Canal.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/hutchison_whampoaExcerpt:
n March 2003, after an exposé in The New Yorker (The New Yorker: the new yorker is a weekly american magazine which publishes criticism, essays,...
) by Seymour Hersh (Seymour Hersh: more facts about this subject) , the neoconservative (neoconservative: A conservative who subscribes to neoconservativism) Richard Perle (Richard Perle: more facts about this subject) resigned from US Defense Policy Board (Defense Policy Board: the defense policy board advisory committee (dpbac or dpb) is a federal advisory committee...
) after lobbying on behalf of Global Crossing (Global Crossing: global crossing ltd....
) , a bankrupt telecommunications company. Perle had attempted to persuade Hutchison Whampoa to buy the company. The FBI (FBI: A federal law enforcement agency that is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Justice) said at the time that selling Global Crossing to Hutchison Whampoa would give Whampoa control of the world's largest fiber optic (fiber optic: an optical fiber is a transparent thin fiber, usually made of glass, for transmitting light]...
) network, and allow it to oversee existing contracts for secure Pentagon communications. Hutchison Whampoa is alleged to have many dealings with front companies for the People's Liberation Army (People's Liberation Army: the peoples liberation army (pla) (traditional chinese: ,...
) in China. Democratic legislator, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan requested that Pentagon to investigate Perle's business dealings. Perle was to receive a total payment of $725,000 for his advisory work, $650,000 of which would be contingent on the sale going through. Ironically, many of Perle's neoconservative allies were critical of the Clinton administration for accepting campaign donations that allegedly came from China, as well as attacking the Clinton administration for not blocking the 1999 sale of parts of the Panama Canal to Hutchison Whampoa, saying it would give China too much control. Retired Rear Admiral Thomas Brooks, who served on the Defense Policy Board during the Clinton administration, said Perle's actions were "certainly questionable. It sounds like he's squeezing every nickel out of the Defense Policy Board", whilst Larry Noble, director of the Center for Responsible Politics, said "This is a conflict of interest. He's using his position on the board to win business." END