China – Page 15

April 12, 2007

Law Enforcement Will Be Compromised

Correction: I subsequently found the transcript for the February 27, 2007 hearing, and Chris Hill did not say, quote, “Law enforcement will not be compromised.” On reading the full quote, you’ll probably agree that Hill found another way of saying the same thing; however, I regret the error, which was no doubt due to me scribbling notes of the hearing by hand, and transposing Rep. Royce’s question with Hill’s answer. Here’s the correct quote from Hill: Ambassador HILL. Mr....

Appeasement/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering

March 14, 2007

Breaking the Bank in Macau

[Updates: You can read Treasury’s final rule here. Start on page 14 to read just what Banco Delta failed to do to Treasury’s satisfaction. The message for North Korea’s other bankers out there is clear: ask obvious questions. Among BDA’s practices, according to the rule, was to provide a discount for a “high-risk North Korean-related bulk currency depositor” they either knew, or should have known, was laundering money. BDA obfuscated about reforms, failed to change its corrupt management, and didn’t...

China/Counterfeiting/Democracy/Money Laundering

March 12, 2007

Kim Jong Nam’s Bachelor Pad Burgled, and How the Other Side Lives

The Zhuyuan Haoyuan villa complex is 15 minutes from downtown Macau and its 80 villas are among the territory’s most exclusive. The average price of each villa is estimated HK$15 million, roughly US$1.92 million. Yellow sunflower symbols adorning the doors of nos. 361 and 371 easily identify them as Kim Jong-nam’s. [Chosun Ilbo] If Kim Jong Nam is really estranged from his father, you really have to wonder where this money came from. Meanwhile, the Daily NK reports on the...

China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology

March 10, 2007

Eight Questions Our Shenyang Consul General Won’t Answer

About a week ago, I published this post, relaying Adrian Hong’s assertion that the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang, in direct contravention U.S. law, stood by and refused entry to six North Korean refugees who where just feet from the Consulate’s front gate. Shortly thereafter, the refugees, Hong and other LiNK activists were arrested by the Chinese authorities. After I published that post, a reader supplied me with the e-mail addresses of the Stephen Wickman, the U.S. Consul General in...

Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Refugees

March 8, 2007

The Death of An(other) Alliance?

Thank you, Vice Foreign Minister Obvious! North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan reportedly told North Korea specialists in the United States that China is “only trying to use” North Korea. Kim was in the U.S. for talks on normalizing bilateral ties. [Chosun Ilbo] I take it His Porcine Majesty did not enjoy the buffet at the Chinese Embassy. Or, more likely, this is just disinformation: China has no great influence on North Korea, he was quoted as saying, adding...

China & Korea/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 4, 2007

How a U.S. Consul Helped Send Six North Korean Refugees to Kim Jong Il’s Gulag

[Update: The Shenyang Six were freed from a Chinese jail in August 2007.] The Secretary of State shall undertake to facilitate the submission of applications [] by citizens of North Korea seeking protection as refugees …. (Title 22, United States Code, Section 7843) Back in January, I told you the story of the Shenyang Six, a group of six North Korean refugees who sought refuge from persecution and starvation in their homeland, and how the Chinese authorities, following their long-standing...

China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Washington Views

February 28, 2007

RFA Interviews North Korean Comfort Women

Paek Sun-Joo was an 18-year-old street child when she was sold to a 38- year-old Chinese man more than two years ago. “[The traffickers] would gather people wearing rags, appearing to be compassionate and pity them, giving them something to eat and telling them that in China they would be able to feed and clothe themselves adequately,” Paek told RFA reporter Han Min. “It is easy to be tricked when you are starving, and somebody gives you some food, telling...

China & Korea/Human Trafficking

February 18, 2007

Chinese Ex-Envoy Accused of Spying

Former Chinese ambassador to Korea Li Bin has been detained and questioned by Chinese police on charges of leaking state secrets, it emerged over the weekend. Li was the envoy in Seoul from September 2001 to August 2005. After returning to China, he was ambassador in charge of North Korean nuclear affairs. Li was suddenly summoned to Beijing last December while serving as deputy mayor of Weihai in China’s eastern Shandong Province and his name disappeared from the list of...

