Will China Attack the U.S. Political System?

With elections peaking over the hill, will China again worm their way into a position to influence or direct the U.S. political system /elections? What have they learned from 1996 and how will they adjust? Will they use the some 3000 front companies in the U.S. to meet their goal or do they have another assassins mace?

Brief History:

The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to influence domestic American politics prior to and during the Clinton administration and also involved the fund-raising practices of the administration itself.

Agents of the PRC sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) before the 1996 presidential campaign.

Intelligence information had shown the PRC Embassy in Washington, D.C. was used for coordinating contributions to the DNC[2] in violation of United States law forbidding non-American citizens from giving monetary donations to United States politicians and political parties.

Twenty-two people were eventually convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the United States elections.

The most significant one-time illegal foreign contribution was a $460,000 donation by Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie to President Bill Clinton's legal defense fund. The donation was made by delivery of an envelope containing $460,000 in $1,000 contributions, some on sequentially numbered money orders made out in different names but with the same handwriting.

In February 1996, Trie brought Wang Jun, chairman of CITIC, the chief investment arm of the PRC, and Poly Technologies (a "front company for the PRC military"that was later charged with smuggling 2,000 AK-47s into the U.S., to a White House) "coffee"with the President Clinton.

Four days prior to Wang Jun's White House visit, the Clinton Administration granted Poly Technologies import permits that would allow the shipment of over 100,000 semi-automatic weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition to a Detroit company (China Jiang An) that had ties to the Chinese military (recall this is a front company).


A number of FBI agents suggested the investigations into the fund-raising controversies (which some dubbed Chinagate) were willfully impeded.

FBI agent Ivian Smith wrote a letter to FBI Director Freeh that expressed "a lack of confidence" in the Justice Department's attorneys regarding the fund-raising investigation.

He wrote: "I am convinced the team at DOJ leading this investigation is, at best, simply not up to the task... The impression left is the emphasis on how not to prosecute matters, not how to aggressively conduct investigations leading to prosecutions." Smith and three other FBI agents later testified before Congress in late 1999 that Justice Department prosecutors impeded their inquiry.

FBI agent Daniel Wehr told Congress that the first head U.S. attorney in the investigation, Laura Ingersoll, told the agents they should "not pursue any matter related to solicitation of funds for access to the president. The reason given was, 'That's the way the American political process works.' I was scandalized by that," Wehr said.

The four FBI agents also said that Ingersoll prevented them from executing search warrants to stop destruction of evidence and micromanaged the case beyond all reason.

FBI agents were also denied the opportunity to ask President Clinton and Vice President Gore questions during Justice Department interviews in 1997 and 1998 and were only allowed to take notes. During the interviews, neither Clinton nor Gore were asked a single question about fundraisers John Huang, James Riady, nor the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple fundraising event led by Maria Hsia and attended by John Huang and Ted Sioeng.