CHINA MOLE HAD FREE ACCESS TO CIA DATA, U.S. CHARGES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320082-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: January 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320082-5
ARTICLE APIEABET)
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
3 January 1986
China mole had free access
to CIA data, U.S. charges
By Bill Gertz
THE VMSHINGTON 'MIES
Former CIA translator Larry Wu-Thi Chin
had access to data from U.S. covert agents and
helped draft intelligence assessments of
China during his career as a mole for Peking's
intelligence service, according to a new in-
dictment filed yesterday in Alexandria.
The details were contained in a second fed-
eral grand jury indictment charging Mr. Chin
with 16 new counts of espionage, passing clas-
sified documents, tax evasion and failing to
report money held in a Hong Kong bank. The
alleged activities spanned more than three
decades, the indictment showed.
If convicted on all counts, Mr. Chin faces a
maximum sentence of two life prison terms
plus 47 years and additional fines totaling
more than $2.5 million.
Mr. Chin worked in the CIRs Foreign
Broadcast Information Service in Rosslyn un-
til 1981. Following his retirement from the
CIA, he worked as a contract employee with
the Cl/Vs Joint Publications Research Serv-
ice, a translation arm of the Broadcast Serv-
ice.
While employed with the CIA, Mr. Chin was
granted access to "classified material at all
levels including secret and above' the indict-
ment states.
Mr. Chin was first indicted Nov. 26 on one
count of espionage following a two-year FBI
investigation, the indictment said.
The indictment followed his Nov. 22 arrest
at which time he admitted he had spied for
China since 1952, the indictment said. The
revelations came in a six-hour interview at his
Alexandria office with FBI agents, according
to court documents.
". . Larry Wu-Thi Chin, while employed by
FBIS, reviewed, translated and analyzed clas-
sified documents from covert and overt hu-
man and technical collection sources which
went into the West's assessment of Chinese
(PRC) strategic, military, economic, scientific
and technical capabilities and intentions;' the
new indictment states.
"In addition, [he] was involved in and aware
of the West's intelligence requirements re-
garding the PRC and the agency's tasking to
obtain that intelligence"
Federal authorities said the case is one of
the most damaging national security failures
bemuse his career spanned. three decades.
Court papers in the case revealed that Mr.
Chin helped Chinese intelligence operatives
in an attempt to recruit a CIA employee into
the Chinese spy service.
Mr. Chin told PBI agents he hraNiorked as
a Chinese agent and met secridt in Hong
Kong, Macao, Peking and lbronto and offered
to return to Peking as a "double agent" for the
United States, according to court papers re-
leased last week.
The 34-page indictment reveals that Mr.
Chin worked in the US. Army Liaison Mission
in Shanghai between 1948 and 1952, joined
FBIS in 1952 as a foreign national monitor
specialist in Okinawa until 1962, and in Santa
Rosa, Calif., until 1972.
The latest indictment provides more de-
tails on the first espionage count and adds one
additional espionage charge which alleges
that Mr. Chin received $2,000 in 1952 for pro-
viding communist Chinese operatives with
the location of Chinese prisoner of war camps
during the Korean war and details of what
information American and Korean military
forces were seeking from Chinese POWs.
Mr. Chin is also charged with four counts
of passing classified information, including
the transfer of U.S. intelligence reports on
China once in 1952 and 1980 and twice in 1979.
The tax charges stem from Mr. Chin's al-
leged failure to report an unspecified amount
of money received "from his employment as
an agent of the People's Republic of China
Intelligence Service" on tax returns filed be-
tween 1981 and 1985.
The new indictment does not provide a total
sum Mr. Chin allegedly received from China,
but states that Mr. Chin deposited 150,000
Hong Kong dollars in a Hong Kong bank dur-
ing three trips to the island in 1978, 1980 and
1981.
Court papers released last week indicate
Mr. Chin was involved in financial work with
a Hong Kong bank. When asked to identify a
photo of what FBI agents claimed was a Chi-
nese intelligence operative, Mr. Chin told the
agents the man "looked like a Bank of China
official that he had met while he was working
on a $1 billion loan to the Bank of Chine'
He is also charged with five counts of fail-
ing to report financial holdings in a Hong
Kong bank between 1980 and 1984. The maid-
mum fine for the five charges is $2.5 million.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320082-5