mh-magazine domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/customer/www/chinacheatsheets.com/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6260Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang on Wednesday said, “We consistently oppose any country adopting unilateral sanctions based on its own domestic laws and regulations and the wrong method of exercising long-arm jurisdiction.”
Sanctions on 13 companies were triggered after U.S. President Donald Trump designated North Korea a state-sponsor of terrorism. Among the targeted companies was Dongyuan Industrial, which the U.S. Treasury Department said was working with front companies “for weapons of mass destruction-related North Korean organisations.”
Dongyuan was also sanctioned for exporting more than $28 million in goods including items linked to nuclear reactors to North Korea. The Treasury added that three companies alone had engaged in more than $750 million worth of business with the Hermit Kingdom, which involved computers, iron and coal.
Generally speaking, these new sanctions ban companies from using U.S.-linked bank accounts and they prevent foreign firms from doing business with such organizations.
The latest round of sanctions places a strain on what appeared to be a cooling of Sino-American relations. During President Trump’s recent visit to Asia, he urged his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and other leaders to take stronger efforts at curtailing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Trump even said Xi was working hard on that front. But China remains North Korea’s biggest trading partner, and some analysts believe Washington’s latest move on Chinese companies — even those with suspected ties to terror– may cause Beijing to step back.
“Trump will continue to use trade and investment issues to pressure China on North Korea,” says Shou Huisheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, in an interview with the South China Morning Post. “It is a very easy-to-use tactic for Trump, which may help him address the North Korean issue, but at the cost of failing to solve the root causes of the US-China trade imbalance.”
Still, Trump’s latest efforts may ultimately set the stage for a massive internal blow to the North Korean regime, whether China is behind it or not.
]]>China’s state-run media announced that Song Tao, head of Beijing’s International Liaison Department, will visit Pyongyang on Friday. According to the New China News Agency, Song will “inform” North Korean officials about the recent 19th party Congress, a major political conclave that saw Chinese President Xi Jinping assume another five years in power.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang during a regular briefing on Wednesday declined to comment on weather Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions will be on the agenda. However, he said Tao will “exchange views on major issues of common concern.”
China is the North’s biggest trading partner, covering 90% of the Hermit Kingdom’s trade volume. But in recent months, China has taken a tougher stance on the nuclear-weapons armed country. Recently, China announced it will coal exports from North Korea and cut ties with banks operating there.
President Trump on Sunday Tweeted that Xi said he “is upping the sanctions” and working “very hard” to curtail North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Since February, the North has tested 15 missiles. Meanwhile, it’s leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly threatened the U.S., raising fears that the country is bent on mounting nuclear warheads on missiles capable of striking the continental U.S.
China has also agreed to support the United Nations Security Council’s latest round of sanctions which could slash $1 billion from North Korea’s export revenue.
]]>Key to this economic relationship will be $250 billion in new deals between U.S. companies and Chinese firms, the two leaders announced before reporters at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday.
There, United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President XI Jinping applauded as business leaders between the two nations signed trade deals on electronics, aircraft and soybeans among other goods. Business leaders from the U.S. included representatives from Boeing, Ford and Goldman Sachs.
“China and U.S. are the two largest economies and big engines of global growth,” Xi remarked. “We need to strengthen cooperation, pursue stable and balanced economic and trade relations.”
NPR’s Scott Horsley, who is traveling with President Trump during his five-nation visit to Asia, says the former real-estate mogul thanked Xi for taking major strides in curbing North Korean aggression including suspending coal exports from the North and severing ties with banks operating there.
“We have a chance to strengthen ties and improve the lives of our citizens and stand together against those who threaten our civilization,” Trump said. “As long as we stand together, that threat will never happen. Doesn’t even stand a chance.”
Still, there are several issues Washington and Beijing need to address. Among them is China’s ever-growing presence on the disputed South China Sea. China claims virtually the entire area. It has also been establishing artificial islands and militarizing the region to the dismay of several Asian neighbors who also lay claims to parts of the South China Sea. Among those neighbors are other countries Trump will soon be visiting including Vietnam and The Philippines.
In the past, the U.S. has sent several warships to the region to defend freedom of navigation.
But Xi argues, “The U.S. and China are countries with important influence in the Asia-Pacific. As I said to the president, the Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate both of us.”
Trump also says he and Xi have enjoyed “great chemistry.”
But this newfound cooperation is in stark contrast to the stance Trump took during his presidential campaign run, when criticism of China was key to his platform. He previously accused China of being currency manipulators that boosted exports by weakening the renminbi compared to the U.S. dollar. However, Trump has since said he’s changed his mind on that issue.
Xi emphasized that while the two superpowers have major differences, there still are major opportunities to be “mutually reinforcing.”
