Hillary's old Chinese pals
Exclusive: Charles Smith looks at Clinton trip in light of money scandals of the '90s
While Hillary Clinton is in China – dispelling any ideas that the U.S. will stand up for human rights in Tibet or Taiwan – she is also meeting with old friends and making up for lost time.
Hillary's comments on China are intended to reinforce the myth that China will help out with settling that troublesome North Korean problem and bail out Obama's newly discovered trillion-dollar debt. There is nothing like nukes, long-range missiles and money to get your attention.
The fact is that China is not only calling the shots for North Korea, but they have given Kim and his deadly crowd most of the technology to develop long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. China is covering in the U.N. for both North Korea and Iran – who are jointly working on nuclear and missile technology – by threatening vetoes every time someone brings up this sensitive subject.
The relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang is perfectly clear from the Chinese army headquarters. Chinese Gen. Xiong – then second in command in Beijing – once compared North Korea to the Chinese army, saying that North Korea was to the People's Liberation Army as "lips are to teeth."
The intent from Beijing was more than clear: Use North Korea as a proxy to distract, confuse and even sucker good old Uncle Sam into believing that Beijing is our pal.
Hillary is not only familiar with Gen. Xiong; she had a working relationship with his direct employee – a Gen. Ji – then head of Chinese military intelligence. Ji was a fan of the Clintons – so much so that he once told Johnny Chung, a Chinese businessman and Hillary Clinton associate, he liked Bill Clinton so much that he wanted him "re-elected."
Gen. Ji told Chung of his deep respect for the Clintons in Hong Kong, and at the same time he handed Johnny a $300,000 check. Most of that money was converted into cash, placed into brown bags and handed directly to Hillary's secretary in the White House. The cash then made its way into Bill's re-election campaign. Hillary frequently met with Johnny, and he was allowed to parade a host of Chinese businessmen into the White House for photo ops with the first family.
In fact, a short time after the brown bags arrived in Hillary's office, a Lt. Col. Liu Chaoying also appeared with Bill Clinton. Liu was then an executive of China Aerospace, a PLA military-owned company that produces nuclear-tipped missiles. Lt. Col. Liu was well known in military and intelligence circles. Her father, a retired PLA general, was until 1997 vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Liu Chaoying was also a lieutenant colonel in the Chinese army military intelligence department and an employee of Gen. Ji. Liu managed to obtain a visa to attend a private, $25,000-per-couple fundraising dinner in Los Angeles for President Clinton. At her side was Johnny Chung.
Col. Liu also made it into Sen. John Kerry's office. Chung came to Kerry's office in July 1996 to seek help in getting Liu in to meet with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During the meeting in Kerry's office, Chung made clear that Liu was interested in getting China Aerospace listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange.
In response, Kerry ordered his aides to contact the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to Newsweek, "the next day Liu and Chung were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official."
Within a week of the SEC meeting, Kerry's staff wrote Chung asking him to host a Sept. 9 fundraiser.
Now with all these links to money, the Chinese army, missile technology and, of course, the DNC, one would think the Obama administration would be reluctant to let Hillary go parading around without some sort of oversight, or at least a muzzle.
Instead, Hillary managed to start a hornet's nest of problems for Obama while being seen as begging for Beijing to bail out a broke U.S. government. Basically, the message is if the Chinese buy up more U.S. debt, we will keep our mouth shut when they shoot more dissidents and Tibetan nuns.
Still, de-linking human rights from trade was a hallmark of the Clinton years during the 1990s. So much so that in 1994 Sanford Robertson – a big DNC donor – once wrote a letter to President Clinton thanking him for not placing a priority on such minor issues as killing innocent people when dealing with Beijing.
"One of the highlights was observing Ron Brown in the way he represented the United States. His diplomatic skills were superb, particularly in the meeting with Li Peng. He deftly navigated the human rights issues by obtaining an agreement on further talks, and then moved directly into the economic issues at hand, i.e. helping Chrysler, Sprint and others with their joint ventures," noted Robertson in his letter to Clinton.
"P.S.," continued Robertson. "Bob Rubin came to our home on Thursday for a Dianne Feinstein dinner, which raised over $100,000 for her campaign. Bob, of course, turned out the financial community and Silicon Valley."
And what of today? After Hillary's great adventure in Beijing, there are reports the Obama administration is considering a closer military relationship with China. That relationship could include such nice things as training and helping out with construction of aircraft carriers.
After all – we know that the Chinese Communists are nice guys. Hillary said so.