From the start, agents knew they were just peering at tea leaves. The two investigators from the FBI's supersecret "Division Five," as the national-security arm is called, reported to the White House on June 3, 1996. In their briefcases they carried classified information that even they didn't fully understand. A surveillance operation launched earlier that year by the satellite spymasters at the National Security Agency had alerted the FBI that the Chinese government might be planning an effort to funnel money into American politics.
The sketchy plan had been pieced together by analysts from various electronic communications in which the Chinese mentioned as many as 30 candidates for Congress by name. Officials told TIME that six were considered the most serious targets for possible laundered money because they were mentioned more than once in the intercepts. The FBI didn't have much more--no names of donors, no conduits for the money, no dates. It was just giving the White House a heads-up. Be careful with the information, said the two G-men. National Security Council aides Rand Beers and Ed Appel were too careful. They never sent word up the line to their boss, Anthony Lake, much less to the President, that potential donors with China connections should now merit far more scrutiny.
And so next day, when a Democratic fund raiser named John Huang requested White House clearance for a Thai industrialist to have coffee with the President, no alarms went off. No one made much of the fact that Dhanin Chearavanont, 57, chairman of the CP Group, is believed to be the largest single foreign investor in China and an economic adviser to Beijing. When an aide to campaign czar Harold Ickes asked "if it would be problematic if this individual met briefly W/ POTUS," the green light came quickly from the NSC: "O.K. by Asia Affairs." Among the 11 NSC officials informed of the meeting: Rand Beers.
It's small wonder that the NSC, the FBI and the White House got into a memorable shouting match last week over who had been told what and when about the alleged Chinese attempt to throw some money around. But on the eve of Vice President Al Gore's trip to Beijing, what really had the capital buzzing was whether the emerging picture of China's role represented a new obsession or just confirmed an old habit. Traditionally China has relied on commercial allies, like U.S. multinationals, to promote its interests. What investigators want to know now is whether it also tried to buy up the President's party, and for good measure some members of Congress.
If so, the effort didn't start yesterday. Five years ago, when candidate Clinton was first running for office, he used to flay President Bush for going easy on China and warn that "if other nations refuse to play by our trade rules, we'll play by theirs." China and its commercial partners wanted to be sure that Clinton would never make good on his word.