]]>Some fear that U.S.-Taiwan relations would be downgraded in exchange for a stronger Chinese stance against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Katherine Chang, the minister for mainland affairs, tells the Washington Post that Taiwan could become a “bargaining chip” in such a case.
Currently, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out force as a path to reunification. The U.S. has historically backed the “One China Policy” by refusing to diplomatically recognize Taiwan even though it has maintained an unofficial relationship involving trade.
Taiwan was not mentioned by either Trump or Xi during a joint news conference following their meeting on Thursday.
However, a number of Trump’s advisers have been known to be sympathetic to Taiwan’s concerns and grievances. In early December, Trump broke away from decades of tradition by making a congratulatory phone call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen following her election victory. But, Trump has since said he will not engage with the Taiwanese president again without checking in with China first.
Furthermore, Trump and Xi have been enjoying an improved relationship, with Trump even saying both shared “great chemistry.” During a news conference in South Korea on Tuesday, Trump said Xi had “been trying very hard to solve the problem” with North Korea. In fact, the U.S. president has enjoyed some success where predecessors have failed on the North Korean issue. China, which is Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner, recently agreed to cut coal exports with the nation and sever ties with its banks.
When Trump was defending his call with Tsai Ing-wen, he had said that the U.S. stance on the One China Policy would depend on whether he can “make a deal” with Beijing on trade and other issues.
Still, the U.S. and Taiwan have enjoyed some good relations including a $1.42 billion weapons deal agreed on earlier this year. This is one of the reasons some diplomats feel a major shift in U.S. relations with Taiwan is unlikely.
Taipei is also looking forward to increase defense spending, establish a bi-lateral trade agreement with the U.S., and end all trade with North Korea.
But whether Taiwan can become a bargaining chip in the North Korean issue strongly depends on Xi’s decisions.
“Many have debated here in Taiwan whether President Trump will trade Taiwan in exchange for China’s position in North Korea,” said Alexander Huang, chairman of Taiwan’s Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies. “But my hunch is that even if President Trump makes such an offer, President Xi would say no: ‘Taiwan is not in your hands. It’s in mine.’”
]]>China’s state run Global Times, which is often filled with nationalistic and pro-military rhetoric, recently ran an editorial calling for peace. It read, “Washington and Pyongyang have been intensifying hostile and threatening rhetoric against each other for some time. Their frequent saber-rattling, unimaginable in the past, is escalating tensions in Northeast Asia,”
No stranger to speaking his mind, President Donald Trump on Saturday issued to North Korea what many called a warning of war. Via a Twitter post, he slammed his predecessors for decades of failed negotiations and monetary incentives that only made the North Korean war machine stronger. “ … agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!” he Tweeted.
Later on Tuesday, the U.S. sent two Air Force B-1B Lancer Bombers over the Korean peninsula — perhaps even visible from Kim Jong Un’s throne. The Hermit Kingdom has recently come under more sanctions after testing nuclear devices.
But for China, the war games and shouting matches are getting all too real.
Another state-run paper The People’s Daily ran an editorial warning, “War on the Korean Peninsula would be catastrophic, and dialogue remains the best option.” And although the article acknowledged “logic behind Trump’s threats,” it concluded that war can’t be the answer.
]]>“I applaud China for breaking off all banking relationships with North Korea, something that people would have thought unthinkable even two months ago,” Trump said. “I want to thank President Xi.”
For years, China has remained North Korea’s largest trading partner and virtually its only military ally. Beijing’s banks and financial institutions elsewhere have served as a lifeline for the nuclear armed “Hermit Kingdom”– often characterized by a burgeoning military and an impoverished populace.
The Treasury Department recently announced new sanctions on eight North Korean banks, 26 people in China, and three other countries the Trump administration says have been funneling money to the dictatorship.
Speaking before the Rose Garden, Trump called upon the nations of the world to band together against the nuclear threat of North Korea.
“North Korean nuclear weapons and missile development threaten the entire world with unthinkable loss of life,” Trump said. “All nations must act now to ensure the regime’s complete denuclearization.” That has been the diplomatic Holy Grail which none of the former real-estate mogul’s predecessors have ever found.
But, Trump says change is coming.
Beyond tougher sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the UN within the last two months, the U.S. is also pressuring nations to isolate themselves from North Korea even if its severing the slightest of trade, banking and diplomatic ties.
]]>On Tuesday, an anti-aircraft defense battalion set off for the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea that separates China from the peninsula. There, it tested unidentified weapons to shoot down low-altitude targets. The website also noted that “The troops rapid response capabilities and actual combat levels have effectively been tested.”
The drills come days following North Korea’s testing of an advanced hydrogen bomb, the sixth and largest nuclear weapons test to date. The move comes amid rising international concern that the often volatile leaders of the country are close to mounting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
In the meantime, the United States has discussed deployment of anti-aircraft carriers and strategic bombers with its ally South Korea. However, North Korean ally China has expressed concern about U.S.-South Korean drills and contempt toward Washington’s deployment of an anti-missile defense system in the South.
