Chinagate witness faces death penalty

China's military prosecutors recommended that Gen. Ji Sheng-de,
former military intelligence director for the People's Liberation Army
and a key player in the Clinton-Gore 1996 campaign finance scandal, be
given a death sentence for his involvement in internal Chinese scandals.

Gen. Ji Sheng-de, left, shaking hands with China's vice president at the funeral of Ji's father. Ji is wearing a PLA uniform that has been stripped of all rank insignia.

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The recommendation came Monday, according to Asian news sources. Ji
is known to have been involved in corrupt business deals involving the
PLA, including a smuggling case in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen.
More serious, though, is Ji's indictment for mishandling funds from the
military intelligence system.

Ji is one of China's "princelings" -- the sons and daughters of
China's "old guard" under Mao Zedong. The general's father, Ji
Peng-fei, was Mao's minister of foreign affairs during the time of U.S.
President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China. As a "princeling,"
the general had a budget at his disposal, which he is accused of using
for personal gain. He was prosecuted for taking more than 100 million
Chinese dollars. (One U.S. dollar equals about 8 Chinese dollars.)

The general's senior colonel, Yang Kai-chin, who is also in trouble
for illegal smuggling, tipped off officials to Ji's activities in an
attempt to secure leniency for himself.

China's "princelings" are notorious for abusing their positions, and
with the clean-up and modernization of the PLA in recent years came a
purge of the children of the old guard. However, that purge has come
relatively slowly as the military waits for the death of a princeling's
old-guard parents before carrying out a death sentence. Ji's father
passed away in February, and it is well known that the general's mother
has been asking high-ranking officials not to impose the death penalty
on her son.

During the Chinagate investigations in the U.S., former Democrat
fund-raiser Johnny Chung testified that Ji had given him $300,000 to
funnel to the Clinton-Gore campaign. Ji has yet to be questioned by U.S.
authorities about his involvement in the scandal.

"This is one of the key witnesses in the Chinagate scandal, and now
China is going to kill him and silence him for good," said Chung, who is
now a columnist for WorldNetDaily.

Last week, four other high-ranking Chinese officials were sentenced
to death. Asian media sources report that the PLA will continue to
prosecute hundreds more in its clean-up efforts, including China's vice
minister of justice and other high-ranking officials.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who chairs the

House Government Reform Committee and led hearings into the 1996 campaign finance scandal, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

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