Long March Reaches Long Beach
Toni Howard
http://www.insightmag.com/investiga/dnc6.html
Published in Washington, D.C.
Vol. 13, No 33 -- Sept. 8, 1997
www.insightmag.com
Long March Reaches Long Beach
By Timothy W. Maier
China's People's Liberation Army has landed on American shores and soon
may be partners with the Russian military-intelligence service in a
venture to build a rocket-launching pad in the Long Beach harbor.
Why Long Beach? Twenty-nine other military bases have closed in
California. But the China Ocean Shipping Co., or Cosco, wants the
historic U.S. naval base in Long Beach, which scores of America's great
warships have called home. The Clinton administration insists this will
produce an economic boom, creating 600 jobs and dumping millions into
the local economy. Critics claim the deal jeopardizes national security
by allowing Beijing to create an espionage operation in the heart of a
military high-tech industrial zone.
The sudden interest in this base by Cosco may have to do more with its
next-door neighbor -- Sea Launch, an international venture led by the
Russian rocket firm RSC-Energia, which plans to use it to launch rockets
carrying satellites into orbit. Insight reported earlier this year that
Cosco plans to use the old Long Beach Naval Base for a joint
Chinese-Russian intelligence operation as part of a spy partnership
formed when the two countries signed a secret agreement in 1992 (see
"Why Red China Targets the Clinton White House," May 26). All of this,
Insight revealed, has been confirmed by U.S. intelligence sources
working closely with the FBI.
Insight since has learned the rocket company involved in Sea Launch is
controlled by the GRU -- the infamous Russian military-intelligence
service -- as are all Russian space programs, according to both U.S. and
former GRU intelligence officers. The concern is that Beijing, teamed
with Russia, eventually will own a West Coast rocket-launching pad and a
naval base on U.S. soil from which to transfer secret high-tech
equipment back to the People's Liberation Army, or PLA, in sealed
containers aboard huge Cosco ships.
Besides RSC-Energia, the space venture includes Kvaerner, a Norwegian
shipbuilder, and NPO-Yuzhnoye, a Ukrainian rocket maker. The facility is
adjacent to the U.S. military base where Cosco plans to build a
145-acre, $200 million terminal and on-dock rail yard. The space
company's plan includes converting a 31,000-ton oil rig into a launch
pad and a 650-foot ship into a rocket-assembly factory and
mission-control center.
The Boeing Corp., which has a 40 percent stake in the project, has been
warned by top intelligence experts about Russian military intelligence
playing a role in this project, but Boeing chose to ignore the advice,
says an intelligence source knowledgeable about Russia's space program.
Boeing spokesman Tim Dolan says Sea Launch will be a "secure site" but
declined to comment further.
High-tech ventures such as Sea Launch are very attractive to Cosco,
according to Red China experts and findings of the congressional Task
Force for Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. The task force has not
gone public with its conclusions, but sources close to the investigation
tell Insight that Cosco is known to work closely with the Chinese navy.
"Cosco has specific roles in the PLA's contingency plan of dominating
East Asia and future war with Taiwan" by stealing sophisticated military
technology, says one investigator. "Their primary goal is to get stuff
out of here in peacetime. Their strategic thinking is very similar to
the Japanese in the 1930s. Sooner or later they are going to confront us
on who is going to be the boss out in East Asia."
The 600-ship Cosco fleet has had a checkered past:
· In 1991 the Far East Economic Review reported 20 battle tanks were
transported to the brutal Burmese military regime aboard a Cosco ship.
· In 1992 Cosco was fined $400,000 by the Federal Maritime Commission,
or FMC, on charges of paying kickbacks to secure customers.
· In 1992, 200 containers of North Korean rocket fuel bound for Pakistan
were seized on a Cosco ship by Hong Kong customs agents.
· In 1993, 87 pounds of heroin were seized on a Cosco ship that was
docked in Canada.
· In December 1996, a Cosco ship rammed a crowded boardwalk in New
Orleans.
· In March 1996, 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles bound for U.S. street gangs
were seized on a Cosco ship in Oakland by U.S. Customs agents.
· In April the FMC launched an investigation into allegations Cosco is
engaging in a price war to eliminate competition in strategic areas.
Cosco consistently maintains it has no idea what it ships. Critics say
it nearly is impossible to put anything on a Cosco ship without
Beijing's knowledge. And the Clinton administration refers to incidents
such as those above as isolated. A source close to the congressional
task force says the White House is not telling the whole story. "The
AK-47 [incident] is not the first time and it is not the last time they
smuggled something. It continues today. They are going to steal and ship
it to China. You need a place to do the paperwork and that's the port.
