China Policy Shift Sellout Of Security?

“I did not inhale.” The draft. Gennifer Flowers. Cattle futures. Paula Jones. Whitewater. The travel office. The FBI files. Vincent Foster. Mike Espy and Tyson Foods. The Ron Brown probe. The Lincoln Bedroom rentals. The White House coffees. Bruce Babbitt and the casino. Kathleen Willey. Monica Lewinsky …

Not one of these heavily hyped scandals hurt the popularity of Bill Clinton or his policies. The economy is booming.

This week, however, something changed. An investigation by The New York Times raised questions so serious that even Democrats in Congress sucked in their breath and joined in a resounding vote to restrict U.S. technology deals with China.

The questions are: Did President Clinton betray national security for campaign contributions? Did a quiet Clinton policy reversal supply China with advanced U.S. technology that could enable China’s military to aim nuclear missiles more accurately or interfere with American spy satellites? Did Clinton make this decision as part of a lucrative political alliance with U.S. satellite companies and covert representatives of China’s military?

This is not the time for a partisan rush to judgment. It is difficult to believe any president would compromise national security.

Clinton might have acted because he believed, like many others, that cooperative relations and economic trade are the best way to convert a potential enemy into a dependent ally. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain applied that doctrine, foolishly, to Hitler. Richard Nixon earned history’s praise, however, when he used this philosophy to open China’s door. George Bush applied it, when he waived U.S. security restrictions so inexpensive Chinese missiles could launch a U.S. satellite.

But Clinton, the Times has reported, did not merely waive those restrictions. Reversing his own secretary of state and suppressing objections from Pentagon security analysts, he transferred scrutiny of satellite technology exports from the security-minded State Department to the wheelers and dealers in the Commerce Department.

At the time Clinton did so, in early 1996, China had fired test missiles toward Taiwan and had exported nuclear technology to Pakistan and missiles to Iran. Later that year, the Times reported, Asians linked to China’s military were funneling money to the Democratic Party and hobnobbing at the White House. An executive at Loral, a U.S. satellite firm eager to do business with China, was among Clinton’s top contributors.

Exactly what happened, and why? Congress must, and will, investigate. But it treated the other Clinton scandals with such partisan acrimony that it will be difficult to give this truly serious matter the credible investigation it deserves.