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.

While questions regarding the U.S. Democratic Party's fund-raising activities first arose over a Los Angeles Times article published on September 21 1996,^[1] the PRC's alleged role in the affair first gained public attention when Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy of The Washington Post published a story stating that a United States Department of Justice investigation into the fund-raising activities had uncovered evidence that agents of the PRC sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) before the 1996 presidential campaign. The journalists wrote that 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 or non-permanent residents from giving monetary donations to United States politicians and political parties. A Republican investigator of the controversy stated the Chinese plan targeted both presidential and congressional United States elections, while Democratic Senators said the evidence showed the PRC targeted only congressional elections. The Chinese government denied all accusations.

Twenty-two people were eventually convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the United States elections. A number of the convictions came against longtime Clinton-Gore friends and political appointees.

Background

New China lobby

According to the United States Senate report Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns, prior to 1995 the PRC's approach to promoting its interests in the United States was focused almost exclusively on diplomacy, including summits and meetings with high-level White House officials. In these meetings, Chinese officials often negotiated with the United States government by using the appeal of their huge commercial market.^[3]

United States companies were also known to lobby the U.S. government on various issues involving their companies and China. In the 1990s, the news media reported on the phenomenon of U.S. companies lobbying for favorable trade policies regarding the PRC and labeled this activity as the "New China Lobby", which was contrasted with the "old" China Lobby that worked for the Taiwan. The group consisted of representatives of businesses with trade and investment interests in China such as AT&T, General Motors, and Boeing. In addition, prominent Americans, including several former United States Secretaries of State, were reported to be involved in promoting increased economic relationships with China, including Henry Kissinger as well as George Shultz, Cyrus Vance, Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig, and Brent Scowcroft. This "New China Lobby" urged United States officials to protect China's trade relationship with the United States because American exports to mainland China were rapidly increasing and creating new American jobs.^[4][5]

The U.S. Senate report about the 1996 fund-raising investigation noted that American exports to the PRC grew from $3 billion in 1980 to $38 billion in 1994.^N-[1] Between 1991 and 1996, United States exports to mainland China increased by 90.5 percent, and the United States designated the PRC as one of the top ten "Big Emerging Markets" offering the largest potential for United States goods in future years.^[6] Total trade between the two countries had risen from $4.8 billion in 1980 to $63.5 billion in 1996, making China the fourth largest U.S. trading partner at the time.^[3]

Given the increase in trade, critics questioned whether China should still be seen as a geopolitical rival of the United States. One explanation, according to the Senate report, was the American people's negative attitude toward China's human rights record, still marked by the PRC government's suppression of democratic movements, such as the crackdown on anti-government protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Another reason, from the Chinese government's perspective, according to the report, was that "the coming to power of a China-bashing U.S. Congress [was] perceived as part of an increas[ed] anti-Chinese atmosphere in Washington." According to the Senate Committee, information discovered during its investigation supported the conclusion that the PRC government, beginning in 1994, was concerned that decisions by Congress, including its stance toward the issue of Taiwan, would harm Chinese interests.^[3]

China plan

After these crises, according to the Senate report, Chinese officials eventually developed a set of proposals to promote their interests with the United States government and to improve China's image with the American people. The proposals, dubbed the "China Plan", were prompted by the United States Congress's successful lobbying of the president to grant the visa to President Lee. United States Secretary of State Warren Christopher had previously assured his Chinese counterpart Qian Qichen that granting a visa would be "inconsistent with [the United States'] unofficial relationship [with Taiwan]"^[9] and the Clinton Administration's acquiescence to the Congressional resolutions led the PRC to conclude that the influence of Congress over foreign policy was more significant than it had previously determined. When formulating the so-called plan, Chinese officials acknowledged that, compared to other countries, it had little knowledge of, or influence over, policy decisions made in Congress, which had a sizeable pro-Taiwan faction under the influence of a more established "China Lobby" run by the Kuomintang.^[3]

The plan, according the Senate report, instructed Chinese officials in the U.S. to improve their knowledge about members of Congress and increase contacts with its members, the public, and the media. The plan also suggested ways to lobby United States officials.^[3]

Over the years, the PRC repeatedly denied these lobbying efforts involved financial contributions of any kind:

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Though the ultimate level of participation or non-participation by the PRC government in the fund-raising schemes may never be fully known, investigations by the American media, the U.S. Justice Department, and the U.S. Congress, did prove there was a conspiracy by individuals to influence American elections with Asian funds prior to 1996.

