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November 24, 2009

What Obama Accomplished in China

I suppose China’s behavior immediately after the president’s departure is all the evidence you really need. An activist who was investigating the role shoddy school construction played in the deaths of more than 5,000 children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake was given a three-year prison sentence Monday on charges of possessing state secrets. Huang Qi, 46, a veteran activist and blogger, is the most prominent of more than a dozen people who were arrested for demanding investigations into construction standards...

Categories China/Diplomacy
November 17, 2009

NGO Claims North Korea Abducted 200 Chinese Who Aided Refugees

Pyongyang’s agents over the past decade abducted about 200 Chinese citizens as part of a campaign to stop people from fleeing North Korea, a news report said Tuesday. The Chinese of ethnic Korean descent had been helping refugees who had fled across the border, Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, adding they were abducted to North Korea and jailed there. [AFP] The English version of the Chosun Ilbo article isn’t out yet as I write this (but might be by the time...

Categories Abductions/China & Korea
November 16, 2009

Obama’s China Visit a Setback for American Values, Interests

After denying that he has soft-peddled human rights issues with China, President Obama not only did exactly what he denied doing, he even managed to package his message in yet another cringe-inducing apology: Obama acknowledged that the United States has struggled with race relations over the course of its history, but he said America would “always speak out” in favor of free expression, worship, political participation and access to information — which he termed “universal rights.” “They should be available...

Categories China/Human Rights
October 26, 2009

If President Lee is Sincere About Protecting Refugees and POW’s, the South Korean Consul in Shenyang Must Go

[10/27: Here’s an update on that 80 year-old POW.] The latest reports coming from northeastern China emphasize China’s ongoing disregard for the lives of North Korean refugees, and for the pleas of the South Korean government. They also raise questions about President Lee’s sincerity about shifting to a more compassionate policy toward North Korean refugees. Last week, it was reported that two family members of an escaped South Korean prisoner of war found their way to the South Korean consulate...

Categories China & Korea/Diplomacy/Refugees
October 16, 2009

China: The John Edwards of Diplomacy

[Update: According to this story, Wen put off signing an economic development deal with Pyongyang worth “several billion dollars” dollars after Kim Jong Il failed to provide a “clear” statement about returning to six-party talks. I can’t say whether China’s offer came with the Obama Administration’s tacit approval or provoked quiet disapproval, but if we’re back in the business of paying North Korea to come back to talks to stall and lie, we’re right back at square one. The only...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Sanctions
October 10, 2009

North Korea Finally Finds a Minority to Persecute: Chinese

North Korean authorities have apparently stepped up regulations and monitoring of Chinese residents there since Beijing backed UN sanctions against the North in June. Sources in China and North Korea say North Korean intelligence officials are increasingly treating Chinese residents who recently visited their home country as spies. Sources say this has prompted many Chinese residents to avoid visiting China. The number of Chinese residents passing through customs in Rajin has dropped to one-third of the number seen last year...

Categories China & Korea
September 24, 2009

Demonstrations Around the World Today Against PRC’s Repatriation of NK Refugees

A little before 1 p.m. today across the street from the Chinese embassy in Seoul 40+ people gathered to remind the Chinese government of a commitment it made 27 years ago today.  On September 24, 1982, the PRC signed the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, the major international agreements which lay out how signatory governments say they will handle refugees. Today’s demonstration in Seoul was one of approximately a dozen scheduled for...

Categories Activism/China/Human Rights/Refugees
September 23, 2009

China Stabs Obama (and America) in the Back on North Korea

I’ve been skeptical of reports, most of them directly from the ChiCom propaganda mill, that China was cooperating with U.N. sanctions against North Korea. So after a brief flurry of displays of cooperation, here is what the statistical record tells us: North Korea’s trade with China declined slightly during the first half of this year, likely due to falling prices of crude oil, a South Korean agency and officials said Wednesday. Trade volume during the January-June period totaled US$1.1 billion,...

