During a mid-September White House visit by General Zhang Wannian, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of China, President Bill Clinton stressed the need to further develop political and military ties and exchanges with China, the Beijing Review reports. Among deals General Zhang signed at the Pentagon with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen was an agreement for a 1999 visit by a Chinese People's Liberation Army delegation to the Sandia Nuclear Laboratory's Cooperative Monitoring Center to "study ways to improve the measures in security and maintaining secrecy."

The Far Eastern Economic Review reports that a report to be released by the U.S. House Committee investigating illegal donations to the Democratic Party during the 1995-1996 election campaign identifies Ted Sioeng, a key figure in the scandal, as a Chinese agent in a bid to influence the American elections. Sioeng, who donated $400,000 through his family and business partners to the Democratic National Committee, held several private meetings with Chinese President Jiang Zemin between 1993 and 1995. According to the Review, the House report concludes that Sioeng probably worked for the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, which is Beijing's main conduit for building influence among Chinese communities in foreign countries. U.S. intelligence sources earlier told Congress that they had strong evidence of a Beijing plan to influence U.S. elections in 1995 and 1996 - mainly through donations to the Democratic National Committee.

China's largest aerospace company, China Aero-Technology Import Export Company [CATIC], has become a California-based conglomerate and a major security risk to the United States, writes Kenneth Timmerman in the October issue of the American Spectator. Since 1993, President Clinton has quietly dismantled the Tiananmen Square restrictions on deliveries of strategic or dual-use U.S. technologies to China, enabling U.S. manufacturers to complete blocked weapons deals with Chinese firms. CATIC has been permitted to obtain avionics, guidance kits and weapons systems to upgrade the F-8 fighter-bomber which was co-developed with U.S. aerospace manufacturers. In addition, CATIC has been permitted to purchase sophisticated production tools used for the U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber and for F-14 fighter aircraft.

U.S. Customs officials, Timmerman continues, have found Chinese middlemen, including CATIC, deeply involved in a vast military aircraft spare parts pipeline to Iran - the only country outside of the U.S. that operates F-14s. In addition, Timmerman found that U.S. specialty steel parts and aerospace alloys sold to CATIC have been sent directly to a military aircraft plant in Xian, China. In addition, sensitive U.S. Global Positioning Satellite [GPS] navigation systems purchased in California are shipped by CATIC to their aerospace plant in Beijing. American defense intelligence analysts have concluded that the Chinese are successfully integrating U.S. GPS systems into cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and a new generation of military jets - some of which are sent to Iran. Yet, the Clinton Administration has lifted all licensing requirements for the sale of GPS systems to China.

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All Rights Reserved.

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