LI KA-SHING: RED ARMS DEALER

Li Ka-Shing: Red Arms Dealer

In October 1999, the Clinton White House denied that Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing is working for the communists in Beijing. The White house press secretary labeled such accusations as "silly" and dismissed them as " the kind of thing you see around here from time to time."

Yet, in August 1994, the Clinton White House did not think Li Ka-Shing's connection to the red Chinese leadership was silly. President Clinton thought so highly of Li Ka-Shing that he equated and included the communist financier with the red leaders of Beijing in a package of intelligence information supplied to a Democratic National Committee million-dollar donor.

The Clinton White House thought so much of Li Ka-Shing that they passed a complete intelligence bio on the Chinese billionaire directly to DNC donor Loral Aerospace CEO Bernard Schwartz just prior to a trade trip to Beijing. Along with Li Ka-Shing's bio, the White House also gave Schwartz the detailed biographies of the entire Chinese communist leadership from President Jiang Zemin to the mayor of Shanghai.

Li Ka-Shing's bio and the bios of other leading communist party members were exposed here in an exclusive WorldNetDaily column. The Clinton White House illegally withheld the documents from public release using false claims.

In September 1998, the Commerce Department was forced by a federal lawsuit to release these documents from the files of the late Secretary Ron Brown. The Clinton administration bio of the red leadership included a cover-sheet addressed to a blacked-out "intelligence agency," informing the secret agency that the documents had to be made public.

Li Ka-Shing and the Chinese red leadership bios are available on the Internet. They are official Clinton administration documents.

According to Forbes, Li Ka-Shing is the sixth richest man in the world. Li claims to be neither a red Chinese government official nor a member of any military service. Yet, the Clinton White House bio states that Li is a "member of the board of directors of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC)."

According to a 1997 Rand Corporation report sponsored by the Clinton administration, CITIC is an "investment concern under China's governmental State Council" CITIC "became identified with the PLA as a result of the scandal surrounding Wang Jun and his visit to the White House on 6 February 1996."

In February 1996, President Clinton met with Chinese arms dealer Wang Jun after taking a donation from Arkansas DNC donor Charlie Trie. The Rand Corp. noted that "Wang Jun is both director of CITIC and Chairman of Poly Group, the arms trading company of the General Staff Department."

In short, Wang Jun was an arms dealer from the Chinese army.

According to the Rand Corporation report, "Poly Technologies, Ltd., was founded in 1984, ostensibly as a subsidiary of CITIC, although it was later exposed to be the primary commercial arm of the PLA General Staff Department's Equipment Sub-Department. Throughout the 1980's, Poly sold hundreds of millions of dollars of largely surplus arms around the world, exporting to customers in Thailand, Burma, Iran, Pakistan, and the United States."

The Rand report concluded, "CITIC does enter into business partnerships with and provide logistical assistance to PLA and defense-industrial companies like Poly. Poly's U.S. subsidiaries were abruptly closed in August 1996. Allegedly, Poly's representative, Robert Ma, conspired with China North Industries Corporation's (NORINCO) representative, Richard Chen, and a number of businessmen in California to illegally import 2000 AK-47s into the United States."

"Unfortunately for them," states the Rand report, "their 'customers' turned out to be undercover U.S. Customs and BATF agents, posing as members of a Miami syndicate. Poly's representative, Robert Ma, fled the country one step ahead of Federal law enforcement officals who had a warrant for his arrest, and his current whereabouts are unknown."

The Rand Corporation did not neglect to document Li Ka-Shing's direct connections o the Chinese military. According to the Rand report, "Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, is also negotiating for PLA wireless system contracts, which would build upon his equity interest in Poly-owned Yangpu Land Development Company, which is building infrastructure on China's Hainan Island."

Clearly, Li Ka-Shing helps to fund the People's Liberation Army by providing financing for Chinese army weapons sales through Poly Technologies and for purchases of advanced western military technology.

