Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Dateline D.C. - Sunday, April 22, 2001

China finds Americans easy to manipulate through greed

WASHINGTON - That for the longest time this column has avoided writing about China and its truly enormous impact on what passes for thought in Washington is no accident. Largely, it has been to avoid loading yet another of my fixations onto you, my wonderful readers.

In all fairness, more explanation than that is necessary. The China fixation became a near obsession generations ago when middle-class American students would wave ``Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung,'' nicely bound in red plastic, as they noisily demonstrated, marched and rioted for a variety of communist-supported causes. In those days, their favorite chant for every occasion was, ``The East is Red; the West is ready!''

After Deng Xiaoping played his American card and the clown in the White House, President Jimmy Carter, formally established full diplomatic relations with Beijing, there was the celebratory reception and cocktail party that this columnist gate-crashed with aplomb. The greats were there - David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Andrew Young and more business lobbyists than would fit into a bank lobby; there were so many of our generals and admirals present that colonels and navy commanders formed a protective circle for noncombatants and the not-so-great near the cloakroom.

Most everyone was wearing either a lapel pin, or a pin neatly aligned with his or her medal ribbons. The pin had a red background, a gilt border and a portrait of that old monster, Mao, over the phrase, written in English ``People's Republic of China: United States of America.''

Taking in the implications of that scene, the Mao pins and the order of the wording, it suddenly became all too obvious that the words of the demonstrators' chant were true. The East was, indeed, red, and, all too obviously the West, as represented at that reception, was all too ready!

Yet ready for what? Seeking the answer to that question is how an obsession grew out of a fixation.

The events of the past month highlighted a division in our society. On one side is a business mentality that sees China as a potential market for products and, more importantly, as a source for incredibly cheap and docile labor. These pro-China business forces - small, medium and large - have allies among those once-Maoist students, now middle-aged and influential in the media, academia and government and corporate bureaucracy.

On the other side are the rest of us!

Whatever political correctness or even diplomacy dictates in Washington, Americans do not take easily to being messed about by foreigners. There is a growing realization that President George Bush did an outstanding job in his handling of the seizure of our military personnel; reading the cable traffic carefully shows clearly there was no apology and no backing down.

The men and women who were hostages in China finally were released; and the cost to the United States was the compromise of a number of security systems, codes and electronic equipment.

Of course, that's a high cost; but however high the cost, it is a small payment for Americans to help them realize that the People's Republic of China says, acts and truly believes that the United States of America is China's ``main enemy.'' The truly frightening aspect of that piece of information is how through successive administrations in Washington there has been a willing and conscious effort to believe that China is, as that fool Clinton said, ``our strategic partner.''

Let us start with recent times and unresolved issues. There is Wen Ho Lee, a nuclear scientist at Los Alamos who, it was alleged, gave the Chinese a mass of information about American nuclear weapons. Wen Ho Lee was arrested; but in a plea bargain, he admitted only to one felony in mishandling classified information. He will never be tried for espionage against the United States. Did he die? Did he commit suicide? No, because before he saw a jury, he had an apology from President Bill Clinton. At a meeting he thought was private, Lee had been thanked by Beijing's top nuclear scientist for his outstanding contributions to China's nuclear programs. The FBI knew this. The FBI made sure that then-Attorney General Janet Reno also knew this about Lee. Yet Reno adamantly refused to give the bureau permission to wiretap the man's telephones. A loud signal heard around the world that as far as the Clinton administration was concerned, Wen Ho Lee was off-limits.

Then there was Peter Lee (no relative of the guy from Los Alamos) who began spying for China in the 1990s and gave them chapter and verse on our radar technology. One time, he even held a cozy little seminar in Beijing at his hotel for Chinese scientists to copy and discuss line drawings of America's secret developments in radar.

But time passes and our leaders develop new interests. In the fall of 1998, while Bill was playing his games with Monica and Madeleine Albright was playing Queen of the Day, every day in the State Department a letter from Beijing appeared. It was an ``official, non-official'' note sent to Albright, saying that America must ``back off from Peter Lee or American-Chinese relationships will be badly damaged."

