Washington Post: Chinese funding coverage Politics Now Scandal Sheet Corruption in America Lippo Group

AN FBI inquiry into alleged Chinese influence-peddling in Washington is concentrating on John Huang, whose activities as a senior official with top security clearance in the Commerce Department included a mysterious visit in 1995 to the home of Beijing's ambassador to the United States.

Pat Buchanan, the former Right-wing presidential candidate, has suggested that he "may have been a deep-penetration agent of Beijing", an idea scoffed at by Mr Huang's lawyers, but one that is expected to be thoroughly investigated by the Senate, which has subpoenaed his records.

A prominent Republican congressman, Gerald Solomon, is calling for a Watergate-style independent prosecutor. He claimed: "We now have evidence of economic espionage and violations of national security."

Suspicion about Mr Huang and possible connections with Beijing was stirred after it emerged that he had given two versions of his past in China. Passport records and US government forms show that he was born on the mainland in Fujian province on April 14, 1945.

He was said to have been raised in Taiwan, where he served in the military. However, on a visa application in 1995 for visits to China and Korea, he wrote that he was born in 1941 and had no relatives or friends in China.

Mr Huang, who took US citizenship in 1976, became the top executive in America for the Lippo Group, part of a £7.4 billion empire based in Indonesia with Chinese connections and run by the Riady family, long-time campaign contributors to President Clinton. In the 1980s, the family set up an international trade operation in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Mr Clinton was governor.

After Mr Clinton was elected in 1992, Mochtar Riady, group chairman, wrote to him as one of his "close friends" advising that he extend most-favoured nation trading status to China as a means of achieving political reforms, a move that Mr Clinton eventually took, although in his campaign he accused George Bush of "coddling dictators" with such acts.

While no direct relationship has been established, it emerges that when Mr Clinton took office, Mr Huang also wrote to the White House, seeking a job. He mentioned the National Security Council, the State Department and the Commerce Department, where he was appointed as deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy.

This gave him top-secret clearance, allowing him to attend 37 intelligence briefings at the Commerce Department in 18 months. Investigators are said to be focusing on an October 1995 briefing from a CIA expert on Beijing and expense records that show that he charged $5 for a taxi ride to the Indonesian embassy.

The following day, he charged $5 for a cab from the residence of the Chinese ambassador in Washington. A conclusion is being drawn that he may have spent the night with the Chinese. Alarm bells are ringing as records show that Mr Huang, who left the administration to help in Democratic presidential campaign fund-raising, saw Mr Clinton 15 times during 94 visits to the White House. Telephone logs also show that he made 70 calls to Lippo offices in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times said yesterday that in some cases he made the calls on the same day that he received classified documents and "investigators must determine whether they were social calls to former colleagues - or something more troubling".

Mr Huang organised a fund-raising dinner with the President at a Washington hotel - at £7,760 per ticket. Mr Huang's guests included Charlie Trie, who runs a Chinese restaurant in Little Rock and who later brought a top Beijing military arms dealer to have coffee with Mr Clinton at the White House, just after meeting Ron Brown, the Commerce Secretary.

14 February 1997: Chinese 'helped to fund Clinton poll campaign'
11 February 1997: America and China edge closer to a Cold War in the East

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. Terms & Conditions of reading.

Information about Telegraph Group Limited and Electronic Telegraph.

"Electronic Telegraph" and "The Daily Telegraph" are trademarks of Telegraph Group Limited. These marks may not be copied or used without permission. Information for webmasters linking to Electronic Telegraph.

Email Electronic Telegraph.