If you have the Canadians angry at you then you know you have done something wrong:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned China on Tuesday that its “coercive diplomacy,” repressive measures in Hong Kong and detention of Uighur Muslims are counterproductive for itself and the rest of the world.
Korea Times
Trudeau took aim at Beijing’s record as he marked the 50th anniversary of Canada’s diplomatic ties with China.
“We will remain absolutely committed to working with our allies to ensure that China’s approach of coercive diplomacy, its arbitrary detention of two Canadian citizens alongside other citizens of other countries around the world is not viewed as a successful tactic by them,” Trudeau said at a press conference.
You can read more at the link.
It looks like President Duterte has finally realized that playing nice with the Chinese will not get them to back down from their South China Sea claims:
The Philippine president got rare praises Wednesday from his key critics for invoking before the United Nations a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea, in a surprise move that will likely pique Beijing.
President Rodrigo Duterte made one of his strongest defenses of the Philippine victory in the arbitration case in his first address before the annual U.N. General Assembly where world leaders spoke mostly in prerecorded videos due to the pandemic. China has long refused to bring the issue to any international arena.
Duterte, who has nurtured close ties with China since taking office in mid-2016, has long been criticized for refusing to immediately and forcefully demand Chinese compliance with the ruling by a U.N.-backed tribunal. It found China’s claims on virtually the entire South China Sea on historical grounds inconsistent with international maritime law.
Associated Press
You can read more at the link, but for those that have not followed this issue, the Chinese have claimed nearly the entire South China Sea as their territory. This includes the waters and islands of other nations in the region to include the Philippines. They have slowly been bullying these nations into submission and President Duterte initially tried to play nice with China which did nothing to stop their territorial ambitions over Filipino waters and islands.
It makes me curious what the Chinese were trying to learn from the NYPD?:
A New York City police officer has been arrested on charges he was secretly working as an agent of the Chinese government.
Baimadajie Angwang, a community affairs liaison at the 111th Precinct in Queens and a member of the US Marine Corps Reserve, had for years been reporting back to “handlers” in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), according to a criminal complaint filed at a New York federal court.
Mr Angwang, 33, an ethnic Tibetan native of China and a naturalised American citizen, had allegedly been reporting back on the activities of fellow Tibetans in the US since 2014.
According to the charging documents filed on Monday, Mr Angwang also assessed potential Tibetan intelligence sources, and used his position in the New York Police Department (NYPD) to pass along information about its internal workings to the Chinese.
“The investigation has revealed that Angwang had used his official position in the NYPD to provide consulate officials access to senior (police) officials through invitations to official NYPD events,” the complaint said.
Since June 2018, the FBI said Mr Angwang has been “in frequent communication” with an unidentified Chinese consular official he referred to as “Boss.”
That same year, he was awarded “Officer of the Month” by the NYPD for his initiative and public service.
The Telegraph
You can read more at the link, but apparently Angwang claimed he was being tortured back in China for being a Tibetan to get asylum in the U.S. However, Angwang’s father is retired from the People’s Liberation Army and his mother is a retired Chinese government official and member of the Communist Party. With family ties like that it makes me wonder why he was allowed to work in any sensitive position in the U.S. much less be allowed citizenship.
This is just another example of the broken asylum system in the U.S. which is now being used by adversaries to infiltrate spies.
It looks like the Chinese propaganda apparatus is at work again as they declare that COVID-19 has been stopped in China:
“We have exerted great effort which led to a momentous and strategic victory in the battle against COVID-19.
” China has announced its victory over COVID-19 on Sep. 8 and presented medals to honor disease experts who were seen as role models in the country’s fight against the virus.
The country has reported zero cases of local infections for nearly a month.
While China has officially declared victory, some are voicing criticism as the rest of the world continues to suffer from the virus.
Korea Times
If you watch the Korea Times video you can see that 5 Chinese travelers to South Korea recently tested positive for the coronavirus which is causing doubt about what the Chinese government is claiming.
I have always said that the Kim regime is not going to feel the real effect of sanctions until the Chinese banks are sanctioned. Hopefully this is a sign of the U.S. government more aggressively going after Chinese banks:
The U.S. government has charged 28 North Korean and five Chinese individuals with facilitating more than $2.5 billion in illegal payments for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile program as part of a clandestine global network operating from countries including China, Russia, Libya and Thailand.
In a 50-page federal indictment unsealed Thursday in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department accused the individuals of acting as agents of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, in what officials say is the largest North Korean sanctions violations case charged by the U.S.
Working for the FTB — which is North Korea’s primary foreign currency bank and under sanctions for facilitating nuclear proliferation — the agents allegedly set up more than 250 front companies and covert bank branches around the world to mask payments transiting the U.S. financial system, including through several Chinese banks and for equipment from Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., according to charging documents. (…….)
The massive enforcement action comes as United Nations experts have detailed North Korea’s widespread evasion of sanctions by using agents of state-owned and other banks overseas to facilitate a global web of illicit oil, arms and coal deals to bring in foreign currency. The efforts have been augmented through offshore, ship-to-ship transfers, large-scalecryptocurrency hacks and ransomware attacks.
Washington Post
A ROK Drop favorite Joshua Stanton from One Free Korea is quoted in the article:
“This adds to the already overwhelming evidence that China’s government is willfully assisting Kim Jong Un in his violations of North Korea sanctions,” said Joshua Stanton, a lawyer who helped write the 2016 law that strengthened North Korea sanctions.
“I’ll believe it’s ‘maximum pressure’ when those banks begin to face nine- and ten-digit penalties, like the ones President (Barack) Obama imposed on European banks that broke Iran sanctions,” Stanton said, and has advised House and Senate staffers on North Korea sanctions law.
According to the article no one is in custody because assuredly the North Koreans and Chinese won’t hand these people over. However, already $63 million in assets have been seized.
Maybe the politics of the coronavirus is finally causing our government to take real action against Chinese banks?