The word was out! Naturally, the Department of Justice backed off, but Peter Lee was ``punished'' by having to spend part of one year in a comfortable halfway house, paying a fine, and having to perform many hours of community service. A slap on the wrist, although Peter Lee was a self-admitted spy.

Then there was the Clinton-Gore presidential re-election campaign and the friendly Chinese restaurant owner from Little Rock, Ark., named Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie. When campaign donations were low for Bill, Al or Hillary and there was a dearth of takeout orders at Fu Lin Restaurant, good old Charlie would change his daily routine. He would spiffy-up, take an American flight to Washington, go to his Watergate apartment before dropping by our White House for coffee or cake. He would introduce important Chinese military and political personalities to our so-called leaders and make requests that this or that policy be adopted. The Chinese government ate it up, and paid him. Then Trie, in turn, paid the Clintons, the Gores and the Democratic National Committee! Could that have been a conspiracy to commit treason?

Charlie was no hero. He ran away to China to avoid a trial. But the two governments held conversations, deals were done, and Charlie's memory grew very dim. He returned to the United States and admitted all that he could or would remember. He was found guilty of a misdemeanor and bravely took a ``harsh'' sentence of community service without flinching.

Then there were the big American corporations like Loral Space and Communications and Hughes Electronics Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors Corporation. According to the Pentagon, both companies harmed U.S. national security interests by their highly paid assistance to China's satellite launch programs. However, no real problem! Since at least May 1998, counterintelligence teams have been investigating these companies but no charges have been filed. (The Rosenbergs were just unlucky that they chose Russia to serve as spies.) A third major corporation, Lockheed Martin, also seduced by the Chinese, made some admissions and paid $13 million and change in fines.

Throughout this wonderful time span for China's military spies, many, many American corporations showed that they were indeed ``ready'' - ready to make money by importing inexpensive, some even prison-made, goods from China; and even more ready to increase their and Chinese profits by importing Chinese goods into the United States. Recently it appeared to be a wonderful time to say, for a few days we will buy American and will buy nothing made or assembled in China.

We duly tried to do this, but it wasn't easy! Beside the canned mushrooms from Pennsylvania were less expensive mushrooms from China. So, no mushrooms this week! Bay scallops are delicious, and shoppers in Washington think of their delicacies coming from the Chesapeake Bay. But the supermarket scallops come from some bay or other in the South China Sea. They were cheap, but what Chinese sewer outlet fed those tasty bottom dwellers?

The same was found in the office supply store, electrical outlet and hardware depot. Everywhere and near everything carried its label of shame - ``Made in China.''

As a last test, attempts were made to buy some knitted sweaters. Almost a sigh of relief when the labels read Made in Bangladesh, or Cambodia, or Vietnam or the Philippines. However, they all looked alike. Ugly, suspicious investigative journalist hackles were raised and more work was demanded on this matter!

It was completed just in time for this column! All these lovely knitted goods were made in knitting mills in different countries, but they were all owned by a resident of the Philippines who just happens to be a citizen of the People's Republic of China, whose funds are replenished from time to time by the Second Department of the General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army.

And, in whispers, additional information was passed that the intelligence officer responsible was Lt. Col. Liu Chaoying, a somewhat glamorous lady (a ``gaogan zidi'' or ``high-cadre child'') in her early 40s, who is the daughter of Gen. Liu Huaqing, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Finally, the obsession with China is fueled by the fact that there are no less than 100,000 citizens of Red China studying or working in our country. Many of them are ``gaogan zidi.'' A large number of these elite students are given at least $10,000 to bring with them to invest in playing the American stock markets. With $10,000 invested, even you and I can borrow another $10,000 from a bank to increase our investments. As required by their ``big brother's'' telephone calls, the ``gaogan zidi'' buy, sell and make profits with rarely a loss. Some profits stay here, much more goes home, and who ever has heard of a Chinese high-cadre child going on welfare! The market shifts noticeably, and those of us not in ``the know'' lose money!

In the next few weeks, there will be a war of sorts in America. It will be between the traders (that nearly was written ``traitors'') whose objective is to get richer, and patriots who want an American future for their children and grandchildren. Our dealings with China will be the key.

Think about it, and let's be happy that it is President George Bush not Al Gore who will be calling the shots.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001