[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 52 (Thursday, April 15, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2122-H2125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHINESE ESPIONAGE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the issues of
Communist China's efforts to steal our most advanced nuclear secrets,
their funneling of illegal contributions to President Clinton's 1996
reelection campaign, and how the Clinton administration, either
intentionally or through incompetence has irreparably damaged and
compromised the security of every man, woman, and child in the United
States.
Mr. Speaker, last summer during President Clinton's trip to China,
Jiang Zemin, the President of China, told him that he had no
involvement in campaign fund-raising in the United States; and
President Clinton took his word for it.
In that July 2, 1998, press conference, President Clinton said,
``They looked into that, and he was obviously certain, and I do believe
him, that he had not ordered or authorized or approved such a thing,
and that he could find no evidence that anybody in governmental
authority had done that,'' giving illegal campaign contributions to the
Democratic National Committee or the President's Reelection Committee.
Why would President Clinton say that, Mr. Speaker? The New York Times
reported in May that Johnny Chung was given $300,000 by Ms. Liu Chao-
ying, a Chinese aerospace executive who is a lieutenant colonel in the
People's Liberation Army in Communist Army, and her father at one time
was the head of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
In April of 1996, 27 months before President Clinton's meeting with
President Jiang of China, Sandy Berger, the head of the National
Security Council, was briefed that China had stolen W-88 nuclear
warhead designs, neutron bomb data, and that a spy might still be
passing secrets to China at Los Alamos, one of our nuclear research
facilities.
Now, the W-88 nuclear warhead design is a miniaturized nuclear
warhead, and you can put as many as 10 of them on one missile. So you
can hit 10 cities with one missile launched from China, thereby
endangering as many as 50 or 60 million Americans. And the neutron bomb
data, that kind of information, would allow an enemy of the United
States, Communist China, to launch a missile at the United States with
a neutron bomb warhead, and when it explodes, kills everybody in the
city but it does not destroy the infrastructure, the roads, the
bridges, or the buildings.
Now, Sandy Berger, the head of the NSC, would have had to have told
the President about this. Why would President Clinton say that he
believed President Jiang of China?
Mr. Speaker, on April 8, 1999, at a joint press conference with
President Clinton, when Communist China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji was
here, he was asked about China's theft of U.S. nuclear secrets; and
Prime Minister Zhu said, ``I have no knowledge whatsoever of any charge
of any allegation of espionage or the theft of nuclear technology, and
I do not believe such story.''
And President Clinton responded, ``China is a big country with a big
government, and I can only say that America is a big country with a big
government and occasionally things happen in this country and in this
government that I do not know anything about.'' And he was indicating
that the stealing of this technology and the illegal campaign
contributions that were authorized by the leaders of the Communist
Chinese Government could have happened without their knowledge.
If that happens in Communist China, they either shoot them or put
them in prison. So it is disingenuous for the President to say that he
believed him when he knew full well that this was taking place.
In July of 1997, a year before his meeting with President Jiang and
27 months before his meeting with Prime Minister Zhu, the
administration acknowledges that NSC Director Sandy Berger briefed the
President, told him about weaknesses in our nuclear laboratories and
about China's spying.
So when President Clinton met with President Jiang and Prime Minister
Zhu, he had already been briefed by NSC Director Berger sometime before
about the possibility of spying and espionage taking place at our
nuclear facilities.
Before the President met with Zhu, the L.A. Times reported that
Johnny Chung had testified under oath that he was directed to make
illegal campaign contributions to the President's reelection campaign
by General Ji Shengde, who met with him three times and ordered that
$300,000 be directed to Chung for political contributions, and that
there were other conduits, other people that they were working with to
get money into the President's reelection campaign and to the
Democratic National Committee.
Now, Johnny Chung was a friend of the President. He was in the White
House 50 times. He brought other people in, Communist leaders, to meet
with the President. And he was one of the major conduits of bringing
illegal campaign contributions into this country.
