At the same time, the U.S. rulers continue their probes to deepen their anti-China campaign, accompanied by efforts to undermine democratic rights and strengthen the arbitrary powers of the executive branch of the government.

The heart of the issue is Washington's irreconcilable hostility to the workers state in China, which came into being through a mighty socialist revolution by workers and peasants that overturned capitalist property relations, setting an example for working people worldwide.

U.S. officials arrogantly claim that China's acquisition of new military technology could only have come about through stealing U.S. government secrets. They are using this allegation as a pretext to push their witchhunting campaign, and to convince working people here that "we" face a "national security" threat. But as workers and farmers, we have everything in common with the Chinese people, and no common interests with them--the billionaire rulers of the United States, who are the number one enemy of humanity. Working people should back China's right as a sovereign nation to develop whatever defenses it needs in face of imperialist pressures and threats.

Of course, the charges against Lee were phony. It turned out that the information Lee downloaded is openly available in scientific journals and public libraries. That didn't stop government prosecutors from accusing Lee of exposing the "crown jewels" of Washington's nuclear weapons program that could "change the global strategic balance." Through such charges and the big-business media hype around them, the U.S. rulers aimed to gut the presumption of innocence and keep Lee behind bars for life.

The government resorted to anti-Asian and anti-immigrant prejudice to try to make its case stick. Lee was essentially charged with downloading information on nuclear weapons he uses as part of his job while being of Chinese descent.

But the grotesque attempt to railroad Lee to jail sparked outrage. Asian-American organizations and other defenders of democratic rights began to raise an outcry of protest. Supporters of the government's campaign never succeeded in whipping up a chauvinist hysteria among public opinion to politically drive through the frame-up.

The failed witchhunt against Wen Ho Lee takes place under a government, the Clinton-Gore administration, that has pushed to lay the basis for developing a missile "defense" system that would give Washington a first-strike nuclear capacity. And China is at the top of the U.S. targets such missiles would be aimed at.

Meanwhile, the harassment of Lee is not over. As part of the plea agreement he will be forced to undergo FBI interrogation under oath on what supposedly happened to the unaccounted tapes. If prosecutors convince the judge that Lee is untruthful in his answers, they will seek to reinstate the original charges along with new charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Working people should continue to demand that the U.S. government keep its hands off Wen Ho Lee.