Word: chung
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...that when presented in business circles in the Far East, might be mistaken for official credentials. This created, in effect, a shadow diplomatic corps. For businessmen abroad, a picture with the President is worth a lot more than a thousand words--or dollars, for that matter. One supporter, Johnny Chung, whose $366,000 in donations qualified him as a "managing trustee" of the Democratic National Committee, made 49 visits to the White House--access that kept the National Security Council's China expert, Robert Suettinger, working overtime. Suettinger warned that Chung was a "hustler" trying to cash...
Suettinger got the hustling part right. During a 1994 visit, Chung traipsed around with two six-packs of beer, snapping pictures and introducing White House aides to the chairman of a Chinese beer company, even dropping by the offices of Clinton, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. Suettinger warned last year that further contact with Chung might prove embarrassing but prefaced his comments with the wisecrack that to the degree that giving Chung existing photos of him with Clinton "motivates him to continue contributing to the D.N.C., who am I to complain...
...result: visitors to the White House who had no business being there and left with photographs to prove they had been there. In the case of Chung, his access to Clinton seemed to go to his head. Four months after he and other Chinese visitors had their photograph taken with the President, Chung was pressing Clinton's personal secretary for a letter of introduction from Clinton for use in Beijing that would help him negotiate the release of Harry Wu, a Chinese-American human-rights activist imprisoned for two months on espionage charges. Although he never received the presidential seal...
This time Suettinger made his alarm plain. He wrote to Lake that Chung's mission was "very troubling" because it interfered in a "diplomatically difficult and high-stakes issue." He added, "All we can do is hope the Chinese recognize Chung's credentials are thin and that his message should be treated with caution." Suettinger feared that Chung could "do damage" and recommended that "we be very careful about the kinds of favors he is granted...
...Chung said her next endeavor will be a syndicated evening news program...