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Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 12:02 p.m. EST
Democrats are counting on Sen. John Kerry's military credentials to convince voters that he can be trusted with America's national security.
But documents that surfaced over the weekend raise serious questions about whether Kerry was duped in the 1990s into helping the Chinese military perfect its ability to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons.
In 1996 Kerry met with Liu Chaoying, the daughter of a powerful Chinese military official who also doubled as vice president of a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Corp.
Before the meeting, held in Kerry's Senate office, Liu's sponsor, Johnny Chung, made clear she was interested in getting her company listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange.
The Democratic presidential front-runner was only too happy to oblige and ordered his aides to contact the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"The next day," reports Newsweek, "Liu and Chung were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official."
Within weeks, Chung returned the favor, staging a Kerry fund raiser at a Beverly Hills hotel that raked in $10,000 for the senator's re-election campaign.
Bank records would later show that Kerry's Chinese campaign cash came from $300,000 in overseas wire transfers sent to Chung on orders from the chief of Chinese military intelligence, Newsweek reports.
The money was routed through a Hong Kong bank account controlled by Liu, whose company later benefited from waivers granted by the Clinton administration to the U.S. aerospace giant Loral Corp.
As Liu and Chung were lining the pockets of the Democratic Party's political elite, Loral handed over top-secret missile guidance technology to Liu's firm.
Liu's China Aerospace used the information to perfect Beijing's fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which before the 1990s could not strike the U.S.
By the end of the decade, however, China's ICBMs could reach the entire continental United States with pinpoint accuracy, thanks in part to the senator who says now he can be trusted with America's national security.
Chung later testified that before Liu wired him the cash to contribute to prominent Democrats, the chief of Chinese intelligence personally told him: "We like your president. We want to see him re-elected."
Apparently, Beijing felt the same way about Sen. John Kerry.
Democrats are counting on Sen. John Kerry's military credentials to convince voters that he can be trusted with America's national security.
But documents that surfaced over the weekend raise serious questions about whether Kerry was duped in the 1990s into helping the Chinese military perfect its ability to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons.
In 1996 Kerry met with Liu Chaoying, the daughter of a powerful Chinese military official who also doubled as vice president of a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Corp.
Before the meeting, held in Kerry's Senate office, Liu's sponsor, Johnny Chung, made clear she was interested in getting her company listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange.
The Democratic presidential front-runner was only too happy to oblige and ordered his aides to contact the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"The next day," reports Newsweek, "Liu and Chung were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official."
Within weeks, Chung returned the favor, staging a Kerry fund raiser at a Beverly Hills hotel that raked in $10,000 for the senator's re-election campaign.
Bank records would later show that Kerry's Chinese campaign cash came from $300,000 in overseas wire transfers sent to Chung on orders from the chief of Chinese military intelligence, Newsweek reports.
The money was routed through a Hong Kong bank account controlled by Liu, whose company later benefited from waivers granted by the Clinton administration to the U.S. aerospace giant Loral Corp.
As Liu and Chung were lining the pockets of the Democratic Party's political elite, Loral handed over top-secret missile guidance technology to Liu's firm.
Liu's China Aerospace used the information to perfect Beijing's fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which before the 1990s could not strike the U.S.
By the end of the decade, however, China's ICBMs could reach the entire continental United States with pinpoint accuracy, thanks in part to the senator who says now he can be trusted with America's national security.
Chung later testified that before Liu wired him the cash to contribute to prominent Democrats, the chief of Chinese intelligence personally told him: "We like your president. We want to see him re-elected."
Apparently, Beijing felt the same way about Sen. John Kerry.
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