General Ji Shengde was the head of the Chinese Communist military
intelligence, the equivalent of our Defense Intelligence Agency in this
country; and he was the one that was giving the order to funnel these
illegal campaign contributions from communist China into the
President's reelection campaign and into the Democrat National
Committee.
Now, why would President Clinton suggest that maybe the Chinese
leadership did not know about the spying at Los Alamos? Why would he
say that? Mr. Speaker, when they do something in China, as I said
before, they either shoot them or throw them in jail.
Now, regarding Chinese espionage. In April of 1996, 27 months before
President Clinton accepted President Jiang's denial, and 3 years before
he suggested that China's spying might be the fault of ``big
government,'' the Department of Energy's chief of intelligence Notra
Trulock told National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, the head of the
NSC, that China had stolen both W-88 nuclear warhead designs, that is
the miniature nuclear warhead that they can put 10 of them on one
missile, and neutron bomb data; that a spy might still be passing those
secrets to China from Los Alamos, our nuclear research facility.
Mr. Speaker, according to Energy officials who took part in the
meeting and read highly classified materials used to prepare for it,
Sandy Berger was also told how the stolen technology could fit into
Beijing's overall nuclear strategy and how the W-88 technology could be
used as part of a plan to rely on the mobility of truck-launched
missiles with small warheads to better survive a counter-nuclear attack
by the United States.
According to the New York Times, Energy officials said the briefing
was a culmination of a 5-month interagency study of the W-88 theft and
related issues and it was pretty was ``a pretty specific briefing.''
One American official who was present said that. Sandy Berger was even
told that investigators had identified a prime suspect at Los Alamos in
the theft and would shortly turn their information over to the FBI for
a formal criminal inquiry.
Why did Sandy Berger, the head of the NSC, appearing on NBC's Meet
the Press last month, say the information he was told about 3 years ago
was very general and very preliminary? Why did he say we did not have a
suspect in the theft of the W-88 technology? Why did he say that we did
not know who, we did not really know how, and we did not really know
what?
We know at the end of the briefing that I just talked about,
according to officials that were present, Notra Trulock referred to a
report from a Chinese source which had been provided to the Department
of Energy by the FBI in March of 1996, over 3 years ago.
Mr. Speaker, the Chinese source indicated that officials inside
China's intelligence service were boasting about how they had just
stolen secrets from the United States and had used them to improve
Beijing's neutron bomb.
The source further suggested that Chinese agents solved a 1988 design
problem by coming back to the United States in 1995 to steal more
secrets. The source, who in the past has provided reliable information,
even detailed how the information was transferred from the United
States to communist China.
[[Page H2123]]
According to one official, the intelligence about the neutron bomb
was hot off the press and it was included in the briefing to warn the
White House of the possibility of continuing Chinese espionage.
Mr. Speaker, in November of 1996, almost 1\1/2\ years after first
suspecting the theft of nuclear secret from Los Alamos, Charles B.
Curtis, the Deputy Secretary for Energy, ordered a series of security
measures to be carried out on a straight timetable during the next
several months. None of these measures were carried out until September
of 1998, almost 2 years later, and there was a threat and a strong
indication that espionage had taken place and our top secrets were
being stolen by the communist Chinese. Why did we wait 2 years? Why did
they not implement those series of security measures?
Mr. Speaker, in March of 1997, 4 months before President Clinton was
scheduled to visit China, the Energy Department's Acting Secretary for
Defense Programs, Victor Reis, and the Acting Director for
Nonproliferation, Kenneth Baker, prevented Notra Trulock, when he saw
further evidence that the Chinese had other ongoing spy operations at
the weapons lab and he asked to meet with Secretary of Energy Federico
Pena, they kept him from briefing Secretary Pena for 4 months. Why?
Mr. Speaker, in April of 1997, when the FBI requested a wiretap to be
put on the phone of the conversations of Wen Ho Lee, the chief suspect
in the theft of America's W-88 miniaturized warhead technology, the
nuclear technology, they were turned down by the Justice Department.
