Sinapologists protect Montaperto to preserve their own prestige and influence

"The effort by numerous pro-China intelligence analysts is aimed at protecting their prestige and influence, and at shielding others in government who share Montaperto's benign views of China and the Chinese military," Bill Gertz reports in the Washington Times, citing US officials.

"The result has been near-silence from the Bush administration and Congress on a major Chinese spy case, while at the same time President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials publicly criticized recent press disclosures of a classified anti-terrorism financial-tracking program."

Montaperto had immense influence on the shaping of US government perceptions about Beijing.

"Without a doubt, Ron Montaperto, through his career in the intelligence community and then his even more important role in helping to form the views of a generation of current American military leaders, and then his writing and activism, has played a major role in forming the US government perceptions that were translated into policy," China security expert Rick Fisher tells the Times.