I wonder what the riots in China are really about?:
Tuesday May 11 12:43 PM ET
Chung Testifies Before House Panel
By PETE YOST Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - After pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton, Johnny Chung says, he was threatened and offered money from Beijing ''to take care of'' his legal expenses and family if he refused to cooperate with the FBI.
Chung said the threat - and an introduction to an attorney who claimed to have Justice Department connections - came from a man who indicated he was connected to a Chinese general who had earlier given Chung $300,000 to contribute to Clinton's re-election and Democrats.
Chung said he didn't use the money from the general for campaign contributions.
Chung's political contributions from 1994 to 1996 brought him dozens of visits to the White House, often accompanied by Chinese executives. In prepared remarks for a congressional hearing today, Chung said he now has ''mixed feelings'' for the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
''I can't help but think that they used me as much as I used them,'' Chung said.
In all, Chung contributed $360,000 to the Democratic Party and visited the White House more than 50 times from 1994 to 1996, when the controversy over foreign campaign donations erupted.
Despite meeting with the head of China's military intelligence, Chung said he ''never acted as an agent for the Chinese government.''
As part of the fund-raising investigation, Chung has pleaded guilty to making $20,000 in illegal contributions to Democrats, including the Clinton-Gore campaign, and to tax evasion.
He criticized officials of the Democratic National Committee for attacking him in court ''when they were fully aware that I was doing a lot of business and cultivating friendships with people from the People's Republic of China.''
Chung said he used political donations to help build his business as a consultant to Chinese executives who were greatly impressed by his ability to take them to events where they could be photographed with Clinton and other political leaders.
Chung said he took in more than $2 million from his foreign clients.
Chung said he accepted $300,000 from Gen. Ji Sheng De, the head of Chinese military intelligence, who told him to use it to help Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Instead, Chung said, acting under instructions of the woman who arranged the payment from the general, he kept the money for other purposes including to help take care of the general's son, Alex, during his stay in the United States.
The FBI has traced $20,000 of that money to the Democratic National Committee.
Chung says that after he pleaded guilty and was cooperating with the FBI, he was contacted by Robert Luu, a U.S. citizen in Beijing, who said he was helping Liu Chao Ying, the Chinese woman who introduced him to Ji.
Luu ''starting talking about a Commander Lee, who wanted to take care of me,'' Chung says. ''The message was as follows: 'If you keep your mouth shut, you and your family will be safe.'''
Chung said Luu also introduced him to a well-connected former Watergate lawyer, whom Chung didn't name. Chung said he met at least a dozen times with Luu, who never gave him any money.
Chung's testimony comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-Chinese relations, strained by NATO's accidental bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade as well as the investigation into whether China stole U.S. nuclear weapons secrets.
Chung is the latest witness in the House investigation spearheaded by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.
Chung also was expected to testify that he was told by a Beijing banker that former Little Rock, Ark., restaurateur Charlie Trie approached the Chinese government sometime before February 1996 asking for $1 million to support Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Clinton as Arkansas governor frequented Trie's restaurant near the state Capitol in Little Rock and Trie in 1996 offered more than $600,000 from questionable sources to Clinton's legal defense fund, which rejected the donations. Trie goes on trial Monday in Little Rock, charged with obstructing a U.S. Senate investigation into campaign fund-raising abuses by ordering the concealment of subpoenaed documents in Arkansas.
In addition, according to congressional sources, Chung also will say he was told by Liu, the daughter of China's retired top general, that:
-China steered business to a Hong Kong aerospace executive with links to the Republican Party.
-China had funneled $500,000 to an international trading firm of former Clinton White House aide Mark Middleton, who worked for presidential chief of staff Mack McLarty. Middleton's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has denied that Middleton worked for China.
dailynews.yahoo.com |
