Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein
Domestic conditions within China are often underestimated as a factor when it comes to the country’s enforcement of sanctions against North Korea. In the grand scheme of things, they may not be a major constituency, but it is difficult to imagine that for a government that values economic growth and social stability as much as China does, it would not factor in the sentiments and demands of domestic businesses who depend on trade with North Korea.
Indeed, when one travels to Dandong, the border town most central to trade between China and North Korea, one can begin to appreciate the magnitude of the trade ties between local businesses and their neighbors on the other side of the Yalu river. I have posted some pictures here. Parts of the city are almost wholly dominated by businesses and stores that cater to North Korean customers, some that are clearly tailored for private and large-scale buyers of goods like cars, machinery, kitchen items such as refrigerators, et cetera. Many companies along the border deal in export-import with North Korea.?Southern China Morning Post?has an interesting story out today about some of these businesses, often an underestimated constituency in the sanctions analyses:
Su Nan, a?trader along the China-North Korea border, used to be a busy man. He used to wake early in the morning, fill his schedule with endless phone calls, and in a good year close deals worth millions of US dollars. But now, all of that has gone.
?We have no revenue so far this year,? Su told?This Week in Asia. ?In fact, we have been struggling since 2016, with fewer and fewer orders coming.?
Although his company hasn?t lowered his salary or laid off workers, Su said he can?t help but worry. After all, ?we just sit in the office and do nothing?, he said.
Su works at Dandong Sevsuns Trading, an export firm located in Dandong, a stone?s throw from?North Korea. China?s 1,420km-long border with North Korea has fostered many cross-border businesses ? Dandong alone hosts 600 such firms by some estimates.
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Since attempts to halt North Korea?s nuclear tests through diplomacy have fallen flat and Beijing doesn?t want a war near its soil, ?curbing North Korea?s nuclear ambition through tougher economic sanctions has become the only choice?, Cheng said.
But that worries the many Chinese whose livelihoods rely on trade with North Korea. For Su, the trader in Dandong, such a move could be ?a killer blow?.
Su?s firm helps international organisations purchase and deliver supplies of humanitarian aid to North Korea. International relief to North Korea has almost dried up in recent months, and Su said his company had likewise been struggling to stay in business.
?If China suspends more trade activities, then we will have no choice but to shut down,? he said.
Other Chinese traders share his concern.
?Selling fruit to North Korea is the only source of income for my family. What shall we do for a living if China will no longer trade with North Korea?? said Wu Xiuhua, a middle-aged Chinese woman in Tumen, a border city an hour?s drive from North Korea.
Like other traders, Wu used to drive her produce straight over the Tumen River; now all must apply for permits to take their goods across the border.
Since the summer months are traditionally a low season for fruit sales, Wu is able to cope with the financial losses ? for now. But other Tumen traders recently took to the street, she said, angry about the costly and time-consuming change.
The local authority in Tumen declined to comment.
It is unclear how many Chinese traders living along the border have been, or will be, affected by the sanctions, but Wu is not optimistic.
?Many people here are running cross-border businesses,? she said, adding that some of her friends had even invested in North Korea, building warehouses equipped with industrial cooling systems to store imported seafood.
?All these investments will go down the drain if China cuts off economic ties with North Korea,? she said.
Besides traders, any business that deals with North Korea, however indirectly, is also at risk.
At a garment factory in Fengcheng, another city near Dandong, an executive told?This Week in Asia?that although his company did not sell to North Korea, it had hired at least 100 North Korean workers to make clothes ? ironically ? for customers in Europe and the US.
?If Beijing expands its sanctions to include the hiring of North Korean workers, that would have a negative impact on our business,? said the executive.
?North Koreans work for a lower salary,? he said. ?It is also hard to find enough Chinese workers, as Fengcheng, like many cities in China, faces a labour shortage.?
Labour exports are considered a major source of income for North Korea.
Nearly 80,000 North Korean working overseas send up to US$2.3 billion back home annually, according to a report by the North Korean Strategy Centre, a defector group. The report said more than half of them work in China and Russia.
The factory has yet to receive any official notices that restrict hiring, but some residents say changes are already underway. ?A restaurant here used to have a lot of North Korean waitresses, but many have disappeared in the past few months. Nobody knows why they left or where they went,? said one resident.
The only businesses that remain unaffected, and at least in some respects optimistic about the future, are Chinese companies that arrange cross-border trips to North Korea.
In fact, an agent at Dandong China International Travel Service said their business had been going so well that the company now ran the tour daily.
?Many Chinese are curious about North Korea,? said the travel agent, who gave only her surname, Wang. ?We now send more than 30 tourists to North Korea every day, with some clients coming all the way from Hong Kong and Macau.?
Full article:
SANCTIONS ARE FINE, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHINESE WHO DEPEND ON TRADE WITH NORTH KOREA?
Coco Liu
South China Morning Post
2017-07-09