Why would the Justice Department turn down this request for
electronic technology to be put on this gentleman's phone when they
thought and highly suspected and even knew that he was giving top
secret nuclear technology to the Chinese communists that endangered
every man, woman, and child in this country?
Why would the Justice Department not allow electronic technology and
wiretaps to be put on his phone? Why? And who at the Justice Department
turned down this request? This guy was accused of stealing America's
most advanced nuclear technology. Why was this request turned down?
Why?
In August of 1997, FBI Director Louis Freeh told Energy Department
officials that the Bureau did not have enough evidence to arrest Wen Ho
Lee, but that Mr. Lee could now be removed from his position without
harming their investigation and that DOE was to determine whether or
not to keep Lee on since ``the case was not as important as what damage
he might do or continue to do by accessing additional information.''
{time} 1815
Why did the Department of Energy keep Lee on with FBI approval,
retaining his security clearances until December of 1998, about 2 years
later, when he was moved to a nonclassified area and took a lie
detector test for the first time. Why?
Mr. Speaker, again in 1997, in July, a year before his meeting with
President Jiang and 21 months before his meeting with Prime Minister
Zhu, Sandy Berger, the head of the NSC, received a second detailed
briefing about China's spying and soon after told President Clinton
about weaknesses at the laboratories and about China's spying.
Mr. Speaker, in August of 1997, Gary Samore, the senior National
Security Council official assigned to the China spy case asked, now,
get this, asked the CIA director to seek an alternative analysis on how
China developed its smaller warheads. In other words, he did not want
to talk about them being stolen from Los Alamos through espionage. He
wanted to find out an alternative analysis from the CIA on how they
might have gotten this technology. Immediately after he got this
briefing from Notra Trulock in August of 1997. Why, when presented with
such overwhelming evidence of Chinese espionage, did Gary Samore at the
National Security Council seek to downplay the significance of the
information, asking the CIA to come up with another explanation about
China's advances? Why?
Mr. Speaker, in May of 1998, Notra Trulock, Energy Department's
director of intelligence, was demoted to acting deputy director of
intelligence after he made a third report to the Energy Department
Inspector General about a steady pattern of suppression of
counterintelligence issues. Somebody was trying to keep a lid on all
this.
Mr. Speaker, in July 1998, the same month that President Clinton was
meeting with China's President Jiang, when the House intelligence
committee requested an update on the spy case from Notra Trulock,
Trulock testified that Acting Energy Secretary Elizabeth Moler ordered
him not to go to the panel for fear that the information would be used
to attack President Clinton's China policy. Why did Elizabeth Moler do
this?
Mr. Speaker, the Chinese thefts of U.S. nuclear secrets, according to
Paul Redmund, the CIA's chief spy hunter, were, quote, far more
damaging to national security than Aldrich Ames--he is the spy who is
now in jail--and the spying would turn out to be as bad as the
Rosenbergs. Now you recall the Rosenbergs were the ones who gave
nuclear secrets to the Russians and the Soviet Union back during and
after World War II. Both of them were executed for giving that nuclear
technology to the Soviets so that they could build their nuclear
missiles that were directed at the United States. And he said, this Mr.
Redmund, that this spying would turn out to be as bad or worse, or as
bad as the Rosenberg case. You can see how really bad this is.
Mr. Speaker, at the same time that China was conducting its highly
successful espionage operations against the United States, the
Committee on Government Reform, which I chair, for 2 years has known
about and tracked millions of dollars that were given to the Democrat
Party and the President's reelection committee that can be directly
traced to Hong Kong, Macao, Indonesia, South America and Communist
China. Mr. Speaker, long before President Clinton met with President
Jiang and long before he met with Prime Minister Zhu, we knew for a
long time that China's head of military intelligence, General Ji
Shengde, had been pulling the strings for a massive conglomerate called
China Resources which U.S. intelligence agencies have said operates
fronts for the People's Liberation Army in Hong Kong and worldwide.
