China Doll
Katrina Leung was a temptress, beguiled by the world of intrigue, but was she an agent of influence for Beijing, as prosecutors now charge?
The investigation of Leung began in November 2000, after a CIA analyst on loan to FBI headquarters noticed some anomalies in Leung's asset file. A naturalized citizen, Leung, in many ways, is an enigmatic figure--highly personable, those who know her say, but hardly the type of person to carry on extramarital affairs, much less engage in international derring-do. Her personal background, the FBI contends, is unclear, because of the many allegedly false statements she made to immigration officials, including on her 1982 citizenship application form. Evidently, she was born Che Wen Ying in Guangzhou, China, and came to Hong Kong as a toddler with her aunt, Susan Chin, who raised her like a mother but whom Leung reportedly has seen only once in 20 years. Leung met her husband, Kam, at Cornell University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Leung entered Cornell as a graduate student in engineering but later switched to home economics. Leung told the Los Angeles Times in 1997 that her connections to Chinese officials dated to 1972, the year President Nixon made his historic visit to China. She had just graduated from high school. In New York, Leung said, she helped employees at China's newly opened United Nations mission. "China remembers old friends," she told the Times. "All these people I entertained became big shots."
Prompted by questions raised by the CIA man, FBI officials interviewed J. J. Smith about Leung. He assured his inquisitors Leung was sound. FBI officials won't say why, but in December 2001, the bureau obtained a surveillance warrant on Leung. By April 2002, the inquiry had expanded to include Smith. Months later, FBI agents obtained a trove of classified documents from Leung. They also interviewed Smith, Leung, and Cleveland. All three lied repeatedly during the interviews, Special Agent Thomas alleged in court documents.
Eventually, however, they cracked. Leung, Thomas said, admitted that she had "withheld information from both the FBI and the MSS over the years, deceiving both intelligence services." Smith, according to Thomas, acknowledged that he "probably told Leung too much in the course of operating her as an asset." He and his wife of more than 30 years, Gail, live with their son, Kelly, 24, just north of Los Angeles. A burly, handsome man, Smith served as an Army intelligence officer in Vietnam. Like Cleveland, who speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese, Smith was fascinated by China, so steeped in the country's culture and history that he was nominated by FBI brass for the prestigious National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He received it shortly before he retired--for his handling of Leung. During one of several interviews by FBI agents, Smith denied having a sexual affair with Leung, unaware that FBI surveillance cameras had captured the two having sex in a Los Angeles hotel room.
Leung's double life appears to have begun and ended with the most mundane of events--a baggage search. Traveling to China in April 1990 as a "controlled" asset of the FBI, she was met by her MSS handler, "Mao." He covertly searched Leung's bags and turned up notes from Smith describing a Chinese individual who had defected to the United States. Mao found the notes to be far more comprehensive than the information Leung had given him on the individual. Leung, according to court papers, admitted that she was working for the FBI. She even had an FBI code name, she said--"Parlor Maid." Nonplused, Mao demanded that Leung switch loyalties. She agreed, according to court papers, and was promptly given another code name, "Luo Zhongshan." If Leung had truly begun her secret life in the employ of the MSS, she had now, if the allegations in the court documents are to be believed, completed the triple cross--working first for the MSS, then the FBI and, finally, for the MSS again.
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