They will have their own military base to change labels and have no
accountability. They don't care about money -- this is smugglers'
haven."
Cosco supporters note the firm uses 37 other U.S. ports, including six
with a major U.S. military presence, without appreciable incidents. But
Richard Fisher, the Heritage Foundation expert on China, says docking at
a port is not the same as controlling it. "It's quite another story to
control a shipping facility," Fisher says. "For one thing, this whole
thing [Long Beach] puts an added burden on the FBI to monitor
activities."
Meanwhile, Cosco plans to expand its Long Beach base to 275 acres, which
would make it the largest proprietary container terminal in the United
States. But that plan will have to await the outcome of the court battle
between the city of Long Beach and the Port Commission, which favor the
terminal, and private preservation groups, which oppose it. The Chinese
goal is to move into the naval base by the summer of 1998 with six
large, new container ships, each with a capacity of 5,250 20-foot
container units -- making it nearly impossible for U.S. Customs agents
to inspect the fleet cargoes.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who has introduced
legislation to stop the Cosco deal, says surrendering the port provides
the PLA a key listening post for the interception of communications that
allows them to monitor U.S. military exercises and deployments.
Considering that Sea Launch is embarking on sending satellites into
space for the purpose of enhancing communications, concerned U.S.
intelligence agencies fear the launching of those satellites is part of
an espionage scheme.
"Long Beach is in a central location for California military
industries," says Fisher. He warns, "If the Chinese government were to
choose to run intelligence operations they certainly could target a rich
environment."
Fisher criticizes the Clinton administration for failing to initiate a
review of Cosco's expansion until pressed by House Rules Committee
Chairman Gerald Solomon of New York. In June, Deputy National Security
Adviser Samuel Berger wrote to Solomon, claiming there is "no credible
evidence in Cosco's past actions or its plan and intentions with respect
to the Long Beach facility that suggest the proposed lease could
threaten U.S. national security."
Solomon then was told he could review a classified report dealing with
the issue, but he declined: Seeing the report would have forced Solomon
to remain silent on the issue lest he violate national security.
Congressional investigators called it a trap into which he did not step.
In a series of letters, Solomon asked Secretary of the Navy John Dalton
to assess whether Cosco may be a strategic or national-security threat
to the U.S. Navy. Dalton never offered his opinion. When Insight called
Dalton's office and asked the same question, the Navy referred the
questions to the National Security Council, or NSC. When repeatedly
pressed about whether Dalton agrees with the NSC assessment that Cosco
represents no threat, Lt. Cmdr. Hal Pittman replied, "The NSC is higher
on the food chain than the Navy. We defer to them."
Joseph Bouchard, acting director of defense policy and arms control at
NSC, says the review and Berger's letter are final. "It's closed, as far
as we're concerned."
But the final chapter may rest in the hands of the city of Long Beach,
which controls the destiny of the base following the Navy's decision to
close the port in 1994. The Clinton administration, meanwhile, was
courting a relationship with Cosco at the same time Asian sources
illegally were funneling cash to the Democratic Party and to the
president's legal-defense fund. The White House even granted Cosco
adviser Hongye Zheng permission to attend one of the president's
intimate Saturday-morning radio broadcasts last year. That decision came
after Los Angeles businessman Johnny Chung dumped $391,000 into
Democratic Party coffers. Shortly after those donations, Dorothy Robyn
of the presi-
dent's National Economic Council called Long Beach officials to push the
deal through.
Since then, hundreds of Long Beach protestors have lined the streets,
carrying signs such as "Say No to Cosco" and "Virtual Act of Treason."
But the protestors may face an uphill battle: Cosco employs former
Secretary of State Al Haig as an "honorary adviser," and the embarrassed
Navy and intelligence agencies are stonewalling wherever possible.
Two years ago Dalton warned in an editorial in the Navy Times about the
PLA acquiring advanced Russian submarine technology. Dalton wrote, "One
thing the past teaches us is that we have never been able to predict
where our next enemy will arise." That enemy may be closer to U.S.
borders than Dalton's bosses will let him admit. In fact, it may already
be ashore and building a missile pad in one of our harbors.
Copyright © 1997 News World Communications, Inc.
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Palms/7039/satyre5.html
If not us, who? If not now, when?
- Slogan by
Czech University Students in Prague, Nov. 1989.
Quoted in: Observer (London, 26 Nov. 1989).