The two senators, Barbara Boxer and
> Dianne Feinstein, were among six members
> of Congress warned last year by the FBI
> that China might try to influence them
> through illegal campaign donations.
> Some private analysts professed
> puzzlement. "I am astonished that we
> would be providing Cosco, a known tool
> of the Chinese People's Liberation Army,
> a beachhead anywhere in California, but
> especially Long Beach," said Richard
> Fisher, an Asia expert at the Heritage
> Foundation, noting Long Beach's
> defense-rich environment.
> "I can't even begin to imagine the
> degree or amount of under-the-water,
> on-top-of-the-water and land-based
> surveillance that would be needed to
> ensure that Cosco did not use this port
> for intelligence gathering, insertion or
> recovery of agents or other forms of
> espionage," Mr. Fisher said.
> But members of the Republican
> congressional leadership seem not
> concerned at all.
> House Majority Whip Thomas DeLay,
> Texas Republican, discounts prospective
> harm to national security. "We have
> foreign investors in this country in
> many different ways," he said. "Now, how
> it came about, how this particular deal
> was made, I don't know enough about."
> A spokesman for Rep. Dan Burton,
> Indiana Republican and chairman of the
> House committee investigating the
> fund-raising scandal, did not respond to
> a question about the Long Beach deal.
> House Speaker Newt Gingrich's office did
> not return a phone call seeking comment.
> Cosco, with 600 ships, has a record of
> gun-running, safety problems and tariff
> violations. But Mr. Solomon's concern
> has more to do with any Chinese scheme
> to pour illegal money into the American
> political process.
> Long Beach's decision to bulldoze the
> sprawling base and lease the land to
> Cosco for $14 million annually comes
> amid allegations that China set up a
> secret multi-
> million-dollar fund to help re-elect
> Mr. Clinton and influence congressional
> races.
> The president himself worked to bring
> Cosco to Long Beach in 1995 and 1996.
> During this time, foreign Asian sources
> -- possibly including the Chinese --
> were making illegal campaign
> contributions to the Democratic Party.
> The Associated Press reported that Mr.
> Clinton attended a 1995 meeting with top
> aides and Long Beach officials to urge
> the Cosco-Long Beach marriage.
> Candidate Clinton in 1992 campaigned
> with promises to deny China the
> most-favored-nation trade status because
> of its poor human rights record. As
> president, however, he extended the
> eagerly sought trade designation to
> Beijing.
> Other national-security experts view
> the Long Beach transaction as a natural
> progression between two interlocking
> trade partners eager to exploit each
> other's consumer markets.
> "I'd rather see the Chinese infuse it
> with maritime activity to keep it as a
> maritime base than having it turned into
> a shopping center and hotels as has
> happened to other ports," said John
> Lehman, secretary of the Navy in the
> Reagan administration.
> "So I think it's a good thing," Mr.
> Lehman said. "I think building links and
> increasing trade is a good thing as long
> as we are not sacrificing national
> security, and I don't see that problem
> because it's no longer an operating
> base."
> Cosco has not always played by
> international maritime rules.
> The U.S. Customs Service last year
> intercepted a shipment of 2,000 Chinese
> automatic weapons aboard the Cosco ship
> Empress Phoenix docked in Oakland,
> Calif. The suspected arms dealer, Wang
> Jun, met with Mr. Clinton at one of the
> White House coffees linked to improper
> Democratic fund raising.
> In 1992, the U.S. Federal Maritime
> Commission imposed a $400,000 penalty on
> Cosco to settle allegations the company
> engaged in kicking back part of its
> published fee schedule to customers in
> violation of the 1984 U.S. Shipping Act.
> Bruce Carlton, associate administrator
> of the U.S. Maritime Administration,
> said Cosco's legal problems aren't
> pertinent.
> "That's a law enforcement matter,"
> said Mr. Carlton, whose agency promotes
> U.S. shipping interests. "If the company
> knowingly or unknowingly is engaged in
> illegal activities, the fact they have a
> terminal [in Long Beach] is neither here
> nor there."
> As for the fund-raising scandal, Mr.
> Lehman appears to see no connection
> between the Beijing government and its
> trading companies.
> "I think whatever political issues
> there may be really have to do with the
> government of China and not with Cosco,"
> he said. "They're fundamentally a
> commercial organization and will bring
> jobs to Long Beach. I think basically
> it's a good thing. Why not have Chinese
> money do it?"
> Norman Polmar, an author and naval
> expert, says a Cosco terminal amid U.S.
> Navy docks and air stations "makes it
> easier" to eavesdrop on the American
> military but won't get China more
> information.
> "No more so than any Chinese merchant
> ship calling at the port today," Mr.
> Polmar said. "It makes it easier, but
> they're not going to learn much more
> than Chinese merchant ships do, than
> Chinese tourists do, or Chinese
> diplomats do. They could [spy] from a
> van parked in a parking lot or in a
> building. That's such a minor
> consideration."
>
> Go back to the top of this article.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Published March 23, 1997 -- Edition, in The Washington Times
> Copyright =A9 1997 News World Communications, Inc.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This edition's highlights:
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>p
> Editorial | Suzanne Fields
>
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========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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