A husband-and-wife team has been convicted of trying to sell state secrets to Chinese military intelligence officers, the Federal Security Service said Tuesday.
In an odd twist, China probably already possessed the information that the couple was trying to sell.
The Moscow City Court convicted Yury Alekseyev, 55, and his wife, Irina Starikova, 49, of espionage Monday, sentencing Alekseyev to 12 years and his wife to nine years in prison. The couple was also fined 1 million rubles ($37,800). The pair was caught trying to sell "secret documents of a military technical character" about the Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier for $300,000, the FSB said, Interfax reported.
The FSB said it caught the duo red-handed with the information on March 29 last year. It was unclear where the couple worked and how they obtained the information.
China currently has no operational aircraft carriers. Russia only has the Admiral Kuznetsov.
However, in the late 1990s, the Chinese bought the only other Kuznetsov class carrier to be produced, the Varyag.
A former commander in the Chinese navy wrote in Jane's Defence Weekly in 2005 that China had purchased blueprints for the carrier, a fact Jane's later confirmed from Russian sources. The general also wrote that "the defense industry employed Russian aircraft carrier designers to come to China and give lectures."
Jane's said in 2005 that Chinese workers at the Dalian Shipyard, in the Yellow Sea, were repairing the "badly damaged" carrier and had repainted it with military markings.
Jane's photos and Google Earth show the ship still in the port.
In October 2006, Kommersant reported that Russia planned to sell China up to 50 Su-33 fighters, the type designed for Russian aircraft carriers, for $2.5 billion.

By: Charles R. Smith

China has introduced a number of new weapons lately and that has more than a few people upset.

For example, the most recent estimate of Chinese missiles now opposite Taiwan is 1,000. This cold fact has drawn the attention of the Pentagon, Tokyo, and Taipei.

Those 1,000 missiles are just about the right number to start and win a war over Taiwan.

China has also introduced a brand new air-to-air missile that should be operational by 2010. The PL-10 heat seeking missile looks and acts almost identical to the European ASRAAM air-to-air missile. This deadly new weapon will equip the Chinese air force and enable them to dogfight at close quarters with other aircraft.

One has to wonder how the European militaries are taking the sudden appearance of a missile virtually identical to theirs in the Chinese inventory.

Finally, the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag was commissioned into the Chinese Navy as Shilang, hull No. 83. The name was selected because Shilang was the last Chinese Navy admiral to invade Taiwan.

However, the fact the Chinese have the Varyag is in part due to the Clinton administration.

In 1998 the engineless, weaponless Ukrainian aircraft carrier was sold at auction for $20 million. The winning bidder was a Macao-registered firm called Chong Lot. The purchasers pledged it would be used for peaceful purposes. The carrier was to be sent to Macao and would be used for a floating casino.

Turkish authorities, who denied the carrier passage through the Bosporus Strait because it was a warship, finally gave in when everyone, including the Clinton defense establishment, declared the Varyag to be a floating slot machine and not an aircraft carrier.

In the end, the carrier never made it to Macao but somehow ended up at the main Chinese naval base in Dalian. Today, it is an official Chinese Navy warship.

After the ship was sold, it was discovered that Chong Lot was a front company. The Macao head office address listed with the commercial registration bureau turned out not to exist. Chin Luck, its parent company based in Hong Kong, is reportedly a front for the Chinese military.

The Portuguese-language newspaper Ponto Final revealed later that Chong Lot executives were represented in talks with Macao’s government by Ng Lapseng, the owner of the Fortuna Hotel — a good friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Ng’s negotiations enabled the Varyag to be sent not to Macao but to the main base of the Chinese navy.

Ng owns the Fortuna Hotel in Macao. The Fortuna is equipped with a wide variety of gambling, resort facilities, shopping and pretty escorts. The brochure advertising Ng’s Fortuna hotel boasts, “Attractive and attentive hostesses from China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Burma together with erotic girls from Europe and Russia offer you an exciting and unforgettable evening with friends or business associates.”

The Clintons know Ng Lapseng well because he visited them often. Hillary had her photo taken in 1995 with Ng Lapseng inside the White House in front of a DNC symbol. In fact, Ng was staying as a guest in the White House at the time.

Details of Ng’s visits illustrate his relationship with the Clintons. Ng came into the country on June 20, 1994, and he brought with him a suitcase with $175,000 in cash. Two days later, he met at the White House with Mark Middleton, one of Clinton’s top aides.

After that meeting, Ng went to a DNC dinner with Bill and Hillary. Ng was seated at the No. 1 table where he gave the Clintons the $175,000 in cash.

On July 31, 1994, Ng returned to the United States, this time with $42,000 in his pocket. Two days later he again traveled to the White House with Mark Middleton and attended the DNC birthday party for President Clinton. There he gave $42,000 to President Clinton.

It is recorded that Ng visited the White House 12 times. Ng was often not alone during these trips to the White House. In fact, Ng often stayed at the White House with his good friend and a close friend of the President Clinton, Charlie Trie.

While Ng was hob-knobbing with Bill and Hillary he was also wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trie as well as bringing in pockets full of cash. Trie received $1.4 million in wire transfers from Ng. Ng’s wire transfers to Charlie turned into Trie’s main source of income.

The funds enabled Trie, his wife, and two of Trie’s corporations, Daihatsu International Trading and San Kin Yip International Trading, to contribute $215,000 to the DNC.

To say that the Clinton’s did not know Ng is a lie. They clearly knew who he was and they took his money willingly.

Today, Ng’s work can be seen at the Dalian ship yard as hull No. 83. Bill and Hillary refuse to discuss Ng Lapseng, and his business ventures, including the aircraft carrier Varyag. They refuse to discuss the photographic evidence of Ng, standing next to Bill and Hillary inside the White House.

Bill and Hillary also refuse to discuss the money that flowed out of his pockets and into the coffers of the DNC. All of this is too familiar of the Clinton years. If any voter is concerned about Hillary’s baggage, they need not look any farther than the grey hull of the Chinese warship Shilang and the smiling face of Ng Lapseng.

I have but one suggestion. The Chinese navy should rename the warship to the Clinton, in honor of those friendly folks who made it possible for a casino to become an aircraft carrier.