Johnny Chung (Credit: The Daily Mail)
(…) Chinagate, more than any other scandal, should have led to the impeachment, and removal, of Bill Clinton from office. At least six individuals were believed to have been used by the Chinese to influence the 1996 elections. Despite the fact that the illegal donations were returned, Janet Reno was criticized for never appointing an independent prosecutor for the Chinagate scandal.
Johnny Chung
In 1996, then Senator John Kerry was in a tough re-election fight against Republican Governor Bill Weld. In July, Kerry met with businessman Johnny Chung and his Chinese partner Liu Chaoying. Johnny was born in Taiwan and later became an American citizen.
When John Kerry met with them in his Washington office, he had no idea that Liu Chaoying was a Lt. Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army.
Johnny Chung told Kerry that Liu wanted one of her companies listed on the Stock Exchange. Senator Kerry’s people were happy to help and immediately sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On September 9, 1996, Johnny Chung helped organize a fundraiser for Kerry in Beverly Hills. This was undoubtedly pay-for-play.
Around the same time, Liu Chaoying would wire $300,000 to Johnny Chung. Liu put that money into Chung’s Hong Kong bank account after she introduced him to Chinese General Ji Shengde.
Johnny Chung testified before Congress that in the summer of 1996, Ji Shengde told Chung, “We really like your president. We hope he will get reelected.… I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to… your president and Democrat Party.”
Chung used most of that money to pay for his business expenses and sent the remaining $35,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Shortly after Chung’s testimony, Ji Shengde was reassigned from the head of Chinese military intelligence to the Academy of Military Science. In the United States, that would be the equivalent of the head of the NSA being reassigned to teach political science at a university.
Beyond the $35,000 from the Chinese government, the DNC was forced to return all of the money that Chung had donated to them ($366,000).
There is no way that this money could have been authorized without the full knowledge of the Chinese government. Liu Chaoying was the daughter of General Liu Huaqing (1916-2011). In China, the sons and daughters of important government officials are known as taizidang or princelings. They use their connections to allow businessmen access to China. They would never risk their family’s privileged status especially when there are many other profitable deals with less political risk.
At the time Liu Chaoying was giving money to Johnny Chung, her father was serving as the Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission. General Liu was a dedicated communist. He participated in the Long March with Mao. He would later be regarded as the “father of the modern Chinese Navy.”
In 1982-1987, he was the commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. From 1992 to 1997, he was on the Politburo Standing Committee as well as the Vice Chairman of the China’s Central Military Commission.Xi Jingping,
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping honored General Liu’s accomplishments in honor of his 100th birthday. In his obituary (he died in 2011 at 94), the New York Times mentioned General Liu’s accomplishments in modernizing the Chinese Navy, but did not mention his daughter’s role in transferring money to the Democratic National Committee.
Johnny Chung first met the Clintons in 1992. From 1994 to 1996, Chung visited the White House 49 times. Nearly half of those visits were authorized by the office of the First Lady. In one visit, Hillary met with Chung and his visiting delegation of Chinese businessmen from state-run companies.
In one visit, Chung paid the DNC $50,000. In exchange, Chung was allowed to bring some of his investors to see the president deliver one of his radio addresses. (Read more: The American Spectator, 10/7/2016) (Archive)