Book shows China Nkorea’s sanction breach
WASHINGTON — The meeting between acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and his Chinese counterpart began with all the hallmarks of a routine staged and scripted session between two uneasy rivals.
First came the posed photo, as the two men shook hands with broad smiles in front of their nations’ flags, and then they moved quickly into the hotel conference room surrounded by staff. There, Shanahan presented Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe with a gift.
But what at first glance looked like a coffee table book was actually 32 pages of photographs and satellite images of North Korean ships getting and delivering shipments of oil. Many of the photos are stamped with dates, times, locations and descriptions, and, according to officials, represent proof that Pyongyang is violating economic sanctions right off China’s coast.
“I gave him this beautiful book,” Shanahan said a day after his meeting with Wei and his top staff at a national security conference in Singapore. “I said this is an area where you and I can cooperate.”
The pointed message from the acting Pentagon chief comes as the Trump administration is at odds with China over a wide range of issues, including trade, Chinese theft of American technology, the possible sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan and how to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons program.
China agreed to the U.N. sanctions against its ally and neighbor North Korea, but, as the photo book illustrates, appears to be allowing violations to take place.
On one page of the book, seen by The Associated
Press, a photo shows the North Korean-flagged oil tanker Kum Un San 3 next to the M/V New Regent, a Panama-flagged tanker, and a number of lines and hoses are draped between the two ships. The photo is dated June 7, 2018.
The U.N., in an October 2018 press release, said the June 7 ship-to-ship transfer was a violation and said it likely involved oil. The U.N. sanctioned the two ships and said they are subject to deflagging and prohibited from entering U.N. member ports.
During the meeting, Shanahan told Wei that the U.S. and Chinese navies could work together to prevent such violations of the U.N. sanctions, said the official.
The oil and trade sanctions against North Korea have hurt its already struggling economy, and both Russia and China have called for easing them. China isn’t likely to want to openly evade the sanctions and face diplomatic friction with the United States, but more than 90% of North Korea’s foreign trade has gone through China.
The U.N. Security Council in March said North Korea was continuing to defy its resolutions through a “massive” increase in ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal. The U.S. Navy has been working with a number of countries, including South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France, to catch sanctions violations such as ship-to-ship transfers.
Shanahan’s meeting with Wei at the Shangri-la Dialogue security conference this month came just the evening before he delivered a speech that denounced China’s efforts to steal technology from other nations and militarize man-made outposts in the South China Sea as a “toolkit of coercion.” But he also made clear the U.S. wants to work with China on other international issues.
In a brief mention of the book during questions after his conference speech, Shanahan said the two countries must work through their differences.
“Trust is built over time,” he said. “Trust is built by working on projects and being shoulder to shoulder. It isn’t done by conferences or by policies or by speeches. We need to find areas in which we can grow.”
China brings back trade negotiator
Two weeks before talks between the United States and China broke down, Beijing quietly called one of its most formidable trade negotiators out of a preretirement posting.
The negotiator, Yu Jianhua, a 28-year veteran of trade talks with U.S. officials and at the World Trade Organization, returned to Beijing in mid-april from his position as China’s ambassador to the United Nations offices in Geneva. With his appointment, the Chinese government began to address an experience gap that could be holding it back as it tries to resolve a potentially devastating trade war with the Trump administration.
It is unclear how or whether a previous lack of trade-policy experience on China’s negotiating team contributed to the breakdown in negotiations last month. U.S. officials walked away from the talks after their Chinese counterparts deleted page after page of provisions from a draft pact. The approval for such an assertive move almost certainly came directly from President Xi Jinping, China’s top leader.
Still, people on both sides of the talks say the Chinese government’s negotiating team has lacked expertise in major trade issues. The appointment of Yu signals the apparent recognition by China’s leaders of a need for experience they can trust.