Mr. Speaker, for a long time we have known that China Resources has
joint ventures with the Indonesia-based international firm called the
Lippo Group. We have also known that the Lippo Group is run by Mochtar
and James Riady. We have known that the ethnic Chinese James Riady is a
close friend of the President's and has frequently visited him at the
White House. He was also instrumental in getting John Huang appointed
to a very important position at the Commerce Department and later at
the Democrat National Committee.
Mr. Speaker, we have known that James Riady's chief adviser on
political donations was John Huang, who is a former employee of the
Lippo Group and who accepted this job at the Commerce Department and
then left the Commerce Department to work at the Democrat National
Committee where, with the help of James Riady and the Lippo Group and
Mochtar, he collected nearly $3 million in illegal campaign
contributions for the Democrat Party and the President's reelection
committee.
Mr. Speaker, we have in our possession checks, copies of checks which
represent illegal contributions to the Democrat Party drawn from
accounts in the Lippo Bank which is controlled by the Riady family.
It is now being reported that Johnny Chung, who gave more than
$360,000 to the Democrat Party, has told a grand jury that some of the
money he contributed to the Democrat Party came from China's head of
military intelligence, the very same people that wanted this nuclear
technology, General Ji Shengde. General Ji is the man in the Chinese
military most likely to be directing China's spy operations and most
likely to be interested in America's nuclear secrets.
Mr. Speaker, it now appears that General Ji was the mastermind behind
China's efforts to get the Clinton-Gore team reelected. Johnny Chung
has reportedly told a grand jury he was coordinating efforts to funnel
money into the campaign, along with others, according to General Ji. Is
it possible that he was working with John Huang and Charlie Trie as
well?
[[Page H2124]]
Mr. Speaker, Johnny Chung, John Huang and Charlie Trie together
raised over $3 million in illegal donations, that we know of, that have
been linked to the Bank of China.
Mr. Speaker, it is important to repeat that on July 2, 1998 during
President Clinton's trip to China when he was asked to comment on his
discussions with President Jiang Zemin about China's involvement in
campaign fund-raising in the United States, President Clinton said,
``they looked into that, and he was obviously certain, and I do believe
him, that he had not ordered or authorized or approved such a thing,
the illegal contributions, and that he could find no evidence that
anybody in governmental authority had done that.'' The President said
he believed that.
Mr. Speaker, President Clinton at his own press conference on March
19, 1998, in response to the question, ``Can you assure us, the
American people, that under your watch no valuable secrets were lost,''
and he said, quote: Can I tell you there has been no espionage at the
lab since I have been President? I can tell you that no one has
reported to me they suspect such a thing has occurred.
Mr. Speaker, on April 8, 1999, at a joint press conference with
President Clinton when China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji was asked
about China's theft of nuclear secrets, Zhu said, ``I have no knowledge
whatsoever of any charge of any allegation of espionage or the theft
of nuclear technology and I don't believe such a story.'' This is the
prime minister of China.
President Clinton responded, ``China is a big country with a big
government and I can only say that America is a big country with a big
government and occasionally things happen in this government that I do
not know anything about.''
Mr. Speaker, how could President Clinton, who knew at least 1 year
before meeting with President Jiang and probably as early as April of
1996 about Chinese spying, and had all this information about illegal
Chinese efforts to funnel money into the 1996 Clinton-Gore reelection
efforts, say, ``I do believe'' President Jiang? It is just almost
disingenuous.
Mr. Speaker, it is inconceivable that President Clinton did not know
about China's espionage and China's funneling of illegal contributions
into this reelection campaign when he met with Prime Minister Zhu.
Mr. Speaker, how could the President who had been briefed by Sandy
Berger in July of 1997 and probably as early as April of 1996 about
Chinese spying suggest that maybe China's spying was the result of
``big government'' and that maybe China's leadership did not know about
their spying at Los Alamos? Wen Ho Lee we know had not only been
involved in that spying, at least that is what we believe now, and he
has already taken some lie detector tests and is still under
investigation, we also know that he called convicted spy Peter Lee at
the Livermore Laboratories where a neutron bomb was being researched
some time ago. How could the President say that this was a result of
big government?
