Clintons' China Connection Resurfaces

One of the most overlooked stories of the past decade was the Clinton White House's ties to Chinese money-raisers and possibly money-launderers. When Clinton was President, one of the major fund-raisers was a Chinese group that was tied to possibly illegal campaign contributuions from chinese military officials. Though there was an inquiry, most of the principals- Johnny Chung, John Huang, Charlie Trie, Maria Hsia, fled the country to avoid giving tesitmony and possibly being indicted. Therefore, Congress was never able to get to the bottom of the scandal. However, Congressional members of both parties said at the time that they belived that China had indeed attempted to influence U.S. elections.

President Clinton and his senior foreign policy advisers disagree with senators of both parties who have concluded China had a plan to influence U.S. elections illegally, according to administration officials, who said high-level White House discussions last week reaffirmed there is so far no cause for taking punitive steps against Beijing.

"We have received the relevant briefings," White House press secretary Michael McCurry said. "We believe there's no basis for any change in our policy toward China, which is one of engagement."

This has been the consistent White House line. What changed last week was that Clinton became newly isolated in his insistence that China's leaders still are entitled to benefit of the doubt. Others who have received the same "relevant briefings," including administration supporters such as Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John Glenn (D-Ohio), have reached the opposite conclusion.

This is interesting as Senator Hillary Clinton once again has major campaign contributions coming from Asian sources that appear to be fairly well hidden. An unknown fundraiser, a Mr. Norman Hsu, has given over one million dollars to the Clinton campaign, and apparenlty hass organized many other contributions as well. One address that keeps turning up is a house in Daly City, Californai where a mail-carrier lives. Yet thiss address is listed ass the source for a nuimber of contributions. The amount is well beyond what a mail-carrier could afford. So how can thiss be the source for these contributions?

Without more information, this must remain conjecture, but one has to wonder if the Chinese money machine- dedicated to putting the most China-sympathetic leader possible into office- has picked Hillary Clinton as their candidate. The Manchurian cnadidate may be raising its ugly heead once again. When will the mainstram media pick up on thiss story? And when will they make the connection to the many quetions asked of Clinton's husband about his own Chinese connection? There is also one other interesting point. The Senator who led the investiagtion into Clinton's probably illegal Chinese campaign contributions was none other than Fred Thompson of Tennessee- a possible Presidential opponent for Senator Clinton in 2008.

UPDATE: The inestimable Michelle Malkin has discovered that the mysterious Mr. Hsu is fugitive from justice. It appears that Hsu pleaded guil;ty to grand theft, then vanished before he could serve his three-year prison sentence. If this is true, it brings even more meaning to two themes that Democrats would not like to emphasize- government inefficiency (how could the government lose sight of Hsu, who apparently has been hiding in plain sight) and the Clintons' proven habit of selling pardons for campaign cash (remember Marc Rich).