U.S. Warns China Envoys on Improper L.A. Activities

The U.S. government has recently warned China that Chinese diplomats have been conducting what are considered to be improper and clandestine activities in the Los Angeles area, The Times has learned.

In one instance, a knowledgeable source said, a diplomat was found to be involved in the establishment of an organization for Chinese students in Los Angeles. In another case, a Chinese diplomat quietly attempted to purchase real estate in the Los Angeles area without the permission of the U.S. government.

American officials “had to tell them (Chinese officials) to knock it off,” said the source.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry would not comment on the reported activities and the U.S. complaint.

The attempt to set up a student group was apparently aimed at keeping watch on the steadily increasing number of young people from China at American colleges and universities. China now has an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 students in the United States. These students sometimes find themselves outnumbered by Chinese-speaking classmates from Taiwan, which has more students in the Unites States than any other country in the world.

It was not clear why the Chinese diplomats were seeking to buy real estate in Los Angeles or where the property was located.

Base in San Francisco

The actions in Los Angeles that triggered the U.S. warning were carried out by officials of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. At the moment, China has no consulate in Los Angeles, and its official business in the city is handled by its consulate in San Francisco.

Last May, China formally asked the Unites States for permission to open a consulate in Los Angeles. Under an existing consular agreement between the two countries, China is entitled to open its fifth consulate in the Unites States in Honolulu next year, but Chinese officials have said they would like to revise this agreement to delay the Honolulu consulate and place one in Los Angeles instead.

The United States has not yet acted on China’s request. American officials here have said their government is studying whether it might want some improvement in its own consular arrangements in China in exchange for allowing China to have a consulate in Los Angeles.

Washington is scheduled to open its fifth consulate in the central Chinese city of Wuhan next year, but some officials are believed to favor seeking another location.

On Nov. 22, law enforcement officials arrested a former CIA employee, Larry Wu-tai Chin, on charges of spying for China over a period of more than 20 years.

There was no indication of any connection between Chin’s arrest, which was the result of a two-year investigation, and the U.S. warning to China concerning its diplomatic personnel in Los Angeles. However, both actions appear to be the result of heightened interest by the FBI in uncovering possible Chinese intelligence activities in the United States.

Last week, a Chinese government spokesman said China has had no connection at all with the arrested man. Asked subsequently about a Times report that Chin served as a document-control officer who passed on highly classified materials on Asia to Peking, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman replied: “The accusation for the American side (concerning Chin) is fully groundless, so I think there will be no further comment.”