-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- From: http://newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/1/27/155849 NewsMax Thursday January 27, 2000 Chung: Top Chinese General 'Had to Know' of Corruption Johnny Chung with Carl Limbacher "We like your President. We want to see him re-elected." Those were the words of former Chinese intelligence chief Gen. Ji Shengde, as he sat across a dinner table from me in 1996 and pledged $300,000 to the Democratic Party for the express purpose of reinstalling Bill Clinton in the White House. Now, in a stunning development that has shaken China's ruling class to its core, the general has been arrested as part of a massive crackdown on widespread government corruption. The scandal revolves around billions of dollars in smuggled merchandise and apparently touches dozens of high-ranking Communist Party, police and banking officials. Ji is being held pending his full cooperation with investigators. It's not clear whether he's under house arrest or has actually been jailed. The New York Times reported last Saturday: "During the 1990s, the sprawling syndicate smuggled billions of dollars worth of cars, oil, industrial materials through the bustling southeastern port of Xiamen, evading huge sums in taxes, according to officials familiar with the case. . . . "Bit by bit, officials in Xiamen and Beijing have privately confirmed to foreign reporters many startling details about a case that has Beijing's political cognoscenti buzzing with speculation about where it may lead." My sources tell me that the investigation has now led to some of the same Chinese government officials whom I came to know after I became famous in China for my friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Besides Ji, Liu Chaoying, the China Aerospace executive who introduced me to the general, is now under investigation. As the Times reports, the dimensions of this scandal are something never before seen in China. Even the vice minister of China's Justice Department has been detained and questioned. When I testified before Congress about Ji's offer to help reelect Clinton, Beijing was not pleased. They sent agents to assassinate me. The FBI has confirmed the arrest of at least one of them. As for Ji, he was demoted. He's now a teacher, which is a far cry from the status he once enjoyed as the keeper of China's intelligence secrets. For the son of one of China's most powerful military men, Ji's demotion is a personal disgrace. Just days ago, after months of refusing to talk, Vice Minister of Justice Li Ji-Zhuo implicated Ji in the smuggling conspiracy. Li was compelled to talk after Yang, a low-level informant in Southern China, named Ji along with 50 other top Communist Party officials. At the center of the scandal is Xiamen businessman Lai Changxing, president of the Yuanhua Group, who investigators say bribed local customs officials to look the other way as his smuggling operation grew. Key witness Yang was the intermediary between Lai and Ji, with whom Yang worked very closely. According to the Times: "The authorities have closed down (Lai's) Yuanhua company, and at some point last fall Lai disappeared, presumably into a secret life abroad." Lai isn't the only one with a secret life abroad. Sources tell me that Chinese investigators have learned about United States bank accounts held by Ji's wife totaling millions of dollars. And if that weren't bad enough, both Mr. and Mrs. Ji own million-dollar-plus homes in a wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood, according to the latest revelations. For now, Ji has thrown up a protective umbrella over his relationship with Lai and has yet to tell probers where the mysterious businessman is hiding. While the scandal rocks Beijing's princeling class, Ji's former boss, Gen. Xiong Guangkai, is enjoying a red-carpet welcome at the Clinton Pentagon as he cajoles top U.S. military officials to trim military aide to Taiwan and abandon America's own plans for a missile-defense shield. Could Xiong be involved in the smuggling conspiracy as well? There's no evidence to suggest that yet. Still, the way things work in the Chinese military, it's hard to believe Ji would do anything that Xiong hadn't already approved. People's Republic of China President Jiang Zemin has yet to address the burgeoning scandal directly. But in a Jan. 14 address to the Communist Party's Central Disciplinary Inspection Committee, Jiang made a thinly veiled reference to the rampant corruption, according to a report in the People's Daily the next day: "Leading cadres who are found to have violated discipline and the law must certainly be strictly investigated and handled. . . . No matter who they are, no matter what their seniority, they should be punished in whatever way is appropriate." Now, Beijing's ruling class waits and wonders: If Gen. Ji Shengde begins to talk, whom is he liable to bring down with him? And how will President Jiang react as the scandal spreads to China's princelings? ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! 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