The Feds now want to know if there was more to the meeting than coffee and hand-shakes-and more to the Kanchanalak donations than civic enthusiasm. The Democrats have already been forced to return $253,000 contributed by Kanchanalak and her family after party officials discovered they couldn’t be sure where the money was coming from. After hearing reports that documents were being destroyed, the FBI raided her office. (Her lawyer, Reid Weingarten, said it would not be in his client’s interest to discuss the case.)

Born in Thailand, educated at Stanford, Kanehanalak is one of several Washington fixers working for a community of ethnic-Chinese businessmen now at the center of the Democratic fund-raising scandal. Of the $1.5 million just returned by the Democratic National Committee, roughly three quarters had been raised by John Huang, the former Commerce official who was the DNC’s chief fund raiser in the Asian community. An additional $600,000 had come from a pair of ethnic-Chinese businessmen, Johnny Chung and Charlie Trie. The donations could be nothing more than an attempt to build business connections to China by acquiring guanxi at the White House. Or they could turn out to be part of something far more significant-an attempt by the People’s Republic of China to buy influence in Washington. The FBI is now looking into the possibility that Beijing funneled illegal contributions to congressional candidates as well as to Clinton. Huang, The and Chung deny any wrongdoing, and the Feds are nowhere close to uncovering a Chinese plot to influence American elections. Nonetheless, a NEWSWEEK investigation in Los Angeles and Hong Kong shows that several of the ethnic Chinese who have supported the Democrats do have strong ties to China.

The Riady family, owners of the Indonesian-based Lippo Group, appear to have been especially aggressive about building up connections on both sides of the Pacific. In the late ’80s, while the ethnic-Chinese Riadys were ingratiating themselves with the then governor Clinton, they were also trying to win over the ruling establishment in Hong Kong. At first that meant wooing the British–James McGregor, a prominent official in the colonial government, was made vice chairman of a Hong Kong bank owned by the Riadys. Like other Hong Kong companies eager to do well under Chinese rule after 1997, they have quickly built ties with Chinese companies and pro-Beijing business leaders. Then in November 1992, five days after Bill Clinton was elected president, the Riadys sold a stake in their Hong Kong bank to China Resources Holding Co., a multibillion-dollar trading company owned by the Chinese government. McGregor was replaced as vice chairman by Madame Zhu You-Lan, the president of China Resources Holding Co. and a former top official in Beijing’s trade ministry. Hong Kong officials con-timed to NEWSWEEK that Beijing sometimes uses China Resources Holding as a front for espionage operations in Hong Kong. The Beijing government made Stephen Riady a “Hong Kong affairs adviser”–an honorific bestowed on businessmen who have been loyal to China during the transition. Lippo is now preparing to build an entire town in China’s Fujian province, the Riadys’ ancestral home.

Back in America, the Riadys’ key man was John Huang. The former Lippo executive left his Commerce job in 1995 to help the Democrats tap the ethnic Chinese. Last May, Huang held a dinner for the president and a score of Asian executives at the Sheraton Carlton Hotel. One of the more mysterious guests was a Los Angeles businessman named Ted Sioeng. Sioeng’s daughter Jessica gave $250,000 to the Democrats. The Sioeng fortune appears to come from real-estate investments in the United States. Sioeng recently acquired a valuable concession from Chinese officials: the exclusive right to import Red Tower Mountain cigarettes, one of China’s most popular brands, to the United States. (Chinese characters in the Red Tower ads read, “Your homesickness will go up in a plume of smoke.”) Sioeng is a close friend of the Chinese consul general in Los Angeles and is the publisher of a pro-Beijing newspaper, the Chinese-language International Daily News (after the death of Deng Xiaoping, the front page bannered, HEAVEN, EARTH AND MAN GRIEVED TOGETHER). Sioeng attended Al Gore’s fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple in East Los Angeles last April. Sioeng and his daughter did not reply to numerous messages from NEWSWEEK.

In a fax to “Uncle Huang,” Sioeng’s daughter reported to John Huang that in addition to her father, six other ethnic-Chinese executives would come to the dinner for Clinton last May. One was Guo Zhong Jian, an officer of the China Construction Bank. One of four major banks run by Beijing, China Construction last September became the first Chinese bank since the laws were tightened after the BCCI scandal in 1991 to win a federal license to do business in the United States, even though the bank was rated a lowly E+ by Moody’s, the Wall Street credit-rating service. (The bank’s American lawyers refused to comment.)

It is difficult to prove any quid pro quo between the ethnic Chinese and the Clintonites. But there is no question that some of these Asian executives were eager to gain influence. Pauline Kanchanalak is a well-known wheeler-dealer. Two years ago a top Commerce official watched in some amazement as Kanehanalak came into the office of Ron Brown, kissed him on the cheek and then sat in on a discussion of the sale of U.S. warplanes to the Thai government. When Huang was at Commerce, Kanchanalak lobbied him to set up a White House ceremony celebrating her creation of a U.S.-Thai Business Council. When some National Security Council staffers objected, Huang insisted–and the event was held anyway.

The Democrats have now returned $8 million in suspect foreign contributions. Investigators are trying to puzzle out the scandal’s confusing web of relationships. Especially intriguing: whether any money may have come from China.

THE CHINESE

The Feds want to know if the Chinese, seeking to influence Clinton-administration policy, arranged or sanctioned illegal political contributions.

THE BANKS

Clinton’s old Little Rock friends and Lippo Group billionaires have ties to the Chinese government–and the White House. Huang was their vice chairman.

THE DONORS

Ted Sioeng: Tycoon attended May fund-raising dinner with Clinton, and his daughter contributed $250,000. Later he asked for and got a Clinton letter praising his pro-Beijing newspaper.

Ai Hue Qi: DNC returned liver-pill peddler’s $12,500.

Master Shing Yun: Host of Vice President Gore’s Buddhist-temple fund-raiser was forced to take back $5,000 contribution.

Pauline Kanchanelak: Thai businesswoman visited White House 26 times, arranged client meetings with Clinton and officials. The DNC returned her $258,000. Last week the FBI raided her office for records.

FUND RAISERS

Charlie Trie Little Rock restaurateur improperly raised $640,000 for Clinton defense fund.

Johnny Chung. Gave $366,000 to the DNC that had to be returned; went to the White House 49 times.

BROKERS

Mark Grobmyer. Clinton pal asked for administration help with business deals.

Mark Middleton. Ex-White House aide brought wealthy foreigners to meet Clinton officials.

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

John Huang: The central figure in the Clinton foreign-money scandal. A Riady protege, former Commerce Department official and top DNC fund raiser, he solicited most of the bad cash. Records indicate that while he was a federal official, Huang visited the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Now investigators want to get to the bottom of his operation.

White House

Worried he would lose the election without huge donations, Clinton approved and attended coffees for big contributors–including foreigners.