However, China’s relations with the North have been also been tested in recent months following North Korea’s missile launches and the United States’ calls for mounting pressure on the nuclear armed state.
]]>The popular microblogging site Sina WeiBo recently censored searchers for the term “Hydrogen Bomb.” According to censorship-monitoring website FreeWeibo, the top 3 terms banned by Weibo in the last 24 hours are “North Korea,” “Hydrogen Bomb” and “Brics.” The watchdog site also reports that posts from independent news sites that could be deemed alarming have been removed.
After users look up these banned terms, they are presented with the following message: “According to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results cannot be displayed.”
The Communist nation isn’t even allowing humor. Several jokes regarding Brics and the North Korean test have been censored or removed.
One user by the handle Zhang Hongjie sarcastically posted “North Korea set off a 6.3 scale firecracker to applaud the start of Brics”, before it was removed. Another known online as IAmDaGang had his comment removed for posting “Kim the Fat had set off a blast to celebrate.”
But for some users, the situation is no laughing matter. Many citizens are speculating that tense relations between North Korea and its biggest trading and military partner China could lead to a nuclear disaster.
User Wang Zhanyang noted that tremors were felt in Changchun, which is located 269 miles from the North Korean border. “There were people running out of their houses; in such a hazardous nuclear environment, how can we feel secure about the development of the economy?” he asked.
His post was also removed.
]]>“Owing to China’s traditional economic ties with North Korea, it will mainly be China paying the price for implementing the resolution,” said China’s Foreign Minister Yang Wi. “But in order to protect the international non-proliferation system and regional peace and stability, China will as before fully and strictly properly implement the entire contents of the relevant resolution.”
North Korea was slapped by these new sanctions following a unanimous decision by the United Nations after North Korea had tested intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in defiance of existing resolutions.
These new sanctions ban the exporting of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. Moreover, it prevents nations from opening their borders to more North Korean laborers and prohibits any new ventures.
Still, it remains unclear as to how these moves will affect the North’s nuclear weapons program. Following Pyongyang’s ICBM tests, the Japanese government released a white paper suggesting North Korea may be inching closer to mounting nuclear warheads on these missiles, which have the potential to strike the United States.
“Since last year, when it forcibly implemented two nuclear tests and more than 20 ballistic missile launches, the security threats have entered a new stage,” the Japanese Defence Ministry said in the document. “It is conceivable that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has already considerably advanced and it is possible that North Korea has already achieved the miniaturization of nuclear weapons and has acquired nuclear warheads.”
Following various American media reports that North Korea had succesully built a “minuturized nuclear weapon” capable of fitting on some of its missiles, President Donald Trump warned the North was getting closer and closer to a line it would not be able to turn back from.
]]>President Donald Trump had been relying on China to pressure North Korea into dialing back its aggressive nuclear and military programs in the midst of ongoing missile launches by the Hermit Kingdom. But the commander-in-chief of the world’s strongest Army seems to be losing his patience.
Trump took to Twitter Monday and posted “While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!”
But the president’s next move could cause more tension between the planet’s largest economies. China remains North Korea’s most important trading partner accounting for 70% of Pyongyang’s total trade and supplying the nuclear-armed nation with essential goods such as food and energy, according to the Congressional Research Service.
An editorial that ran in the state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times warned of “friction” between the U.S. and China if Washington imposes sanctions on the Communist nation’s companies.
The ongoing battle follows the death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student who died recently after spending 18 months in a North Korean prison before coming back home in a comma after action by president Trump to have him released.
The student had been handed a sentence of 15 years of hard labor for stealing a propaganda poster.
North Korean authorities said he fell into a coma after suffering from botulism following ingestion of a sleeping pill. However, doctors who examined him the in the U.S. found evidence of severe tissue loss from his brain.
His death pushed several lawmakers to call for strict backlash against North Korea and to hold the rogue state accountable for the death of the young man.
Sen. John McCain in a statement Monday said “Otto Warmbier, an American citizen, was murdered by the Kim Jong-un regime. In the final year of his life, he lived the nightmare in which the North Korean people have been trapped for 70 years: forced labor, mass starvation, systematic cruelty, torture and murder.”
He also accused North Korea of “destabilizing the Asia-Pacific region, and rapidly developing the technology to strike the American homeland with nuclear weapons. Now it has escalated to brutalizing Americans, including three other citizens currently imprisoned in North Korea. The United States of America cannot and should not tolerate the murder of its citizens by hostile powers.”
Young Pioneer Tours, the China-based group that organized Warmbier’s trip, announced it would no longer take Americans to the country.
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