China

February 13, 2007

Definitely Not Gitmo

Chinese authorities in the far-west city of Urumqi today executed an ethnic Uyghur man for allegedly attempting to “split the [Chinese] motherland. “The execution was carried out at 9 a.m.,” Ismail Semed’s widow, Buhejer, told RFA’s Uyghur service. “They gave his body to us at the cemetery. Some of his relatives and friends joined us. When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole in his heart. Semed, a Uyghur political activist deported...

China/Terrorism (NK)

February 12, 2007

N. Korea Still Hasn’t Caught Border Guards Who Deserted

You will recall that 20 of them dropped their weapons, deserted, and crossed over to China. It looks like they’ve been successful in evading capture so far: A North Korean source from the district of Onsung said on the 8th “20 or so people who looked like secret agents formed a group at Sambong Customs. These people and a soldier which looked like their captain had received orders and were preparing to cross over to China. He said “It seems...

China & Korea/Google Earth/NK Military

February 4, 2007

“Koryo Is Our Land!”

The original photo: “Mount Paektu Is Our Land!” Photoshop Number One: “Koryo Is Chinese Land!” I don’t endorse the claim for an instant, but I can’t deny some enjoyment at watching the panicky retreat from Korean nationalists’ latest classless stunt. Unlike the case with Tokdo, the Koreans have a great deal of their nationhood invested in Mount Paektu. It would be unbecoming of them to be as cowardly in any real dispute about Paekdu as they’ve been furious over...

China & Korea/Korean Society

February 3, 2007

Canadian Report Accuses Chinese Military of Large-Scale Organ-Harvesting

You will recall that last year, the Falun Gong-linked Epoch Times accused the Chinese government of harvesting the organs of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners at a hospital in a place called Sujiatun. The story emerged just as Chinese dictator Hu Jin Tao was packing his bags for a trip to Washington. Eager to avoid diplomatic disaster,* the U.S. Embassy collected a team to inspect the site; after a few days, the Chinese let them in. Initially, they reported “no...

China/Human Rights

February 3, 2007

Diverted N. Korean Food Aid Traced to Single Recipient

Update 2/5/07: The Joongang Ilbo thinks Kim Jong Nam is on the clock for his father after all: While staying abroad, Jong-nam has been reporting back to his father on the situation here and in the United States,” the source said. “What is important is that he has been allowed by his father to make contact with people from South Korea and the United States at will. This, from an unnamed source. It’s a terrific argument for keeping that $25...

China & Korea/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology

January 31, 2007

Hey! Clarify This!

South Korea expressed concern over “undiplomatic” remarks made by the top U.S. military officer here regarding possible delays in the relocation of U.S. military bases, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. [link] Background here. The Foreign Ministry would also like you to know that this is not an “official” warning; it’s really just the diplomatic equivalent of a fix-it ticket. No fine, no court appearance. Guess that “I support the alliance” bumper sticker paid off after all. “The comment (made...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/China & Korea/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

January 29, 2007

Dastardly Chinese Try to Claim Paektusan!

Update: Yup — called it. The netizens’ charge of the ChiCom lines was repulsed, and the South Korean government leads the panicky flight … like 1951 all over again. North Korea, whose physical boundaries are at the center of the dispute (more), is no doubt preparing its latest draft North-South statement on Tokdo. So what do the Chinese know that we don’t? ========================= It’s pretty thin gruel if you read the report, but on the other hand, China is in a...

Censorship/China & Korea/History

January 26, 2007

Shenyang Six Update

LiNK sends: Hello Friends, …. It feels strange to be back here in Washington at LiNK headquarters, typing away at a computer. For those of you who have been following the news, the past few weeks have not been calm and restful- they have been rather dramatic and urgent. On December 21, 2006, myself, two LiNK field workers and 6 North Korean refugees were caught and imprisoned by Chinese authorities. I was taken into custody in Beijing, and...

Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees

January 21, 2007

Opposition Legislator Responds to Shenyang-Gate with Refugee-Protection Bill

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s main opposition party plans to introduce a law revision aimed at helping North Koreans and South Korean abductees fleeing the communist country, a senior party official said Sunday. Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, secretary-general of the Grand National Party (GNP), said the bill will help prevent the forced repatriation of defectors from North Korea and expedite Seoul’s diplomatic efforts to bring them to South Korea. “The National Assembly passed a similar GNP-initiated bill in 2004...

Appeasement/China & Korea/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Refugees

Category: China