It is impossible that the Chinese leadership did not know about this
spying. You get shot in China when you do something like that without
telling the leadership.
Mr. Speaker, on March 7, 1997, President Clinton said, ``I don't
believe you can find any evidence of the fact that I had changed
government policy solely because of a contribution.''
Mr. Speaker, in February of 1998, 5 months before he met President
Jiang and 14 months before he met Prime Minister Zhu, President Clinton
ignored strenuous objections from the Department of Justice which was
investigating the Loral Corporation for an unauthorized technology
transfer to China and granted Loral a waiver for official transfers of
essentially the same missile technology to China that Loral was being
criminally investigated for giving to China without authorization in
1996.
Bernard Schwartz, the chairman of Loral Corporation, contributed over
$1.365 million to various Democratic accounts, including the reelection
of the President.
Mr. Speaker, in a March interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, when
questioned about China's spying at Los Alamos, Vice President Gore
said, ``The law enforcement agencies pursued it aggressively with our
full support.''
On March 14, 1999, Sandy Berger asserted that upon learning of
China's nuclear espionage, the administration, quote, imposed and
enforced the strictest controls on China of any country except those
for which we have embargoes, such as Libya, end quote.
Mr. Speaker, if the Vice President and NSC Director Sandy Berger are
right, why after showing deceptive answers in his first lie detector
test in December of 1998 did it take the Clinton administration another
2 months to give Mr. Lee a second test? After failing that second test,
why did it take them another month to get rid of him?
Why did Elizabeth Moler, who ordered Notra Trulock not to brief the
House Intelligence Committee say that she could not recall being told
about Trulock's request for a briefing even when a memorandum from Mr.
Trulock concerning the briefing request was found in the safe in her
office after she left her job at the Energy Department?
Mr. Speaker, if what the Vice President and Sandy Berger say is true,
why, within 2 months after becoming Energy Secretary in January of
1993, when Keith Fultz, Assistant Comptroller General with the General
Accounting Office, briefed Hazel O'Leary and strongly recommended that
the Department of Energy improve controls over foreign visitors to DOE
weapons laboratories and urged O'Leary to seek a further briefing about
espionage at DOE laboratories from U.S. intelligence agencies, did
Fultz say that O'Leary say she did not seem very interested in the
matter?
Why, according to the Washington Times, did a former contractor for
one of the Department of Energy's three nuclear weapons laboratories
recall that O'Leary, quote, decided in her infinite wisdom to lessen
security at the labs? Nuclear technology is being stolen and she
lessened security at the labs. The Cold War is over, the contractor
says that she indicated, and in Mrs. O'Leary's mind it was not
necessary to have so much money spent on security. We did away with the
people in actual security guard forces, security clearances were deemed
virtually unnecessary in all but a very few areas, former secure areas
were opened up, and many documents and files were allowed to be seen
which at one time were of a secret or classified nature.
Why, according to the Washington Times, did the White House
originally tell the Cox committee that the President was not told about
Chinese espionage until 1998? We know he must have known back as far as
1997 or 1996 when his NSC director, Sandy Berger, found out about it.
Why did David Leavy, spokesman for the National Security Council,
explain this discrepancy by saying, ``Well, after the Cox committee
process, we've remembered more.''
Mr. Speaker, on April 7, 1998, speaking at a U.S. Institute for Peace
event, President Clinton implied that anyone critical of China was
using, quote, caricatures and exaggerating the Chinese threat.
Let me share a portion of the President's speech according to the
record.
``Now, we hear that China is a country to be feared. A growing number
of people say that it is the next great threat to our security and our
well-being.
``They claim it is building up its military machine for aggression
and using the profits of our trade to pay for it. They urge us,
therefore, to contain China, to deny it access to our markets, our
technology, our investment, and to bolster the strength of our allies
in Asia to counter the threat a strong China will pose in the 21st
century. What about that scenario? Clearly, if it chooses to do so,
China could pursue such a course, pouring much more of its wealth into
military might and into traditional great power geopolitics.