Major fund-raising figures and groups

Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie and Wang Jun

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.^[12]

Born in Taiwan, Trie emigrated to the U.S. in 1974. He eventually became an American citizen and co-owner of a restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas where he befriended then Governor Clinton. In addition to the donation to Clinton's defense fund, Trie and his immediate family donated $220,000 to the DNC which was later returned.^[13]

Immediately after the donation to Clinton's defense fund, Trie sent a letter to President Clinton that expressed concern about America's intervention in tensions arising from China's military exercises being conducted near Taiwan. Trie told the President in his letter that war with China was a possibility should U.S. intervention continue:

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After questions arose regarding Charlie Trie's fund-raising activities during Congressional investigations in late 1996, he left the country for the PRC.^[13] Trie returned to the U.S. in 1998 and was convicted and sentenced to three years probation and four months home detention for violating federal campaign finance laws by making political contributions in someone else's name and for causing a false statement to be made to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).^[15]

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"^[16][17] that was later charged with smuggling 2,000 AK-47s into the U.S.), to a White House "coffee"^N-[2] with the president.^[18][19] President Clinton later admitted Wang's attendance at the White House was "clearly inappropriate."^[20][21] According to Clinton, the event attended by Wang was a small group discussion with people from "different walks of life."

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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. Robert Sanders, a U.S. lawyer representing the company, could not explain why the special permits were granted. "All of a sudden, there was a breakthrough," Sanders said. "I can't account for it."^[22][23]

According to Wang, during a United Nations conference on women's rights in Beijing in 1995, he received an invitation from First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to attend a reception, but his schedule was fully booked. Wang had also met with Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger (whom he called "a good friend") in addition to former President George H. W. Bush after he left office. During his two-day visit to Washington in 1996, Wang also held talks with President Clinton's Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, whom he had met once before at a trade mission in Hong Kong.^[24]

In 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported a similar controversy with campaign financing for Hillary Clinton allegedly coming from a businessman, Mr. Hsu possibly being funneled through Chinese Californians to skirt the individual campaign contribution limits. In the same year, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the [Hillary] Clinton operation also has accepted what it later conceded were improper donations" from recent Chinese immigrants in New York.^[25]

Ron Brown and the Department of Commerce

A close business associate of Ron Brown testified in court in 1998 that Brown had told her that Commerce Department trade missions were used for partisan political fund-raising at the behest of President Clinton and the First Lady. Specifically, she said trade mission plane seats were sold to business people who gave at least $50,000 each to the DNC.^[26]

A Commerce Department official reportedly threw away official government documents concerning the department's trade missions to China after a judge ordered they be turned over to Judicial Watch^N-,^[3] a conservative government watchdog group. According to the court: "No adequate explanation has been given as to why these documents were destroyed." Furthermore, the judge said: "[the Department's] misconduct in this case is so egregious and so extensive that... the agency [should be held] fully accountable for the serious violations that it appears to have deliberately committed".^[27]

Ron Brown, who had been under investigation for fraud and bribery allegations, died in a plane crash in Croatia in April 1996.^[28]

Johnny Chung, Liu Chaoying and General Ji

Johnny Chung also attended some of Ron Brown's Commerce Department trade missions to Asia. Born in Taiwan, Chung went from being the owner of a "blastfaxing" business (an automated system that quickly sends out faxes to thousands of businesses) in California to being in the middle of the Washington, D.C. elite within a couple weeks of his first donations to the Democratic Party. Called a "hustler" by a U.S. National Security Council (NSC) aide,^[29] Chung made forty-nine separate visits to the White House between February 1994 and February 1996.^[30] During one of the Commerce Department trade missions to China, Chung befriended former Chinese Lt. Col. Liu Chaoying, then an executive at China Aerospace Holdings (China's main satellite launching company) and daughter of former General Liu Huaqing.

