You know, one of the best decisions I ever made was moving from Los Angeles to New York. Why? Within a few years, North Korea may be able to nuke the West Coast of the United States. But according to the Washington Post, I’m not even safe here in Manhattan. Now I know how this guy feels. But this is a serious issue. North Korea tested yet another nuclear device this month.
Now despite repeated attempts to pile sanction upon sanction and isolate North Korea, the West has been able to do very little to curb Kim Jung-Un’s Fat Man dreams. North Korea is already economically isolated, and only China could effectively punish the regime.
Chinese authorities are investigating a company for “grave economic crimes.” The conglomerate—Hongxiang Industrial Development Company Ltd—may have violated a ban by China’s own Ministry of Commerce. They were selling aluminum oxide to North Korea. What’s the big deal about that? Well, according to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it’s a key ingredient in uranium enrichment. This is just one of several key nuclear ingredients this Chinese company was shipping to North Korea.
Fortunately, Chinese authorities are cracking down on this greedy corporation that would sacrifice global security for profit. Except, it turns out, that’s not at all what happened.
You see, when local police posted this message:
what they actually meant by “during their work,” is that two officials from the US Department of Justice told them what Hongxiang was doing and that Chinese authorities had better do something about it. So I guess their work is just doing what the US government tells them - Not that I would know anything about that...
Anyway, Chinese authorities made the move only days before this report by a South Korean think tank and a Washington research group. It specifically singled out Hongxiang.
So this makes it look like the Chinese regime is actually doing something about a nuclear North Korea. And it is. It’s supporting a nuclear North Korea. You see, China trades with North Korea. A lot. In fact, China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner. China and North Korea have been buddy-buddies for a long time.
To be fair though, the friendship has soured a bit in recent years, with Kim Jong-un being a smidge morevolatile than his father. And this is also partly because certain Chinese leaders who had close ties with North Korea have been purged. Also, North Korea has been testing nukes close to the Chinese border, which is kind of annoying.
Speaking of close the Chinese border: The City of Dandong. It’s a major trading center with North Korea. That’s where Hongxiang Industrial Development—the company that just got busted—is located. Hongxiang itself has been trading with North Korea for a long time. And it’s pretty hard to believe that the Chinese regime somehow didn’t know what they were really up to all these years. I mean, we’re talking about the regime behind the world’s most intrusive mass surveillance system, with 30,000 internet police, and with a Party Secretary in every big company. And we’re expected to believe that, somehow, they had no idea what Hongxiang was up to until the Americans told them?
The Chinese regime is absolutely keeping tabs on Chinese companies’ trade with North Korea. That’s what gives China its biggest bargaining chip with other countries. That’s why each time the US starts freaking out about nuclear testing in the Evil Empire, it has to be all like, “Help me, China! You’re my only hope.”
So back to Hongxiang Industrial Development. Chairwoman Ma Xiaohong has called her company a “golden bridge” between China and North Korea. Figuratively of course. Otherwise starving North Koreans would melt it down to buy food.
And Ma was in pretty good with the Chinese regime. (Pull quote “Ms. Ma has enjoyed support from the Chinese authorities, especially the Dandong government.”) She was a member of the Liaoning Province People’s Congress. The Ministry of Commerce even gave Hongxiang a licence to import oil products. Private Chinese business can only do that with special permission. So when the Ministry of Commerce banned aluminum oxide sales to North Korea, but her well-connected conglomerate does it anyway, that is not a surprise.
Neither was it a surprise to Ma when North Korea first tested nuclear weapons in 2006. In fact, Chinese authorities haven’t even made it clear whether or not Ma herself is under investigation.
But Ma might be in trouble anyway. Earlier this month, she, along with 451 others were stripped of their positions in the Liaoning People’s Congress. But that had nothing to do with selling uranium enrichment components to North Korea. It was because of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Apparently a lot of these Liaoning People’s Congress members got their positions through bribery. Ma still got to keep her company though.
So at first glance, it looks like the Chinese regime is taking steps to stop a nuclear madman from endangering the world. But really, it’s because the US forced their hand, and the head of the company was in trouble for something totally different anyway.
So what do you think of the Chinese regime’s trade with North Korea? Leave your comments below.
