Who does China want as our next President?

Interesting question as they own a lot of this
country's debts and we consume so much of their goods.

What do you think?

White House Had Ended System of Checking Foreign Guests

By TIM WEINER
Published: February 3, 1997

Ten years ago the Reagan White House adopted a rule about foreign businessmen, lobbyists and consultants who wanted to get in to see the President without the blessing of their embassies: they shouldn't.

But President Clinton's aides did not follow that rule. In their eagerness to raise campaign money, they invited friends of the President's fund-raisers -- including China's biggest arms merchant, favor-seeking Indonesian businessmen, a reputed Russian mobster and other dubiously credentialed dealmakers -- to meet with Mr. Clinton. Nor did the White House check the suitability of Americans invited by the Democratic National Committee to meet the President, allowing, among others, a twice-convicted felon to sip coffee with Mr. Clinton.

-snip

And that is why nobody on the White House political team saw fit to ask the National Security Council staff a year ago about a man named Wang Jun, who showed up on a guest list for a White House coffee with the President. The question of exactly how Mr. Wang got into the White House has a simple answer: ''Nobody ever asked anybody,'' a National Security Council official said.

So, at the behest of a tireless political fund-raiser from Arkansas, Charlie Yah Lin Trie, Mr. Clinton wound up sipping coffee with Mr. Wang, who runs the Chinese Government's weapons manufacturing and procuring agency, which is involved in secret arms deals around the world. These coffees for fund-raisers and donors began as a way to raise morale among party loyalists after the Democrats' disastrous showing in the 1994 election. By 1995, they became a way to reward big donors and prospect for new ones, according to Democratic fund-raisers.

-snip

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E2DC103DF930A35751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all


A federal grand jury has indicted 14 people and a Georgia company in a scheme to smuggle several million dollars worth of automatic weapons into the United States from China. The indictment came after federal agents smashed an arms smuggling ring that they said involved two government-run Chinese munitions firms. The following press release and affidavit outline the building of the government's case.

U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Northern District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 23, 1996

MASSIVE SEIZURE OF NEW AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
ILLEGALLY SMUGGLED BY PRC WEAPONS PRODUCERS

SAN FRANCISCO - Michael J. Yamaguchi, United States Attorney
for the Northern District of California; Rollin B. Klink, Special
Agent in Charge, United States Customs Service, San Francisco; and
Paul Snabel, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms, announced today the largest seizure of fully
operational automatic weapons in the history of U. S. law
enforcement. The weapons were illegally smuggled into the United
States from the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the course
of a federal investigation of an alleged arms trafficking conspiracy
involving Chinese nationals, Chinese resident aliens, and U. S.
citizens, a number of whom represented PRC owned and controlled
munitions manufacturing facilities. The illegal importation of the
weapons into the United States is in violation of the Presidential
Embargo on the importation of weapons and munitions designated on
the United States Munitions List, and U. S. law regarding the
importation, possession, and sale of illegal weapons.

On March 18, 1996, agents of the United States Customs Service
and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms seized 2000 AK-47
type fully automatic 7.62mm machine guns. These are military
assault weapons commonly used by the military around the world.
The weapons, which had both Chinese (Norinco) and Korean
markings, had been smuggled into the United States in a container on
board the COSCO ship, Empress Phoenix. Included with the
weapons were approximately 4000 30-40 round ammunition
magazines. It is estimated that the weapons had a street value of more
than four million dollars.

The seizure of the weapons was the culmination of a sixteen month
investigation of high ranking officials, based in both the United
States and the PRC, of POLYTECH and NORINCO, PRC
controlled munitions manufacturing corporations. Hammond KU,
age 49, a Taiwanese resident alien, residing in Soquel, California,
first came under suspicion when information was developed that he
had several thousand Chinese manufactured weapons, in crate.
labelled POLYTECH and NORINCO, stored in his warehouse in
Soquel, California. KU paid federal agent-, acting in an undercover
capacity, to illegally import into the United States, more than 20,000
AK 47 rifle bipods.

-snip
http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/misc/smuggle.html


New York Times, May 17, 1998



How Chinese Won Rights to Launch Satellites for U.S.

