A large number of these were USAF as they wanted information-Jim
            U.S. knew of POWs in China, reports indicate
     WASHINGTON - Feb 15, 1998 9:12 p.m. EST -- Hundreds of American
 servicemen were shuttled through a clandestine network of prison
 camps in China during the Korean War, say formerly secret U.S. Army
 intelligence reports, which speculate that many died in captivity
 from malnutrition or lack of medical care.
     Rumors have persisted for years that China, which intervened on
 North Korea's side in the 1950-53 war, took large numbers of U.S.
 captives for interrogation and indoctrination in camps inside China
 and never accounted for them.
     Declassified reports in the files of the Army's assistant chief
 of staff for intelligence now make clear that the United States knew
 of the prisoners, closely tracked their movements and feared for
 their lives.
     On a visit to Beijing in January, Defense Secretary William
 Cohen asked top Chinese officials to open People's Liberation Army
 record archives and other files that might help account for missing
 U.S. servicemen.
     About 8,100 are unaccounted for from the Korean War. (This was
 almost 25 time the number held by the North Vietnamese. Jim)
     Cohen got no explicit assurances from President Jiang Zemin, but
 a Cohen aide present in the meetings said lower-level Chinese
 officials indicated Jiang's non-response should be interpreted as
 tacit acceptance.
     China has consistently maintained that all POW questions were
 settled at the end of the war. Chinese troops entered the fray in
 the fall of 1950 in a surprise offensive that killed and captured
 thousands of U.S. and other U.N. troops. The Chinese offensive
 ultimately guaranteed that the war would end in a stalemate.
     It has been well-documented that China, with Russian help, ran
 most of the POW camps in North Korea. Less well understood has been
 the extent of POW camps in China and what became of American and
 other prisoners held there.
     "One of the most significant features in U.N. POW treatment and
 policy is the movement of U.N. POWs into Manchuria and into South
 China," an Army intelligence summary dated Dec. 15, 1951, said. Its
 unidentified author added that he believed "Manchurian camps house
 a great many U.S. POWs, and Manchuria is a staging area or collecting
 point for U.S. POWs."
     The report is one in a series of eight written at regular inter-
 vals during the war by Army intelligence officers attempting to
 track POW movements. Each is titled "UN Prisoners of War Camps and
 Conditions in Korea, Manchuria and China," and labeled "secret."
 They were declassified in 1996 at the request of Mark Sauter, a New
 York-based reporter for the syndicated TV program "Inside Edition,"
 but were not publicized until now.
     The Dec. 15, 1951, report said a "careful assessment" of avail-
 able intelligence on prison camps led to the conclusion that about
 2,500 American POWs were being held in Manchuria, about 1,500 in
 other parts of China.
    "Specially selected groups are sent to China in relatively small
 numbers to undergo political indoctrination," the report said. "Of
 those POWs processed in Manchuria, the ones not going to China are
 apparently being sent to mines and labor camps in Manchuria itself."
     "Because of obvious diplomatic complications ... , it follows
 that the communists would neither wish to return these men to U.S.
 control nor admit to their existence at this time," the report said.
 It cited "almost conclusive evidence" that some POWs were being
 supervised by Soviets.
     "These factors, together with the usefulness of U.S. POWs in a
 slave labor capacity, render the ultimate fate of any U.S. personnel
 in Manchurian camps in grave doubt," the report said.
     Intelligence reports often are based on information from sources
 whose reliability is questionable, and wartime reports often contain
 errors and misunderstandings. Even so, the Army intelligence docu-
 ments leave little doubt that the Chinese prison camps existed and
 that Americans were held in some.
     A report dated June 20, 1952, said more than 1,000 American POWs
 were held in a former military prison outside Nanking, now called
 Nanjing.
     "A Russian colonel named Nokelov is in charge. All POWs 20-25
 years old. Brought here from Peking (Beijing) in December 1951 for
 re-indoctrination in communist thought," the report said, citing a
 source rated as "fairly reliable."
     A Feb. 15, 1952, report said without elaboration that about 500
 POWs at a camp 10 miles east of Mukden, China, were being indoctri-
 nated "pending dispatch to USSR."
     The Aug. 20, 1952, installment said POWs were grouped according
 to perceived political leanings. Those judged by the Chinese to be
 promising for anti-Western propaganda were kept in what the Army
 described as "peace camps."
     The largest of this type as of May 1952 was at Chungchun in the
 Manchurian region of northeastern China, the August 1952 report
 said. "2,000 POWs here; they will not be exchanged," it said, meaning
 they would not be returned at the end of the war. It reported other
 peace camps in Beijing, Dandong and Shanghai.
     American POWs also were reported in Chinese camps in Harbin and
 Tsingtao, now Qingdao. The last in the series of Army intelligence
 reports, dated Jan. 20, 1953, said that because of a lack of reports
 on 12 prison camps in China since April 1952, it was assumed all 12
 had been abolished. There was no word on disposition of the
 prisoners.
     (It is about time that the U.S. people be told. Jim)
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