Between 1994 and 1996, Chung donated $366,000 to the DNC. Eventually, all of the money was returned. Chung told federal investigators that $35,000 of the money he donated came from Liu Chaoying and, in turn, China's military intelligence.^[29]

Specifically, Chung testified under oath to the U.S. House Committee investigating the issue in May 1999 that he was introduced to Chinese Gen. Ji Shengde,^N-[4] then the head of Chinese military intelligence, by Liu Chaoying. Chung said that Ji told him: "We like your president very much. We would like to see him reelect [sic]. I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democrat Party."^[32] Both Liu and the Chinese government denied the claims.^[33]

Chung was eventually convicted of bank fraud, tax evasion, and two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to violate election law.^[34] Chung asserts that, after his guilty plea, the Chinese government attempted to assassinate him with "hit squads" three times, but the efforts were foiled by the FBI.^[35]

John Huang, James Riady and Lippo Group

John Huang (pronounced "Hwä[ng]"), was another major figure convicted. Born in 1945 in Nanping, Fujian, Huang and his father fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War before he eventually emigrated to the United States in 1969. A former employee of the Indonesian company Lippo Group's Lippo Bank and its owners Mochtar Riady and his son James (whom Huang first met along with Bill Clinton at a financial seminar in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1980), Huang became a key fund-raiser within the DNC in 1995. While there, he raised $3.4 million for the party. Nearly half had to be returned when questions arose regarding their source during later investigations by Congress.^[36]

According to U.S. Secret Service logs, Huang visited the White House 78 times while working as a DNC fund-raiser.^[37] James Riady visited the White House 20 times (including 6 personal visits to President Clinton).^[38]

Immediately prior to joining the DNC, Huang worked in President Clinton's Commerce Department as deputy assistant secretary for international economic affairs. His position made him responsible for Asia-U.S. trade matters. He was appointed to the position by President Clinton in December 1993. His position at the Commerce Department gave him access to classified intelligence on China. While at the department, it was later learned, Huang met 9 times with Chinese embassy officials in Washington D.C. The reasons for the meetings were never learned.^[19]

Some DNC records suggested Huang started fund-raising before he left his government job which would have been a violation of the U.S. law known as the Hatch Act, though no charges regarding this issue were ever brought.^[36] Huang eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to reimburse Lippo Group employees' campaign contributions with corporate or foreign funds.^[41] James Riady was later convicted of campaign finance violations relating to the same scheme as well.

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According to the Justice Department, some of those "mistakes" included reimbursing contributions made by Huang and various employees of Lippo Bank with funds wired from a foreign Lippo Group entity into an account maintained by John Huang at a bank in Hong Kong. Shortly after Riady pledged $1 million in support of then-Governor Clinton's campaign for the presidency, contributions made by Huang were reimbursed with funds wired from a foreign Lippo Group entity into an account Riady maintained at Lippo Bank and then distributed to Huang in cash. Also, contributions made by Lippo Group entities operating in the United States were reimbursed with wire transfers from foreign Lippo Group entities.^[34]

An unclassified U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs report issued in 1998 stated that both James Riady and his father Mochtar had "had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." According to journalist Bob Woodward, details of the relationship came from highly classified intelligence information supplied to the committee by both the CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).^[43]

The most well-known of John Huang's fund-raisers involved Vice President Al Gore, Maria Hsia, and the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in California.

Maria Hsia and Hsi Lai Temple

A close business associate of John Huang and James Riady since 1988, Taiwan-born Maria Hsia (pronounced "Shyä") began her association with Al Gore the same year as well. The association began after Hsia sent the then-senator a letter inviting him to come visit Taiwan: "If you decide to join this trip, I will persuade all my colleagues in the future to play a leader [sic] role in your presidential race..."^[44]

Gore went, and the two began an eight-year relationship. Gore said his dealings with Hsia were strictly business in nature, but, at least at one point, Gore sent a letter to Hsia and Howard Hom (a business partner of Hsia) for support during a serious injury of Gore's son, Albert, writing "Thanks! You two are very special friends."^[44]

Their relationship came to an end when she was charged with money-laundering in early 1998. The Justice Department alleged Hsia facilitated $100,000 in illegal contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore reelection campaign through her efforts at the Hsi Lai Temple in California. Hsia was eventually convicted by a jury in March 2000.^[46] The Democratic National Committee eventually returned the money donated by the Temple's monks and nuns. Twelve nuns and employees of the Temple refused to answer questions by pleading the Fifth Amendment when they were subpoenaed to testify before Congress.^[47] Two other Buddhist nuns admitted destroying lists of donors and other documents related to the controversy because they felt the information would embarrass the Temple. A Temple-commissioned videotape of the fund raiser also went missing and the nuns' attorney claimed it may have been shipped off to Taiwan.^[48] Vice President Gore said he had no idea the Temple meeting was financial in nature:

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In response, the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that investigated the controversy said:

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Additionally, a memo written by John Huang to Vice President Gore's assistant Kimberly Tilley specifically mentioned the Temple meeting was a fund-raising event.^[49] It is illegal for religious organizations to hold political fund-raising events in the U.S. due to their tax-exempt status.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee also said they learned that Hsia had served as an "agent" of the PRC government.^[50] Hsia denied the claim.