(BY JEFF GERTH AND DAVID E. SANGER)
On Oct. 9, 1995, Secretary of State Warren Christopher ended a lengthy debate within the Clinton Administration by initialing a classified order that preserved the State Department's sharp limits on China's ability to launch American-made satellites aboard Chinese rockets.

Both American industry and state-owned Chinese companies had been lobbying for years to get the satellites off what is known as the `munitions list,' the inventory of America's most sensitive military and intelligence-gathering technology. But Mr. Christopher sided with the Defense Department, the intelligence agencies and some of his own advisers, who noted that commercial satellites held technological secrets that could jeopardize `significant military and intelligence interests.'

There was one more reason not to ease the controls, they wrote in a classified memorandum. Doing so would `raise suspicions that we are trying to evade China sanctions' imposed when the country was caught shipping weapons technology abroad--which is what happened in 1991 and 1993 for missile sales to Pakistan.

-snip

Other powerful Chinese state enterprises also had multibillion-dollar stakes in getting access to American satellites. Among them was the China International Trade and Investment Corporation, whose chairman, Wang Jun, gained unwanted attention in the United States last year when it was revealed that he attended one of Mr. Clinton's campaign coffee meetings in the White House. The day of Mr. Wang's visit, Mr. Clinton, in what Mr. Rubin said was a coincidence, signed waivers allowing the Chinese to launch four American satellites--though they were unrelated to the business interests of China International Trade.

-snip

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/china/1998/h980618-prc5.htm

I am sure Nixon, the Bushes and corporations greased the way also.

I think the second one was just a bust of routine operations by one of the Triads.

The Chinese Government signed a lease for the port last April, only three weeks after one of the company's ships, the Empress Phoenix, was raided by customs officials acting on a tip that Chinese-made arms were being smuggled into the United States. The seizure of arms on the ship, which the Customs Service said were intended for street gangs, led in May to the arrest of officials of another state-run Chinese company, although Cosco has not been charged in the case.

An Administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said this evening that the White House was told by members of Congress last week that the lease merited investigation and that the issue had been referred to the Pentagon. But the official said, ''We are not aware of any reason for concern.''

Last year's arms shipment has indirectly figured in the investigations into Mr. Clinton's coffees with large campaign donors and their friends. Shortly before the arrests in May, one of Mr. Clinton's Asian-American supporters escorted Wang Jun, the president of the Chinese company that apparently produced the weapons, Polytechnology, into one of the White House coffees, where he met with the President.

Mr. Clinton apparently did not know about Mr. Wang's connections to Polytechnology or that the company was the subject of a major investigation in California into arms smuggling at the time he met Mr. Wang. Later, Mr. Clinton said the meeting was ''inappropriate'' and an example of the failure of the White House to screen visitors rigorously.

-snip
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E4D91039F930A25750C0A961958260

Expect NO CHANGE from "the centrist politics of his three chief economic advisers and his campaign's ties to Wall Street..."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080211/fraser

interesting article...snippet:

Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachussets, believes "these three advisers generally reflect Obama's very moderate economic program, similar to Clintonism." Wall Street apparently has come to a similar conclusion. Obama had received nearly $10 million in contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector through October, and he's second among presidential candidates of either party in money raised from commercial banks, trailing only Clinton. Goldman Sachs, which made $6 billion from devalued mortgage securities in the first nine months of 2007, is Obama's top contributor. When asked if Obama would hold these financial institutions accountable for losses incurred by homeowners and investors, his campaign refused to comment.

Certainly they got our EP-3 plane early on...

They want to have access. If Edwards were at the top of the polls then he'd be getting Wall Street money too.

I haven't thought in those terms but it's interesting to tease out.

Or at least their clients don't. However, it doesn't appear that we're going to find out.

but I last heard that the Chinese gov. had shut them
down...

Obama has the more liberal record. He's getting money because they always give to potential winners.

Obama is lucky because he had a large fund raising base of wealthy liberals in Chicago to start out with. I think its one of the most overlooked reasons why Obama is doing so well. The good early fund raising numbers are what allowed him to raise even more money outside of Illinois, including Wall Street.

