As the federal investigation into Democratic fund-raising expands, presidential aides are scrambling to determine how they allowed a Chinese arms dealer into the White House just months before his company was implicated in U.S. gun smuggling.
The White House confirmed that Wang Jun attended a reception where President Clinton played host Feb. 6 to Democratic donors and dignitaries, and said aides failed to properly screen his background."It is safe to say in February 1996, they were not scrupulous enough," White House press secretary Mike McCurry said, adding that Clinton has ordered that such screening procedures be tightened.
McCurry said the president "does not recall this gentleman having anything to say," but that Clinton was nonetheless "displeased with a lot having to do with this matter generally."
Disclosure of Wang's visit to the White House came as a Justice Department investigation into Democratic Party fund-raising expanded to the president's legal defense fund. Subpoenas were issued to the fund and the White House.
Representatives of Wang's company, Poly Technologies, were charged in May after a 16-month U.S. law enforcement sting operation in which 2,000 Chinese-made assault rifles were shipped into the United States.
Fourteen people, some from Poly Technologies, were charged with selling AK-47s to undercover agents posing as Miami mobsters. The weapons had an estimated street value of $4 million.
The executive ranks of Poly Technologies and the other company involved in the sting, China Northern Industrial Corp., are filled with former generals and relatives of senior Communist Party leaders, prosecutors said. Both companies have denied involvement in smuggling.
McCurry said a background check normally done for foreign visitors was not done on Wang, and presidential aides were unaware of his apparent ties to China's Communist government or his company's involvement in the investigation.
As for the subpoena to the White House, McCurry said it "covers just about everything you read in the papers since October" when news stories began appearing about foreign-linked campaign contributions to the Democratic Party.
An initial review of the Feb. 6 reception has determined that Democratic National Committee officials asked the White House to clear entry for Wang.
Wang's visit occurred at a time when the United States was accusing China of selling nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan and cruise missiles to Iran.
The White House is investigating the possibility that Charles Yah Lin Trie, an Asian American businessman and longtime friend of the president, played a role in getting Wang inside the White House, one official said.
Trie, who raised money for the Democratic Party and for the president's legal defense fund, also was cleared in for the event. But presidential aides are uncertain yet whether Trie attended because Secret Service records do not list an entry time for him.