For example, CITIC also owns a controlling interest in the Hong Kong based Asia Satellite Telecom Co. Ltd., or AsiaSat. AsiaSat, a company founded in 1988, operates several communications satellites in the Far East bought from U.S. manufacturers such as Hughes.

AsiaSat is also a front company for the People's Liberation Army. According to "Aviation Week and Space Technology," AsiaSat is also part-owned by the Chinese army unit COSTIND (the Commission on Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense). AsiaSat satellites regularly carry "military communications" traffic for PLA units and Chinese military-owned companies.

It is no surprise that AsiaSat signed an exclusive deal with billionaire Li Ka-Shing to carry his STAR television service, 54 channels of premium cable/satellite television including MTV, re-runs of American sitcoms dubbed in various languages, and pay-per-view X-rated movies. Li Ka-Shing later sold all of his STAR TV holdings in two huge chunks to news magnate Rupert Murdoch for nearly a billion dollars.

Li Ka-Shing's joint ventures with the Chinese military are not limited to high-tech satellites and communications deals. One joint venture led by Li Ka-Shing nearly added four new invasion ships to the Chinese navy.

In January 1997, President Clinton authorized four huge "roll on-off" container ships for export directly to China. The four container ships were to be constructed for the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) and Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. by the Alabama Shipyards in Mobile, Ala.

The four U.S. ships were to be built using $138 million in private loans backed by the U.S. government. The loans had very favorable terms including low interest rates and a 25-year repayment plan, longer than the expected life of the ships. The loans were also U.S. backed, so even if the ship and owner disappeared, the federal government would still repay the lenders.

COSCO is the flag carrier for China, hauling official cargo exported by the Chinese government, including weapons; for example, the fully automatic AK-47 machineguns from Poly Technologies that were confiscated in the 1996 U.S. Customs sting operation were found onboard a COSCO ship.

Recent U.S. Navy photos show COSCO cargo ships carrying missile-armed patrol boats bound for Iran and tons of depleted uranium anti-tank shells for Pakistan. COSCO ships have carried jet fighters, missile parts and tanks for export to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The COSCO container ship deal fell apart in November 1997 due to "commercial" reasons blamed on the Asian financial crisis, Senator Thompson's hearings into the Clinton White House and the Poly Technologies sting. In 1998, Clinton officials nervously pointed out that "no money" was involved because the deal fell apart.

Nevertheless, the Chinese navy deal to acquire these ships actually started in 1993 when Bill Clinton and the Democrats were starved for donation cash. The Maritime shipyard-funding program, managed by the Department of Transportation, was created to finance American-built ships sold to U.S. flag companies.

In 1993, the Democratic-controlled Congress joined President Clinton and altered the program o allow U.S. financing on ships built for export. Li Ka-Shing, COSCO, Ron Brown and Bill Clinton worked to provide the four container ships, including the low cost, 100 percent U.S. government-backed loans, to Hutchison Whampoa and COSCO.

COSCO-which is part of the Chinese navy and wholly owned by the Chinese government-is best known for the recent unsuccessful attempt to purchase the former Long Beach Naval station. COSCO and Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. now control both ends of the Panama Canal.

Bill Clinton considers Li Ka-Shing to be a power in red China equal to that of Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Bill Clinton's White House opened its doors to Li Ka-Shing and his Beijing buddies in the Chinese army surplus outlet store. Poly Technologies. It is the responsibility of Congress to look into Li Ka-Shing and Bill Clinton despite the lies and spin from the White House.

The only thing silly about Li Ka-Shing's relationship to Bill Clinton is the White House denial that the Chinese billionaire is part of the red leadership in Beijing. Li Ka-Shing's relationship with Bill Clinton is documented by his own administration.

This article was published Tuesday October 26, 1999 by WorldNetDaily.com which also holds the copyright. It was written by Charles Smith who is a staff writer for WND. In addition to being a journalist he is President of SOFTWAR, a computer security company based in Richmond, VA. He writes frequently on issues of national security and information warfare.