Year of the Rat

February 25, 1999

Over the last few years callers to talk shows have accused the president of selling secrets to China and called for an investigation. But when the Cox committee's investigation was released, it hit the press and the Congress with a thud. Perhaps it wasn't as salacious as the Starr Report or the impeachment hearings. Perhaps it was too hard to understand or contained too much classified information. Whatever the reason, it hasn't gone anywhere.

If investigation of the China connection does take off, it will be because of a book written by Ed Timberlake and Bill Triplett entitled Year of the Rat. These two veteran congressional staffers have put together material to document a China connection to this administration.

They document the myriad ways in which President Clinton's 1992 and 1996 campaigns were beneficiaries of so-called "contributions" from individuals and organizations associated with Chinese military and intelligence agencies. The found "a massive cascade of illegally laundered foreign funds" injected into key states in the general election of 1992. They found that "Chinese agents became the number one donors" to the Clinton campaign in 1992. They also found that "the officers of an American defense contractor in business with China's missile builders became the number one contributor" to the President's reelection campaign in 1995-1996.

The book also traces the relationship of the president with Charlie Trie, John Huang, and Johnny Chung. These and other men had close ties with China, and are now under investigation or have been indicted for a number of offenses.

Finally they trace the consequences of these actions: changed U.S. positions concerning Red China, the passing of military secrets, etc. In the past, I've talked about many of these on commentaries.

It's unfortunate that the Cox committee report has been ignored, although not surprising considering its 700 pages of documentation which is mostly classified. Perhaps the Year of the Rat will accomplish what the Cox commission did not.

I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.