Mixing Business With China Policy

Insight on the News, Oct 30, 2000 by Kelly Patricia O'Meara

House Speaker Dennis Hastert will keep a former lobbyist for a Red Chinese company as his national-security and foreign-policy adviser despite widespread criticism.

Mum's the word among Republican lawmakers when it comes to Nancy Dorn, the newly appointed national-security and foreign-policy adviser to House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois. In fact, the speaker's new policy wonk is so closely guarded that one could only hope for the same ardor for confidentiality when it comes to handling whatever is left of the nation's nuclear secrets stolen by China.

So what gives? Could it be that word has come down from the GOP leadership that criticizing of Dorn is off-limits -- that the background of the top guy's choice might cause dissension among the troops? If so, it's too late. The cat's already out of the bag. While the speaker reportedly believed his new staffer was just reentering the wonk market after after a stint as a "stay-at-home mom," it turns out that Dorn actually was a highly paid lobbyist -- indeed, a foreign agent -- for Hutchison Port Holdings, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., owned by Li Ka-shing, an intimate of the Communist Party leadership in Beijing and leaseholder for ports at both ends of the strategically vital Panama Canal. Insight broke this story on its Webwire, Insightmag.com, on July 14 and, within a week, it became the subject of a shouting match behind closed doors between Republican congressional leaders and irate political conservatives. No one believes it was her time as a foreign agent that landed Dorn the top national-security job in the speaker's office. Rather, say Hill staffers and political insiders, it was Dorn's Texas connections that sealed the 41-year-old's rise within the Republican ranks and ascension to this key national-security post.

In 1991, at the age of 33, Dorn was the first woman and youngest person to be nominated and confirmed as assistant secretary of the Army (civil works), which included such duties as overseeing the Panama Canal Commission (PCC) and Arlington National Cemetery. Prior to her stint in military affairs, Dorn had served President Bush as special assistant to the president for legislative affairs and also deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. Insiders say her congressional experience came under the patronage of Rep. Tom Loeffler, R-Texas, for whom she served as both a legislative assistant and associate staff designee to the House Committee on Appropriations.

Although she has an impressive resume, many question how the positions she has held could qualify Dorn for the job as the speaker's top national-security adviser. In fact, given that most of her work as assistant secretary of the Army dealt with "broadening its environmental mission," critics are wondering if Dorn's national-security experience came during her tenure as the mouthpiece for Li Ka-shing, lobbying for Red Chinese control of the Panama Canal. This is, perhaps, the one area in which Dorn's government experience paid off -- but to the detriment of U.S. national security. Many on Capitol Hill are wondering why Dorn sold her prestige and legislative expertise to the Chinese billionaire and whether she has completely severed ties with her generous former employer.

Although Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has refused to comment on Dorn specifically, there can be little doubt about his alarm at the influence of the new national-security adviser in stopping his resolution to call attention to a major Clinton/Gore administration foreign-policy blunder. "You would think," Rohrabacher tells Insight, "in the middle of an election year, the Republicans would exploit an issue that put the Clinton administration on the side of America's enemies taking over the Panama Canal. Instead, I haven't been able to get my legislation to the floor."

The congressman, who served in the White House under President Reagan, is referring to H. Con. Res. 186. This spiked legislation, says Rohrabacher, "has three purposes. It will call on the new government of Panama to cancel the contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and have a new bidding process that is open and honest. The bidding process [through which the canal ports were awarded to the Chinese firm] was crooked and the Chinese paid off the last government to get the contract. The Rohrabacher proposal also would call on the government of Panama to investigate the old bidding process, and finally it would allow for new negotiations to reestablish a U.S. military presence in Panama."

While Rohrabacher would not directly blame Dorn for putting his resolution in the deep freeze, others familiar with national-security policy claim to see her hand in it. A Hill staffer who spoke to Insight on the condition of anonymity says, "We knew that she [Dorn] was working for the Chinese at the time, and how they got the contracts was very corrupt. Nancy is close to [House Majority Whip] Tom DeLay [of Texas] and definitely carrying the water for `Mr. Big' over in Asia. The bottom line is that the leadership is weak on national security and they hired her anyway while she still was representing the Chinese."