Espionage: The Mole Who Meant Well

Leaders of the People's Republic of China obviously knew something was up when Henry Kissinger sought to arrange his now famous secret mission to Peking in 1971. That signal, however, was not their first clue that the U.S. was interested in improving relations with a Communist regime it had refused to recognize for more than two decades. Larry Wu-Tai Chin, 63, a retired CIA analyst on trial as a spy for China, last week testified that in 1970 he had passed to Peking a document containing a secret message from Richard Nixon to Congress outlining his intention to work toward rapprochement.

Chin, who earned at least $300,000 as a spy from 1952 to 1985, offered his remarkable admission in an attempt to characterize his espionage as a personal campaign for reconciliation between his homeland and his adopted country. Of the Nixon document, he said, "I thought if that information could be brought to the attention of the Chinese leadership it might break the ice." It took the jury just 3 1/2 hours to find Chin guilty on 17 felony charges, including six counts of espionage-related activities. Chin faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment.