Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing is having a hard time getting what he wants. Li currently is trying to buy the remains of the defunct telecommunications giant Global Crossing.
Li's troubles stem from his close working relationship with the Chinese army, a federal regulation board reluctant to give approval, and new competition from U.S.-based IDT Corporation.
It is a fact that Global Crossing's favorite proposal comes from Li Ka Shing, along with an 8 percent cut for Global executives if Li is successful in the takeover bid.
However, Global Crossing negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, have run into a snag. According to reports, FBI officials have voiced opposition to a Li Ka Shing buyout of Global Crossing.
Why would the FBI have cold feet about an innocent billionaire from Hong Kong? The answer to that question comes from hundreds of documents forced from the Clinton administration by legal action.
Li Ka Shing owns the huge shipping firm Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and the giant Far East investment firm Cheong Kong Holdings. According to a 1994 dossier written by an "intelligence agency," Li has "significant economic and political ties to China," including investments in "a power station, a highway construction project and a large contribution to Shantou University."
Li Ka Shing also had legal troubles and has a known criminal record. According to the Clinton White House documents Li was "found guilty of insider trading after a widely publicized trial in 1984; he was not punished by the courts."
Li was also a "member of the boards of directors of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC)." CITIC is the bank of the Chinese army (People's Liberation Army, or PLA), providing financing for Chinese army weapons sales and Western technology purchases.
CITIC serves as the chief investment arm of China's central government and holds ministry status on the Chinese State Council.
CITIC also owns a controlling interest in the Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecom Co. Ltd., or AsiaSat. AsiaSat, a company founded in 1988, operates several communications satellites in the Far East bought from U.S. manufacturers such as Hughes.
AsiaSat also signed an exclusive deal with billionaire Li Ka Shing to carry his STAR television service – 54 channels of premium cable/satellite television including MTV, reruns of American sitcoms dubbed in various languages, and pay-per-view X-rated movies.
AsiaSat and CITIC are also front companies for the PLA. In addition to the direct TV broadcasts of STAR, AsiaSat satellites also regularly carry communications traffic for Chinese military units and Chinese military-owned companies.
Thus, with Li Ka Shing's help, the profits from X-rated films and American Per-Per-View TV channels help fund Chinese army satellite communications.
A 1996 report written by then U.S. Ambassador to China James Sasser alleges that the Chinese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing were both directly involved with the PLA in financing the communications networks for the Chinese army.
According to the report, "Already, foreign companies are interested in the new PLA-backed entity that is likely to emerge over the next year. Recent press reports indicate that Hutchison Whampoa may be involved with the PLA about possible funding options."
The report also states that the PLA was directly involved in the so-called "civilian" Chinese fiber optic communication systems. Sasser's report noted that the PLA actively worked on a Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) fiber optic network that the Clinton administration stated was "civil" for the House National Security Committee.
"For example," wrote Sasser, "in laying long distance fiber optic lines for the MPT's telephones and digital data network, the PLA has provided soldiers to do much of the work. The PLA cadres are considered disciplined and hard working. Once the cable has been laid, the MPT typically allocates some of the bandwidth to the PLA."
"The PLA is already involved in telecommunications in a number of other areas," stated Sasser in his report. "The PLA is probably involved in operation of some networks, particularly in southern China."
Li Ka Shing's closest tie to Beijing is also his global business partner. The national flag shipping carrier for communist China, the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company, better known as COSCO, has an exclusive contract with Li Ka Shing's Hutchison Whampoa.
According to a House Task Force on Terrorism, there is "information" on COSCO that President Clinton would not allow to be made public.
"Although presented as a commercial entity, COSCO is actually an arm of the Chinese military establishment. The Clinton administration has determined that additional information concerning COSCO that appears in the Select Committee's classified Final Report cannot be made public," states a 1998 special report written by the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
Why would the House Task Force on Terrorism investigate the Chinese flag shipping company? Perhaps it is the fact that COSCO is considered to be part of the Chinese navy. COSCO ships frequently take part in Chinese military exercises and have been armed with missile launchers.
In another example appearing in a June 1998 article published in the Washington Times, U.S. intelligence agencies tracked a COSCO ship carrying weapons materials and electronics destined for Pakistan's major nuclear weapons laboratory.
Still another declassified document, an "Intelligence Assessment" prepared by the U.S. Southern Command Joint Intelligence Center, is heavily blacked out and classified "TOP SECRET//X1."