``This would rob it of much of its future prosperity, and it is far
from inevitable that China will choose this path. Therefore, I would
argue that we should not make it more likely that China choose this
path by acting as if that decision has already been made.
``We have to follow a different course. We cannot afford
caricatures.''
Well, the President knew that they had been stealing nuclear secrets
from our laboratories, our nuclear laboratories, neutron bomb
technology, W88
[[Page H2125]]
technology, MRVing technology for warheads and it had been given to
them by a person who worked for the laboratory. The President had to
know this as far back as early 1997, and yet they kept the man on there
for over 2 more years and the President said we do not need to worry
about that?
Why is China taking this additional nuclear technology if they do not
really need it, if they do not have any intentions of using it? Just a
couple of years ago, they fired some missiles into the Sea of China
next to Taiwan. One of the leading military people in China said that
he did not think the United States would worry too much about that
because if we got involved, we would be much more concerned about Los
Angeles than we would about Taiwan.
{time} 1830
The implication was that there might be a threat that they would do
something like launching a missile at Los Angeles if we stuck our nose
into the Taiwanese issue.
Mr. Speaker, on March 29, 1999, one week before President Clinton's
press conference with Chinese Prime Minister Zhu, Newsweek reported
that when the CIA recently showed data obtained from its sources on
China to a team of nuclear weapons experts, they practically fainted.
These are our nuclear weapons experts, and when the CIA recently showed
that data that was obtained from its sources about China's stealing of
that technology, our nuclear weapons guys almost fainted.
The data, much of it written in Chinese and never read, had been
stored in CIA computers and forgotten until now. It showed that Chinese
scientists were routinely using phrases, descriptions and concepts that
came straight out of U.S. weapons laboratories like Los Alamos. ``The
Chinese penetration is total,'' said one official close to the
investigation. ``They are deep, deep into the lab's black programs,''
and black programs are our most sensitive nuclear technology security
issues, and they are deep, deep into them according to our experts.
Newsweek even reported that China may have even recently acquired two
U.S. cruise missiles that failed to detonate during last fall's U.S.
attack on terrorist Osama bin Laden and may be attempting to copy their
sophisticated guidance and avoidance avionics technology.
Mr. Speaker, how can the President say that anyone who is critical of
China and the threat are using caricatures?
Mr. Speaker, over the last 2 years my committee has been conducting
an investigation into illegal fund-raising including illegal efforts by
the Chinese to influence our elections. We have had 121 people. Nothing
like this in the history of the country: 121 people have either taken
the Fifth Amendment or fled the country. A number of the most important
people on this list are now in Communist China. When my staff attempted
to travel to China to interview some of these people, the Chinese
government denied us visas and said they would arrest anybody we sent
over there to investigate this.
Mr. Speaker, we asked the Bank of China to provide us with bank
records that would show the origins of millions of dollars in foreign
money that was funneled into the President's reelection committee and
the Democrat National Committee. The Bank of China has turned us down
flat. The Clinton administration has refused to do anything to help us
get this important information.
Mr. Speaker, when so many people take the Fifth Amendment or flee the
country, it is obvious that a lot of laws have been broken.
Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administration failure to investigate
China's funneling of illegal contributions into the Clinton-Gore
reelection campaign and China's theft of America's most advanced
nuclear secrets are absolute tragedies. Either intentionally or through
its own incompetence, the Clinton administration has caused irreparable
damage to America's national security. It has compromised the security
of every man, woman and child in this country.
Mr. Speaker, this has to be investigated. The American public has a
right to know what is going on regarding these illegal campaign
contributions, and the thefts of our nuclear technology, and whether or
not there is any connection between the two. We can no longer accept
the compromise of this nation's national security, and we intend to
pursue it as hard as we possibly can. But we need the help of the
Justice Department, which has been stonewalling us, and we need the
administration to give us some assistance as well.
____________________