Categories China & Korea/Sanctions
September 11, 2009

Alleged Chinese Police Report Supports Allegations of 2003 Massacre of North Koreans

Writing in the Wall Street Journal in October 2006, Melanie Kirkpatrick first raised shocking claims about North Korean border guards’ massacre of a large group of people trying to flee from North Korea to China across the Yalu River. Her report was based on documents purporting to come from official Chinese documents, including a local police report from Badaogou Precinct, near Baishan City: “At 7 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2003,” Case Report No. 055 begins, “a report was received from...

Categories China & Korea/Refugees
September 10, 2009

Open Radio: China Prepares N. Korea Occupation Force

Open Radio, one of the broadcasting services that edits the reports of North Koreans and broadcasts them back into their homeland, claims that the force is being composed from ethnic Koreans in China: According to the source, Shenyang and Jangchoon districts have special force with a size of a brigade. There is also a force composed only of Korean-Chinese, while the size of this force has not been confirmed. These forces were created in order to respond to any sudden...

Categories China & Korea/Reconstruction
September 6, 2009

Americans Do Not Admire China, and This Is Why

I was immediately suspicious yesterday when I heard that some ChiCom mouthpiece rag had claimed that the Chinese flag would fly on the South Lawn of the White House later this month. Here is China Daily’s report: The national flag of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will be hoisted at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on September 20, media reported Sunday. Chinese associations in the United States [read: Commie puppet fifth column] had applied to...

Categories China/China & Korea/Refugees/Uncategorized
August 26, 2009

For Chinese, Hard Questions About North Korea Hit Close to Home

And it’s dangerous for Chinese to ask hard questions that hit close to home. But why would Chinese find the nostalgia of visiting North Korea sufficiently rewarding to pay money for that dubious privilege? Maybe because human beings have a natural obsession with the things they fear the most, and because for many Chinese, the fear persists: I have spoken with many of these Chinese travelers and have always been struck by how seldom their accounts dwell on the stark...

Categories China & Korea
August 24, 2009

Lisa Ling’s Husband Expresses Concern for Refugees; Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee Remain Silent

The Wall Street Journal has published its own report on the scandal that is becoming a serious threat to (among other things) Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s public image as newsworthy victims. The Journal’s story adds fuel to suspicions that Ling, Lee, and producer Mitch Koss recklessly endangered the lives of refugees and activists by carrying video of them into North Korean territory, or otherwise failed to take measures to prevent that video from falling into Chinese and North Korean...

Categories China & Korea/Ling/Lee Incident/Media Criticism
August 20, 2009

The Blood of Children on Their Hands (Updated)

[Update: Someone I trust tells me that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are anguished by the blog posts and news stories going around about this aspect of their story. Obviously, we’d love to hear Ling and Lee’s side of it, but according to my friend, they’re under a great deal of pressure from Current TV (among others) not to talk. Expect Ling and Lee to say more in the next few days about the precautions they took to prevent incriminating...

Categories China & Korea/Human Trafficking/Media Criticism/Refugees
August 13, 2009

China Finally Enforcing N. Korea Sanctions, Kinda?

To say the very least, I remain deeply skeptical that China’s effort will be sustained, complete, or in good faith, but here are two stories that suggest to some degree, China is restricting trade with North Korea.  The first (as the reader who sent the link notes) comes directly from the ChiCom state media, so take it with a tablespoon of salt. Shan, who has run the corporation for 16 years, said he has forged close relations with officials in...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Kremlinology/Sanctions
July 31, 2009

Marcus Noland on Sanctioning North Korea

First, a note of congratulations to Mr. Noland on being named Deputy Director of the Peterson Institute.  Noland also has a paper out on the prospects for disarming North Korea though sanctions.  Here’s a teaser, and I’ll let you read the rest on your own: Given the extremely high priority the North Korean regime places on its military capacity, it is unlikely that the pressure the world can bring to bear on North Korea will be sufficient to induce the...

Categories China & Korea/NK Economics/Sanctions