The assessment was prepared in October 1999, two months prior to the official turnover of the Panama Canal. According to the U.S. military assessment, the Chinese firm that acquired control of the canal, "Hutchison Whampoa," is a threat.
"Hutchison's containerized shipping facilities in the Panama Canal, as well as the Bahamas, could provide a conduit for illegal shipments of technology or prohibited items from the west to the PRC [People’s Republic of China], or facilitate the movement of arms and other prohibited items into the Americas," concluded the U.S. military intelligence report.
In addition, the U.S. government was not the only entity aware of Li Ka Shing's close working relationship with the Chinese army. In 1997, the Rand Corporation wrote a secret report on the "Chinese Defense Industry" and it also included a section on billionaire Li Ka Shing. The Rand report was also obtained in a successful federal lawsuit against the Commerce Department.
The Rand Corporation report highlights Li Ka Shing's direct connections to the Chinese military. According the Rand report, "Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing, is also negotiating for PLA wireless system contracts, which would build upon his equity interest in [Chinese army] Poly-owned Yangpu Land Development Company, which is building infrastructure on China's Hainan Island."
I have so many documents linking Li Ka Shing to the Chinese army that I cannot present them here in a single article. Li Ka Shing's efforts to snatch up Global Crossing is an obvious effort to grab the multibillion-dollar communications facilities that Global has with the CIA, FBI, U.S. military and U.K. military.
Access to these networks, and the networks of major Western corporations run by Global, would be a goldmine for the PLA HQ 2nd and 4th Departments. The opportunity to plant bugs within these networks and to manipulate the clearances of maintenance workers who must service these classified networks would be overwhelming.
The consequences of such a sale would be to provide an opportunity for commercial and military espionage on a global scale.
Would such a thing ever happen? Keep in mind that Hughes hired the son of a Chinese general into a classified position for satellite technology. According to the State Department, which has charged Hughes with violating national security, Hughes did this in order to influence satellite contracts pending before the Chinese general. Hughes did not inform U.S. officials of the nature or relationship of the general's son.
Would Li Ka Shing do such a thing? In 1994, Li sent K.S. Wu to America. Wu, then the chairman of Pacific Century Group, a foreign-based company partly owned by Li, obtained a seat with Ron Brown to travel back to China for a U.S. trade mission. In fact, Wu met with his boss, Li Ka Shing, during the 1994 trade trip on the U.S. taxpayers' tab.
Wu traveled to China in August of 1994 with a self-described "close" friend, Democrat West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton. In 1996, Caperton described K.S. Wu as a "close friend" and a "trusted advisor to Senator Rockefeller."
Today, none dare speak of Mr. Wu. Former Governor Caperton and Democrat Senator Rockefeller both refused to comment on the late K.S. Wu. All questions to the senator's office on K.S. Wu have been greeted by with the same answer, a short and angry "no comment."
However, Mr. Wu and Li Ka Shing shared more than just a single trade trip to China in 1994. Wu's attendance at such high-level events becomes less of a mystery when he and his so-called America investment company come into focus. Wu, according to the official Commerce Department information sheet, was chairman of Pacific Century Group, an investment firm working to finance electric power plants inside China with U.S. money.
Pacific Century, according to sources on Capitol Hill, is actually a front company partly owned by Li Ka Shing and Macau prostitution drug lord Ng Lapseng. The U.S.-based business, run by Wu, was actually then owned Li and a major organized crime boss. The Ng family dominance of Far East heroin, and oriental female love slaves in California, Oregon and Washington is well known to law enforcement at both the state and federal levels.
In fact, the CEO of Pacific Century, K.S. "Wu," was related to Ng. Ng, also a major donor to the DNC, often introduced himself as "Mister Wu." K.S. Wu was a cousin of Ng Lapseng.
Crime lord Ng actually entered Clinton’s inner circle by introducing large amounts of cash to the DNC. Proof of this can be seen in a wonderful photograph of Mr. Ng with Mr. and Mrs. Clinton at a DNC fund-raising event.
K.S. Wu died in late 1995. No one will comment on his death. No one will comment on his life. No information is available on how, when or even
K.S. Wu's information sheet included several different phone numbers for the Pacific Century Group. Attempts to seek more information from Mr. Wu's company were fruitless.
It should shock no one to find that repeated calls to the Pacific Century Group about ex-chairman K.S. Wu were not returned. No Pacific Century official would comment on their departed CEO, the deals in China or their relationship with the Democratic Party.
However, Li Ka Shing knows. Li appointed his son Richard Li to take over Pacific Century after K.S. Wu's mysterious death.
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