Wed Aug 19 15:29:28 2020
<853f0f69> Huang served as the senior Lippo executive in charge of its U.S. operations and received $788,750 in severance pay when he left the company in 1994 to take a position in the International Trade Administration at the Commerce Department, where he specialized in Asian business affairs. He left the department in December 1995 to join the DNC.
<853f0f69> Feinstein sits on the East Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees U.S. relations with China. Concerned about congressional opposition to renewing China’s special trade status, Feinstein wrote an article in mid-May for the Los Angeles Times urging permanent MFN status for Beijing. She argued that tying the trade status to improved performance on human rights issues would be “ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.”
Clinton announced May 20 that he would support renewal of MFN. The House voted on June 27 to defeat a joint congressional resolution that would have ended China’s MFN status or attached conditions to its renewal.
The vote was a significant victory for Beijing, which long had trailed Taiwan in efforts to court influence on Capitol Hill and had recently sought to improve ties with members of Congress. In late 1995, the Chinese government created a “Central Leading Working Group on the U.S. Congress.” The group, which reports directly to President Jiang Zemin, is reportedly charged with studying and understanding a variety of congressional issues affecting China.