Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- May 20, 1998
Foreign money scandal clouds prospect of Clinton's Beijing trip
By Warren P. Strobel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
President Clinton's upcoming trip to China increasingly looks as if it will become a political football as Congress probes new charges about the role of Chinese money in the 1996 election and exports of U.S. technology to Beijing.
The White House yesterday rejected calls from House Speaker Newt Gingrich to cancel the trip outright. But veteran China watchers said the mood toward China has again turned sour in Washington, seriously complicating Mr. Clinton's hopes of forging a long-term strategic partnership.
Mr. Clinton is set to leave in late June for the first visit by a president to China since the Tiananmen Square massacre nine years ago.
The trip was always bound to spark controversy, given the deep antipathy toward China's Communist leaders among members of Congress, human rights groups and advocates of religious freedom.
But that was before fresh reports that China funneled money to the Democratic Party, and charges that campaign contributions influenced Mr. Clinton's 1996 about-face on exporting satellites to China for launching into space. A related controversy involves whether a U.S. aerospace firm improperly aided China's ballistic missile program.
"I do not believe this president can go to China unless he clears up, in public, everything about Chinese illegal campaign funds and everything about national missile secrets going to China," said Mr. Gingrich. The Georgia Republican announced yesterday he will seek a special panel to investigate the issue.
White House spokesman Barry Toiv said Mr. Clinton's travel schedule is unchanged. "The president plans to visit China toward the end of June. He believes it's a very important trip," Mr. Toiv said.
The president is tentatively scheduled to leave June 24, making stops in Xian, Beijing, Guilin, Shanghai and Hong Kong, returning home in time for the Fourth of July holiday.
Throughout, Mr. Clinton will attempt to move Sino-U.S. relations into the "post-Tiananmen" era, trying to find areas of cooperation from global warming to nonproliferation. He also will nudge China on human rights, arguing that it cannot modernize and repress dissent at the same time.
The trip, originally penciled in for November, was moved forward in an attempt to take advantage of what officials felt was a breakthrough October summit here with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
A White House official said the allegations surrounding U.S. satellite exports to China "will have zero impact on the trip."
Domestic politics were "swirling around when Jiang came here. And by all measures, there was a very successful summit," the official said.
But the last U.S. leader to go to China, Vice President Al Gore, found his March 1997 visit repeatedly overshadowed by questions regarding the role of Chinese money in the 1996 campaign and in U.S. policy toward Beijing.
Winston Lord, a former U.S. ambassador to China and assistant secretary of state, said the latest reports will "complicate certain aspects" of Mr. Clinton's China trip.
In particular, he said, reports of a link between campaign donations and the satellite exports, while still unproven, make it harder for Mr. Clinton to proceed with a plan that would increase the exchange of U.S. technology in return for China's halting aid to Iranian and Pakistani missile programs.
However, Mr. Lord noted that turmoil in Asia, from the financial crisis -- where he said China has played a helpful role -- to political instability in Indonesia and India's underground nuclear testing, have underscored China's increasing ability to affect U.S. interests.
"If anything, recent events accentuate the need for strategic dialogue with China," he said.
A House Democratic aide predicted the White House will make similar arguments in the face of growing criticism of its China policy.
But, the aide said, "the climate is changing" on Capitol Hill, where there are some rumbles about resurrecting demands that China improve its human rights record before it again receives most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status.
Even many Democrats have said testimony by California entrepreneur Johnny Chung that he funneled money from a Chinese aerospace official to the Democratic National Committee merits a serious investigation.
The Democratic aide said that U.S. export policy to China is a legitimate area for investigation. But the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the Republicans making the loudest noises, such as Mr. Gingrich and House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican, have been strong backers of Mr. Clinton's trade-based policy toward China.
The aide also noted that the policy of waiving restrictions on exporting satellites for launch in China was begun by the Bush administration.
"But of course, the Clinton China policy is the Bush China policy," he said.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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