Senate Grills State Department Officials Over Not Sanctioning Chinese Banks

Over at One Free Korea there is a good posting up about how the Senate in a bi-partisan manner recently grilled State Department officials about the lack of sanctions against Chinese banks:

 

I’ve never worked in the Senate, so I wouldn’t know if that’s standard procedure there, but past hearings I’ve watched didn’t run this well. Gardner himself was in complete command of both the material and the room, and gave every appearance of being a man with limitless potential. Indeed, all of the senators were well-prepared. All, regardless of their party or tribal affiliations, asked good or excellent questions. 

In the end, however, no one can hurt you more than the people who love you. At 58:17, Senator Menendez began questioning Fried by arguing for secondary sanctions against Chinese banks. He then embarked on a well-prepared, determined, and lawyerly cross-examination of Fried about this. Pressured by Menendez’s questioning and clearly unsure of his material, Fried told Menendez that Dandong Hongxiang was a bank (not true). I don’t think Fried was lying, but he didn’t have command of the facts, and when he got out of his depth, he swam into a rip current. Mendendez pinned Fried down on his answer. Then, when his time expired, he went back and pulled Treasury’s announcement, probably talked to his staff, and confirmed that this wasn’t true. At 1:35:30, Menendez returned, rearmed. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it’s like to have a bad day in the United States Senate.  [One Free Korea]

You can read the transcript at the link of the bad day Mr. Daniel Fried, the State Department’s Coordinator for Sanctions Policy had being grilled by the Senate.  The fact that he did not immediately know that the Treasury Department has not sanctioned any Chinese banks is worrisome.