Ted Sioeng

Another notable figure involved in the affair was Ted Sioeng (pictured above with Vice President Gore) who illegally donated money to both Democrats and Republicans. Sioeng, an Indonesian entrepreneur who could not speak English, was invited to sit side-by-side with President Clinton or Vice President Gore at three different fund-raising events.^[51] According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, $200,000 of the $400,000 that Sioeng and his family gave to Democrats was "funded by transfer from overseas accounts." All the money was eventually returned.

Also, from their report:

[I]n late July 1997... [t]he Committee learned that Chinese government officials... were aware of, and possibly encouraged, [Ted] Sioeng's purchase of a Los Angeles-based newspaper... in 1995 and succeeded in having the paper report from a pro-Beijing perspective. There was also information suggesting that Sioeng met with Chinese officials in 1995 and 1996.

Furthermore,

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Sioeng also joined Fong at a meeting with then House Speaker Newt Gingrich in mid-1995. Gingrich called the meeting a "photo-op".^[52]

Attorney General Janet Reno and the directors of the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) told members of the Senate committee they had credible intelligence information indicating Sioeng acted on behalf of China. A spokesman for Sioeng denied the allegations.^[53]

Department of Justice investigation

The Justice Department opened a task force in late 1996 to begin investigating allegations of campaign fund-raising abuses by the Clinton/Gore re-election campaign. It expanded its internal investigation to include activities related to President Bill Clinton's legal defense fund in December 1996.^[54]

President Clinton announced in February 1997 that he thought there should be a "vigorous" and "thorough" investigation into reports that the People's Republic of China tried to direct financial contributions from overseas sources to the Democratic National Committee. The president stopped short of calling for an independent prosecutor, saying that was the decision of the Justice Department.

"[O]bviously it would be a very serious matter for the United States if any country were to attempt to funnel funds to one of our parties for any reason whatever," President Clinton said.^[55]

By July 1997, the administration determined that no evidence of any such thing had yet been proven.

"We have received the relevant [FBI] briefings," White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said. "We believe there's no basis for any change in our policy toward China, which is one of engagement."^[56]

"I do not know whether it is true or not," President Clinton stated. "Therefore, since I don't know, it can't... and shouldn't affect the larger long-term strategic interests of the American people in our foreign policy."^[56]

Members of Congress of both parties reached opposite conclusions. According to the Washington Post, Senator Fred Thompson (a Republican from Tennessee) and chairman of the committee investigating the fund-raising controversy, said he believed the Chinese plan targeted presidential and congressional elections while Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman and John Glenn said they believed the evidence showed the Chinese targeted only congressional elections."^[56]

Notable convictions

Including the convictions against John Huang, Johnny Chung, Charlie Trie, Maria Hsia, and James Riady (who was fined $8.6 million – the largest fine ever levied against an individual in a campaign finance related matter), the Justice Department task force secured criminal convictions against 22 people by 2001.^[59]

Calls for an independent counsel

President Clinton's FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote in a 22-page memorandum to then Attorney General Janet Reno in November 1997 that "It is difficult to imagine a more compelling situation for appointing an independent counsel."^[60]

In July 1998, the Justice Department's campaign finance task force head, Charles La Bella, sent a report to Janet Reno also recommending she seek an independent counsel to investigate alleged fund-raising abuses by Democratic party officials.^[61] The media reported that La Bella believed there was clearly an appearance of a conflict of interest by Reno.^[62] In his report to Reno he wrote: " [A] pattern [of events] suggests a level of knowledge within the White House—including the President's and First Lady's offices—concerning the injection of foreign funds into the reelection effort."^[63] Additionally, La Bella stated: "If these allegations involved anyone other than the president, vice president, senior White House or DNC and Clinton-Gore '96 officials, an appropriate investigation would have commenced months ago without hesitation."^[64]

