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By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Republicans and Democrats yesterday raised national-security concerns about Communist China establishing its first U.S. commercial beachhead on a prime piece of Pacific real estate amid a cluster of U.S. Navy bases and defense plants.The deal to bring a huge Chinese shipping fleet to Long Beach, Calif., is backed by the Clinton administration, and a senior Republican congressman suggests it may be linked to the Democratic fund-raising scandal.California's two senators, both Democrats, urged a review to see whether national-security interests may be compromised by the deal."Everywhere we turn, we see China taking active measures to compromise, infiltrate, neutralize or otherwise undermine American economic and security interests," said Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon of New York."Is this what China is getting in return for its big donations to Clinton and DNC [Democratic National Committee] campaign coffers?"Mr. Solomon, chairman of the House Rules Committee, urged Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a special counsel to investigate a plan to lease the abandoned U.S. Naval Station at Long Beach to Beijing's huge state-owned merchant fleet, the China Ocean Shipping Co. (Cosco).The two senators yesterday released a letter urging the Defense Department and White House to review the deal's national-security ramifications. Questions were raised earlier about why the White House National Security Council did not conduct such a review earlier.The two senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, were among six members of Congress warned last year by the FBI that China might try to influence them through illegal campaign donations.Some private analysts professed puzzlement. "I am astonished that we would be providing Cosco, a known tool of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, a beachhead anywhere in California, but especially Long Beach," said Richard Fisher, an Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation, noting Long Beach's defense-rich environment."I can't even begin to imagine the degree or amount of under-the-water, on-top-of-the-water and land-based surveillance that would be needed to ensure that Cosco did not use this port for intelligence gathering, insertion or recovery of agents or other forms of espionage," Mr. Fisher said.But members of the Republican congressional leadership seem not concerned at all.House Majority Whip Thomas DeLay, Texas Republican, discounts prospective harm to national security. "We have foreign investors in this country in many different ways," he said. "Now, how it came about, how this particular deal was made, I don't know enough about."A spokesman for Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and chairman of the House committee investigating the fund-raising scandal, did not respond to a question about the Long Beach deal. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's office did not return a phone call seeking comment.Cosco, with 600 ships, has a record of gun-running, safety problems and tariff violations. But Mr. Solomon's concern has more to do with any Chinese scheme to pour illegal money into the American political process.Long Beach's decision to bulldoze the sprawling base and lease the land to Cosco for $14 million annually comes amid allegations that China set up a secret multimillion-dollar fund to help re-elect Mr. Clinton and influence congressional races.The president himself worked to bring Cosco to Long Beach in 1995 and 1996. During this time, foreign Asian sources -- possibly including the Chinese -- were making illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic Party.The Associated Press reported that Mr. Clinton attended a 1995 meeting with top aides and Long Beach officials to urge the Cosco-Long Beach marriage.Candidate Clinton in 1992 campaigned with promises to deny China the most-favored-nation trade status because of its poor human rights record. As president, however, he extended the eagerly sought trade designation to Beijing.Other national-security experts view the Long Beach transaction as a natural progression between two interlocking trade partners eager to exploit each other's consumer markets."I'd rather see the Chinese infuse it with maritime activity to keep it as a maritime base than having it turned into a shopping center and hotels as has happened to other ports," said John Lehman, secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration."So I think it's a good thing," Mr. Lehman said. "I think building links and increasing trade is a good thing as long as we are not sacrificing national security, and I don't see that problem because it's no longer an operating base."Cosco has not always played by international maritime rules.The U.S. Customs Service last year intercepted a shipment of 2,000 Chinese automatic weapons aboard the Cosco ship Empress Phoenix docked in Oakland, Calif. The suspected arms dealer, Wang Jun, met with Mr. Clinton at one of the White House coffees linked to improper Democratic fund raising.In 1992, the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission imposed a $400,000 penalty on Cosco to settle allegations the company engaged in kicking back part of its published fee schedule to customers in violation of the 1984 U.S. Shipping Act.Bruce Carlton, associate administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration, said Cosco's legal problems aren't pertinent."That's a law enforcement matter," said Mr. Carlton, whose agency promotes U.S. shipping interests. "If the company knowingly or unknowingly is engaged in illegal activities, the fact they have a terminal [in Long Beach] is neither here nor there."As for the fund-raising scandal, Mr. Lehman appears to see no connection between the Beijing government and its trading companies."I think whatever political issues there may be really have to do with the government of China and not with Cosco," he said. "They're fundamentally a commercial organization and will bring jobs to Long Beach. I think basically it's a good thing. Why not have Chinese money do it?"Norman Polmar, an author and naval expert, says a Cosco terminal amid U.S. Navy docks and air stations "makes it easier" to eavesdrop on the American military but won't get China more information."No more so than any Chinese merchant ship calling at the port today," Mr. Polmar said. "It makes it easier, but they're not going to learn much more than Chinese merchant ships do, than Chinese tourists do, or Chinese diplomats do. They could [spy] from a van parked in a parking lot or in a building. That's such a minor consideration."
CORRECTION: A story in this space yesterday misstated President Clinton's knowledge of payments to ex-Associate Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell after his March 1994 resignation. The White House said Mr. Clinton recalled being told this year that campaign supporters Bernard Rapoport and Truman Arnold had hired Mr. Hubbell in 1994, but did not recall being told that any others -- including the Lippo Group -- had done the same. Go back to the top of this article.
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