WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 20) -- Justice Department attorneys have begun an inquiry into what role, if any, campaign contributions played in the White House's decision to help two U.S. space and communications companies, CNN has learned.

In turn, the companies allegedly may have helped China improve its military missile program. The inquiry, which will involve a massive document review, will be done by a task force already looking into campaign finance abuses during the 1996 election year.

Sources tell CNN the goal of the inquiry is to see whether a full-scale investigation into the growing China controversy is necessary. The task force will be told to forward any information suggesting a need for an independent counsel probe.

One source told CNN the task force has authority to use a grand jury to subpoena records, but probably not to call witnesses.

The inquiry will also look at whether the White House decisions had any relationship to controversial Democratic contributor Johnny Chung.

Chung has told the FBI some of the donations he gave the Democratic National Committee came from Chinese aerospace officials who had ties to China's military.

Senior Justice officials maintain that no specific allegation of wrongdoing by President Bill Clinton has yet surfaced. Some FBI officials, however, privately believe the independent counsel review process should begin and they believe a more aggressive approach should be in place to get to witnesses immediately. However, Justice sources say the FBI has not raised those concerns in meetings about the issue.

The inquiry was launched Monday, sources say, but was given additional guidance on what to seek following a meeting Wednesday.

In another development, Rep. Chris Cox has confirmed he has been selected by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to chair a proposed special committee to investigate possible national security violations in the sale of U.S. missile technology to China, as well as possible attempts by the Chinese military to influence the U.S. election process.

Cox said the proposed inquiry would be broad and involve the jurisdiction of many House committees.

"It would make sense to consider, and this is only under consideration, a committee that would be focused on the subject matter rather than on a corner of it within the jurisdiction of one of our committees," said Cox, a California Republican and China authority.

The entire House will vote on the proposed committee when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess.

Gingrich has said the inquiry is about national security, not campaign fund-raising, but the two are destined to converge should the proposal come to pass.

Gingrich offered the idea of a select committee in response to allegations the Clinton Administration gave special treatment to Loral Space and Communications in its sensitive dealings with China's space agency.

Loral's chief executive officer, Bernard Schwartz, is a major Democratic donor.

President Clinton signed a waiver allowing Schwartz's company to sell missile technology to China over the objection of the Pentagon. Loral denies any improprieties.

Gingrich's plan is to make the new select committee similar to the one chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin in 1973 during the Watergate scandal, but this one would have five Republican and three Democratic members.

The White House voiced skepticism about the proposed new committee, but said it would work with Congress in any event. "That's their business, not ours," said White House spokesman Mike McCurry.

Meanwhile, the House debated several amendments to the Defense Authorization Act designed to pressure the White House to reveal what happened regarding the export of satellite technology to China.

"One would think common sense tells us that we should not send any of our defense-related technology or equipment to the only remaining communist country in the world that maintains a nuclear capability," said Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.).

Republicans challenged Democrats. "My colleagues on the other side of the aisle need to be patriots first and politicians second, patriots first and politicians second," said Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana.

In fact, with heavy Democratic support, the House rammed through a series of just-drafted amendments that would prohibit sharing U.S. satellites or missile technology with China.

"You know, of all the scandals coming out of the White House, this scandal is perhaps the most disturbing of all," said Rep. Mark Neumann (R-Wisc.)

"Is there a single shred of evidence that suggests this president took the money, knew what he was doing and then said 'send the missiles, send the satellites to be on the missiles because of the money?' " asked Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat. "Not a single shred of evidence. It's treasonous, they say, without a single shred of evidence."

Many Democrats are not in love with the idea of a new select committee, but House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt told CNN he would go along reluctantly.

"If this is his [Gingrich's] final decision, we have to cooperate and will cooperate because we want the investigation to go on," Gephardt said.

Scores of Republicans are sending a letter to Clinton, urging him to cancel his trip to China next month.

"The president has no business jetting off to Tiananmen Square to attend ceremonies with China's communist leaders," said Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.)

In the Senate, the matter will be investigated by the existing Intelligence committee. Senate Republicans are taking a lower key approach than their House counterparts.

The latest allegations of Chinese influence-buying come only five weeks before Clinton's scheduled visit to China, he first such visit by an American president since the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.

Despite Republican calls to cancel the trip, the White House says the president is not even considering that.

"We're going there despite all the differences we have with the People's Republic to try to work constructively to improve this relationship which is so important to billions, literally billions of people," said McCurry.

After a slow start, the White House damage control team is taking the offensive. White House counsel Charles Ruff sent a letter to Republican leaders Wednesday, insisting Clinton was simply doing what both Presidents Reagan and Bush had done in allowing U.S. satellites to be launched from Chinese missiles.

But Republicans charge the Clinton Administration went further, authorizing Loral Space and Communications to continue such deals even while the Justice Department was investigating Loral for allegedly supplying China with embargoed missile guidance systems.

"They knew these communications satellites were one of America's most sensitive military and intelligence gathering technologies," said Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) "Was there some other issue driving this change? America deserves to know the answers to these questions."

The allegations could prove more explosive than those involving Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky.

"I don't think they [the White House] can use the standard procedure of delay or the standard procedure of attacking their attackers," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution. "I think they have to deal with this because this is probably the first charge in the campaign finance deal that the American people will want, if not demand, an answer to."

Meanwhile, Republican congressional staffers told The Associated Press that Pentagon staffers who reviewed a Loral export license were kept from voicing opposition to Clinton's approval of the transfer of satellite technology to China.

Three Republican congressional staffers, who asked not to be identified, said more than one worker at the Pentagon's Defense Technology Security Administration, reported that its head, David Tarbell, told subordinates before the decision in February that the president had already reached a conclusion on what to do.

Committee investigators quoted staff at the agency as saying they were drafting memos in late 1997 and early this year opposing the export license for Loral but Tarbell told them not to submit their work and to erase draft memos.

Tarbell, a career civil servant, issued a statement denying the allegations.

"I have no recollection of telling anybody on my staff not to oppose the license or the waiver in this case," Tarbell said. "I had no idea in advance whether or not the president was going to grant the waiver. Any report that I asked people to eliminate or destroy documents of any kind on this matter is absolutely wrong."

In another development, the House voted 402-0 Tuesday night to support immunity for prosecution from four prospective witnesses for Rep. Burton's campaign fund-raising inquiry.

The four are associates of Chung, the man at the center of the controversy. The Democrats later returned Chung's $366,000 in contributions when they could not confirm the money's source.

The unanimous vote for the non-binding resolution gained the support of Democrats who said they would not vote to actually grant immunity as long Burton continued to head the inquiry.

Democrats on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which Burton chairs, have blocked the immunity grant to protest what they claim is Burton's partisanship in running the investigation.