Chinese Denies Seeking White House Visit

A Chinese business executive who attended a controversial White House coffee for political contributors hosted by President Clinton last year said his visit was arranged by the New York-based investment bank Lehman Brothers Inc., which was competing with other American firms to do business with China.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Wang Jun, who heads China's most politically connected financial and industrial conglomerate, as well as a Chinese military-owned arms trading company under investigation for illegally smuggling assault rifles into the United States, said the main purpose of his U.S. visit was not an effort by the Chinese government to win influence in the United States.

Rather, Wang said, Lehman Brothers invited him to the United States, and he was interested in exploring how receptive American financial markets would be to new debt offerings by Chinese companies and government agencies.

"I didn't propose this meeting," Wang said of his Feb. 6, 1996, White House visit. "I said again and again that Clinton was too busy. I had little to talk to him about."

Wang's account offers new insight into how he came to be invited to a White House coffee for political fund-raisers. After initial reports of Wang's attendance focused on his chairmanship of a company called Poly Group -- the firm under scrutiny for the alleged illegal arms dealing -- Clinton called the meeting "clearly inappropriate."

But by Wang's account, his stop at the White House had nothing to do with Poly Group. Instead, he said, it was a brief and unplanned interlude during a U.S. tour with an entirely capitalist purpose: to talk high finance with Wall Street firms on behalf of the mammoth conglomerate he heads, the China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC).

The Democratic National Committee has said that Wang's visit was arranged by Charles Yah Lin Trie, a former Little Rock restaurateur and longtime friend of Clinton's who is one of the principals under scrutiny in a Justice Department investigation into questionable campaign contributions during the 1996 presidential election. The Justice Department has collected evidence that China tried to direct nearly $2 million in illegal campaign contributions to members of Congress and Clinton administration officials, U.S. government officials said.

Chinese Premier Li Peng, in a Beijing news conference Friday, denied China has sought to influence U.S. elections or funnel money to presidential or congressional candidates.

Wang also denied suggestions that he or his company tried to influence American politics or U.S. policy through illegal campaign contributions.

A spokesman for Lehman Brothers confirmed that executives of the firm met with Wang during his visit to the United States last year, but said the firm played no role in arranging the White House visit with Clinton. During the U.S. trip, Wang's main contact at Lehman was Ernest G. Green, a managing director of its Washington office. Wang submitted a letter from Green when he applied for his U.S. visa, and Green contacted Lehman's New York headquarters to arrange meetings there for Wang.

The day after Wang's visit, Green contributed $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Green has called the timing of the donation a coincidence and said the contribution came from his own personal funds. The check was signed by his wife, Phyllis.

Green is a major Democratic Party fund-raiser and longtime friend of Clinton's and Trie's who has given differing accounts of his relationship with Wang. The FBI has interviewed Green as part of the Justice Department investigation.

Wang's account suggests a new wrinkle in the controversy over the use of the White House for fund-raising activities. While the Justice Department inquiry is focused on alleged attempts by China to win influence improperly with U.S. politicians, Wang's version of how he came to meet with Clinton appears to show an attempt by an influential fund-raiser and Clinton friend to use his White House access on behalf of a potential business associate who could help his firm earn large sums of money.

Lehman Brothers is competing against other U.S. investment banks for new chunks of the underwriting business in China for debt and equity securities. This year, the Chinese government has decided to allow about 40 Chinese companies to sell shares in Hong Kong or New York. Several large bond issues are expected as well. Green did not return a telephone call Friday, but in an interview in January, he denied that he had anything to do with arranging Wang's White House visit.

In an interview in Beijing this week, Wang, 55, said he has had a long association with Lehman Brothers. "Lehman Brothers has always been an important partner for CITIC," Wang said. "They are working hard to become the lead underwriter for Chinese debt in the United States. Every time I visit the United States, I meet with Lehman Brothers."

Wang called the flap over his White House visit a misunderstanding. "I have a long-standing belief that no matter who becomes the U.S. president, when faced with a country as big as China, he will maintain good relations even if it isn't consistent with his campaign slogans," Wang said. Therefore, funneling money to either U.S. political party was unnecessary, he suggested.

What has created the most questions about his February 1996 visit to the United States has less to do with his role as chairman of the financial conglomerate CITIC and more to do with his chairmanship of the Poly Group, which was set up to act as the country's arms trading company more than a decade ago.

Prior to the establishment of Poly, Wang's late father Wang Zhen, then a vice premier and retired general, was one of the senior government officials involved in buying equipment for the Chinese military. Initially CITIC owned half of Poly, and the younger Wang became its chairman. Wang Jun remained chairman even though CITIC gave up its interest in Poly a few years ago, he said.

Poly has been the target of an investigation in San Francisco into the smuggling of Chinese-made AK-47s and semi-automatic weapons into the United States. Importing the weapons into the United States was made illegal under a measure signed by President Clinton. Wang said Poly complied with U.S. law and closed a subsidiary that had been involved in selling weapons to the United States.

"All the charges against Poly have no basis at all," Wang said. He blamed the smuggling operation on two former Poly employees who were let go by the company long before the smuggling incident. Wang said the pair used the name of a Poly company that was supposed to be defunct.

Wang said Poly in China was trying to cooperate with law enforcement officials by providing information. He said it was his understanding that a Chinese government investigation had led to the arrest of one person in Beijing.

As the chairman of CITIC, Wang reports directly to China's State Council. Founded at the dawn of the late Deng Xiaoping's economic reform era as the government's window on the capitalist world, CITIC was assigned the task of wooing foreign investors and guiding them through China's centrally planned economy.

Since then, CITIC has become a mammoth conglomerate. It owns one of China's largest banks and has substantial minority stakes in a myriad of Chinese ventures: satellites, bridges, tunnels, accounting firms, law firms, pharmaceutical makers, department stores, automobile plants, and textile and chemical manufacturers.

"I've been to many countries and met with many heads of state, none of which was requested by me," Wang said. And he is on the list of many retired politicians who visit China: He has received former president George Bush and former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig. Wang calls Kissinger "a good friend."

"As for me, I don't even get much involved in politics in China, let alone in the United States," Wang said.

During a U.N. conference on women's rights in Beijing in 1995, Wang said, he received an invitation from first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to attend a reception, but his schedule was fully booked.

During his two-day visit to Washington last year, Wang also held talks with Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, whom he had met once in Hong Kong. Wang said they discussed CITIC's relationship with the United States. "CITIC itself needs to buy a lot and also assists other companies to buy a lot of equipment in the United States," Wang said.

Wang says he never sought out a meeting with President Clinton. Wang said that in addition to Lehman Brothers, he believed that Trie played a role in arranging the meeting.

Wang said he obtained Trie's name from Ng Lap Seng, a Macao businessman who is in property development ventures with CITIC and is also a business partner with Trie.

DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said Friday that it was Trie who asked whether Wang could attend the coffee.

As the time for the meeting slipped from morning to afternoon, Wang suggested abandoning the idea, he said. Finally it was set for 6 p.m.; Wang delayed his flight to New York.

"They said I was to meet Clinton. I couldn't say no. There wasn't much to talk about. Just a brief handshake with Clinton," Wang said. Trie accompanied Wang to the meeting.

The gathering, which Green did not attend, was dominated by general political and financial discussion, participants said. No one who has been interviewed recalls Trie or Wang entering the discussion.

Initially, Green said he met Wang when Trie brought him to Green's Washington office. Green, one of nine African-American students who helped integrate Little Rock's Central High School in the mid-1950s, knows Trie from Little Rock. Green and Trie attended a business dinner in Hong Kong together, and Green sponsored Trie for a position on a presidential advisory board on Pacific trade last year.

After the State Department disclosed letters that Wang submitted for his visa, Green acknowledged he had met Wang on a business trip to Hong Kong in late 1995. On his return to Washington, Green had his secretary write "it-was-nice-to-have-met-you" letters to Wang and several other Asian business executives, according to a source close to Green.

"We had no idea [Wang] was going to attach it to his State Department application [for a visa]," the source said.

Staff writer Lena H. Sun in Washington contributed to this report.