Mostly, they make their money on Wall Street, and give to Dems.

when she decided to run for Senate from New York instead of Arkansas or Illinois. It provided a bigger fund raising base for her Presidential campaign.

So, probably Giuliani.

but he hasn't had any trouble taking money
from unscrupulous sources after 9/11.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-02/17/content_308907.htm

Newsweek: Kerry accepted election fund from Chinese intelligence departments

John Kerry has been leading the democratic nomination campaign, with a support rate even higher than Bush. On February 9, US magazine Newsweek unexpectedly disclosed a would-be scandal that Kerry had been involved in 'receiving donations from a Chinese enterprise".

"In July 1996 the Massachusetts senator was locked in a tough re-election fight, so he was more than happy to help when he heard that a generous potential contributor wanted to visit his Capitol Hill office. The donor was Johnny Chung, a glad-handing Taiwanese-American entrepreneur. Chung brought along some friends, including a Hong Kong businesswoman named Liu Chaoying", Newsweek said.

"Told that Liu was interested in getting one of her companies listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange, Kerry's aides immediately faxed over a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The next day, Liu and Chung were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official. Within weeks, Chung returned the favor: On Sept. 9 he threw Kerry a fund-raiser at a Beverly Hills hotel, raking in $10,000 for the senator's re-election campaign", the magazine continued to say.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/562/democrats-labor

China

All the candidates were asked whether they see China as an ally or an adversary. Most candidates settled on describing China as a "competitor." "It's getting close to adversary," said Dodd, who had some of the tougher language on China. "Let's not have any illusions here." A plurality of Democrats and the general public (47% respectively) believe that China's emergence as a world power is a major threat. Republicans (51%) are slightly more likely to list China's emergence as a major threat.

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/as-senates-08-presidential-hopefuls-absent-peru-free-trade-deal-approved-2007-12-05.html

"All of the Senate candidates running for the Democratic nomination have supported trade agreements in the past. Edwards, the biggest free-trade critic, voted in favor of deals with Chile, Singapore, Australia and Morocco when he was in the Senate. All four were supported by the Bush administration.

Edwards also voted in favor of granting China permanent normal trade relations in 2000. That vote ensured that China could enter the WTO and enjoy the benefits the U.S. granted to other WTO members. In an August interview with The Des Moines Register, Edwards said he voted aye in the China vote because it brought China into the community of nations whose trade behavior is governed by international rules."

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/268896.aspx

snippet:

Looking into his record as a senator sheds some light on this issue. First of all, the trade imbalance with China has been cause for concern. This June Obama agreed to co-sponsor a bill that would pressure China to revalue its currency, or "provide for identification of misaligned currency, require action to correct the misalignment, and for other purposes."

Obama also sent a critical letter to Secretary of Trade Henry Paulson, demanding that the U.S. administration take a harsher stance against China's currency and the trade imbalance. He writes:

"The People’s Republic of China has manipulated its currency for years in order to gain an unfair advantage over the United States in trade. Unfortunately, the Administration has failed to effectively challenge or change China’s behavior. . . Your department’s refusal to take action against China raises serious questions about the Administration’s commitment to protecting the interests of American businesses and American workers."

snippet:
Many in the China ex-pat community are excited about the prospect of an Obama administration, even uniting in a group called Americans in China for Obama '08. While they're optimistic about a potential Obama presidency, it would be interesting to see how that presidency would ultimately play out.

haven't read through this but seems like a good place
to start on the Presidential candidates and their views
on China...which is the big white elephant in the
world.

http://www.china-briefing.com/blog/2007/06/06/us-council-on-foreign-relations-releases-report-candidates-china-policy.html

Council on Foreign Relations releases report on U.S. presidential candidates’ China policy
For those following the presidential primary campaigns in the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations has released a policy guide to the candidates’ views on China.

Bill Clinton strongarmed the Democratic Party into supporting a deal that was manifestly rotten for America, but wonderful for the Chinese elite.

Many people knew it, but Bill "knew better."

That was one episode where people like Dick Gephardt deserve a lot of retrospective respect for standing up to the Clintons trying to stop them from selling out the American economy to China.