Plea Bargain May Be in Making for Chin

Amid speculation that a plea bargain may be in the making, the espionage trial of former CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin continued Wednesday with the testimony of CIA officials that the type of information he admitted passing to Chinese intelligence agents could have proved “invaluable” to them and “seriously damaging” to U.S. security.

Although defense counsel Jacob Stein refused to confirm it, there were reports that the Justice Department was prepared to offer a reduction in the potential life sentence Chin faces for giving classified documents to a Chinese agent if the defense waives its right to subpoena the agent, identified by the government as Ou Qiming.

Either Ou or a superior is believed to have defected to this country and publicity about such a defector would be embarrassing to Washington and perhaps could chill the current friendly relations with China.

Plea Rejected by Chin

But a member of Chin’s family, speaking on condition that he not be identified, declared that a plea bargaining offer had been rejected by Chin. Although Chin has acknowledged violating the regulations prohibiting unauthorized transmission of classified material, he maintained in a statement at the time of his arrest Nov. 22 that he was only seeking to help restore normal U.S.-Chinese relations.

John H. Stein, an associate director for operations at the CIA who said he has given intelligence briefings for the President and Cabinet members, testified extensively Wednesday on U.S. intelligence-gathering techniques.

For an intelligence agency to have a reliable agent inside another country’s intelligence system for 30 years, as Chin allegedly was, is an “invaluable asset,” Stein said.

Similar testimony about the value of the documents passed came from Carl Walter Ford, CIA national intelligence officer for East Asia, although both Ford and Stein said they did not know Chin and were not familiar with details of the case.

Message From Nixon

Defense attorneys sought to persuade both witnesses to agree with Chin’s contention that his handing over to the Chinese of a secret message to Congress in 1970 would have aided eventual normalization of relations. In the message, former President Richard M. Nixon outlined his strategy for his historic trip to Peking.

But Ford said the leak of such a document would not necessarily have softened Chinese attitudes toward the United States, with whom it had not had diplomatic relations since the Communist takeover in 1949.

“If the Chinese had such information in advance, they would have had the advantage over us in negotiations” for normalization, Ford said.

In other testimony before a jury of three men and nine women, Chin’s supervisor in the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, an arm of the CIA, said that Chin was one of his best analysts.

Real Estate Holdings

Gerald Braegelmann said the 63-year-old defendant had told him when he retired in 1983 that he intended to devote his time to managing real estate holdings. The prosecution has alleged that Chin may have received as much as $1 million for transmitting classified information to the Peking government, much of it invested in real estate here and some held in Hong Kong.

The trial in U.S. District Court before Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr. began Tuesday.