Robert Conrad, Jr., who later became head of the task force, called on Reno in Spring 2000 to appoint an independent counsel to look into the fund-raising practices of Vice President Gore.^[65]

Janet Reno declined all requests:

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A CNN/TIME poll taken in May 1998 found 58 percent of Americans felt an independent counsel should have been appointed to investigate the controversy. Thirty-three percent were opposed. The same poll found that 47 percent of Americans believed a quid pro quo existed between the Clinton administration and the PRC government.^[66]

Criticism of investigation

In addition to partisian complaints from Republicans, columnists Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, and Morton Kondracke, as well as a number of FBI agents, suggested the investigations into the fund-raising controversies (which some dubbed Chinagate) were willfully impeded.^[67][68][69]

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... [the Department of Justice] 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.^[70]

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 any questions about fund-raisers John Huang, James Riady, nor the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple fund-raising event led by Maria Hsia and attended by John Huang and Ted Sioeng.^[71]

Congressional investigations

Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs

On July 8 1997, the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs began its public hearings into the campaign finance scandal, chaired by Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN).

Opening statements of public hearings from Senate Committee Chairman Senator Fred Thompson:

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Opening comments from the Committee's Minority Leader, Senator John Glenn (a Democrat from Ohio):

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Thompson suspended the public hearings on October 31 1997. The Committee's final report was released to the public on March 5 1998.

House Government Reform and Oversight Committee

A United States House of Representatives investigation, headed by Republican Dan Burton, also focused on allegations of campaign finance abuse, including the contributions channeled through Chung, Huang, Trie, et al.

The investigation was lengthy, spanning both the 105th and 106th Congresses, and according to a Democratic report had cost over $7.4 million as of August 31 1998, making it the most expensive Congressional investigation ever (the Senate Watergate investigation cost $7 million in 1998 dollars).^[72]

The investigation itself was controversial, attracting criticism from partisans and moderates. A New York Times editorial in March 1997 characterized the committee's investigation as a "travesty" and a "parody".^[73] A Washington Post editorial in April 1997 called the House investigation "its own cartoon, a joke, and a deserved embarrassment".^[74] Norman Ornstein, a Congressional expert at the American Enterprise Institute said in May 1998, "Barring some dramatic change, I think the Burton investigation is going to be remembered as a case study in how not to do a congressional investigation and as a prime example of investigation as farce."^[75] In a May 5, 1998 letter to other Republicans on the committee, Burton admitted that "mistakes and omissions were made" in tape transcripts released to the public of phone calls made by Webster Hubbell. A committee investigator who was an advocate of releasing the tapes resigned at Burton's request.^[76]

Lack of cooperation

Congressional investigators said that the investigations were hamstrung due to lack of co-operation of witnesses. Ninety-four people either refused to be questioned, pled the Fifth Amendment, or left the country altogether.^[47][78]

See also

• Campaign finance reform
• Gandhi Memorial International Foundation
• Sino-American relations

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Clinton, Bill (2000). The Clinton Foreign Policy Reader. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0584-8. 
• Gertz-2002">Gertz, Bill (2002). The China Threat: How the People's Republic Targets America. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-187-1. 
• Suettinger-2003">Suettinger, Robert L. (2003). Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations, 1989–2000. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 0-8157-8206-3. 
• Timperlake, Edward; William Triplett (1998). Year of the Rat. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-333-5. 
• Vogel-1997">Vogel, Ezra F. (1997). Living With China. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31734-X. 

External links

• 1997 (U.S. Senate) Special Investigation in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns: Final Report (PDF files)
• [https://www.cia.gov Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)]
• Clinton Presidential Materials Project Archive of press releases and transcripts of speeches from the administration.
• Copy of official Charles La Bella memo to Janet Reno
• Copy of official Louis Freeh memo to Janet Reno
• Democratic National Committee (DNC)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Federal Election Commission (FEC)
• Federation of American Scientists Archive of articles, government reports and transcripts of speeches from members of Congress.
• Open Secrets Archive of lists from the FEC of who donated how much to whom in United States political campaigns.
• U. S. Department of Justice
• U.S. House Committee on Government Reform
• U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
• Washington Post Special Report: Campaign Finance Archive of articles, editorials, and op-eds related to the controversy.