KISSINGER HAD A KEY ROLE IN SHIFT ON CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140040-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: August 12, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST "Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RD P90-00965R000100140040-5
ARTICLE APPFAARED
ON ?-AGE C. -
Kissinger Had
A Key Role in
Shift on China
Henry A. Kissinger played a key
role in the behind-the-scenes mach-
inations that led to a change in U.S.
policy toward China. Hereafter, the
Chinese communists will be able to
purchase high-technology equipment
of potential, military value.
The former secretary of state,
meanwhile, has (turned up as a con-
sultant to a Hong Kong company
that will buy high-tech items for the
People's Republic of China. In fact,
he made a special trip to Peking last
April to help launch the company.
Kissinger assured me, however, that
he has "absolutely no business con-
nection, no financial relationship"
with the new firm.
The company. Everhright Indus-
trial Corp., is a front for the Peking
regime. It is run by Wang Guangyin,
a businessman who was sent to Hong
Kong by China's highest authorities
to seek high-tech and other imports
that are urgently needed.
In a trans-Pacific telephone inter-
view, an Everhright executive told
my associates Jock Hatfield and
Donald Goldberg that Kissinger had
been retained as an "employe" of the
company and would go on the pay-
WASHINGTON POST
12 August 1983
roll at the end of this month. But
Kissinger swore to me that "this is
absolutely untrue."
A business associate acknowl-
edged that Kissinger had flown to
Peking to advise Wang on setting up
Everbright and will continue to
-counsel the company. But the asso-
ciate said Kissinger would offer his
advice as "a friend of China" and
would not accept any remuneration.
Here is the backstage story:
Kissinger came back from Peking
last October convinced that the
United States should sell high-tech
equipment to the mainland. He
began lobbying Secretary of State
George P. Shultz and national secu-
rity affairs adviser William P. Clark
for a change in U.S. policy.
Defense Secretary Caspar W.
Weinberger opposed any relaxation
of export rules that would allow the
Chinese to pick our technological
brains. He warned that the acquired
U.S. technology could be used by the
Chinese to modernize their niilitarv
forces. -
But Kissinger argued: "China
could not represent a military threat
to American interests for the rest of
this century, by which time current
technology will be superseded."
Last February, Shultz flew to
Peking for discussions with Chinese
leaders. On the eve of his departure.
Kissinger asked him to give "urgent
attention" to the "transfer of tech-
nology."
On April 2. Kissinger paid a visit
to Pekin(, at the request of Chinese
Foreign Minister Wu Xuegian. The
purpose was to sit down with Wang
and advise him on how to establish
the Everbright Industrial Corp. The
company. set up offices in Hong.
Kong, and Wang told reporters it,
was owned by "private" Chinese cit-
izens operating outside the commu-
nist bureaucratic structure.
Yet intelligence sources say that
Wang carries a diplomatic passport,
that he holds cabinet rank and that,.
he reports directly to Premier Zhao'
Ziyang.
Kissinger, meanwhile, has contin-.-
ued .to consult with both Shultz and
Clark about China policy. They
joined in adopting the policy change
that Kissinger wanted.
Before his last visit to Peking, -
Kissinger was told by Clark that -
Weinberger would visit Peking in
September to work out details of the..
technology transfer, that this would
be followed by a visit to Washington -
in October by Foreign Minister Wu,
that Premier Zhao would also come'`
to Washington at an undetermined
date and that President Reagan
hoped to reciprocate by visiting
China next year.
A spokesman explained that Kiss-.-
inger was merely "briefed" and did
not act. as a "messenger" or "negoti-
ator" for the Reagan administration.
But he has been right in the middle
of the tech-transfer battle.
i Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140040-5