CHINESE DONATIONS SAID TO TARGET FEINSTEIN.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The FBI warned six members of Congress last year that they had been targeted by China to receive illegal campaign contributions funneled through foreign corporations, The Washington Post reported. Citing unidentified U.S. officials, the newspaper said in today's editions that the six were alerted in individual classified briefings based on what the officials called ``specific and credible'' intelligence information. ``We have reason to believe that the government of China may try to make contributions to members of Congress through Asian donors,'' was one statement included in the FBI briefing materials, the Post said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (born June 22, 1933) is the senior U.S. Senator from California, having held office as a senator since 1992. She is a member of the Democratic Party. , D-Calif., confirmed through a spokesman that she was one of the six, but the Post said it was unable to confirm the identities of the other five who received the FBI briefings. ``I was briefed, and we were extremely careful,'' spokesman Bill Chandler Chandler, city (1990 pop. 90,533), Maricopa co., S central Ariz., in the Salt River valley; inc. 1920. It is both a residential community and a center for research and technology. Tourism is also important, and the San Marcos Golf Resort is in Chandler. quoted Feinstein as saying. He said the senator met for 10 minutes in June for a briefing at the FBI's request at her office in Washington. ``This was a very brief meeting. This was not a red-alert warning,'' Chandler said Saturday night in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . ``It was simply a for-your-information short briefing.'' He said he had not heard of others in Congress approached by the FBI until the Post contacted him and knew no names. Chandler said Feinstein had had no contact with Chinese officials regarding campaign contributions before or after the FBI meeting. He also said that, because she was not up for re-election last year, ``it was not a particularly active time for her.'' ``She has always been extremely careful when it comes to accepting contributions,'' Chandler said. On Friday, Feinstein returned a $12,000 contribution from Lippo Group The Lippo Group (力宝集团) is a major Indonesian conglomerate founded by Mochtar Riady. The Lippo Group began with Bank Lippo, later using this as a platform for regional property development projects. banking and real estate conglomerate conglomerate, in business conglomerate, corporation whose asset growth, often very rapid, comes largely through the acquisition of, or merger with, other firms whose products are largely unrelated to each other or to that of the parent company. in Indonesia and Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. , he said. ``(Feinstein) believes the contributions to be legal, but she simply decided to return them following the uproar over the Lippo bank issue,'' Chandler said. The Post quoted officials as saying a Justice Department task force created late last year to investigate fund-raising fund-raising, large-scale soliciting of voluntary contributions, especially in the United States. Fund-raising is widely undertaken by charitable organizations, educational institutions, and political groups to acquire sufficient funds to support their activities. activities during the 1996 campaign has found no evidence that Feinstein or any other member of Congress knowingly received illegal payments from the Beijing government. |
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