Calling out Beijing: US ‘gift’ to China shows unenforced North Korea sanctions
- Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan surprised Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe with ‘beautiful’ present during meeting in Singapore
- What looked like a coffee-table book was actually 32 pages of photos and satellite images of North Korean ships getting and delivering shipments of oil
The meeting between acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan and his Chinese counterpart began with all the hallmarks of a routine staged and scripted session between two uneasy rivals.
First came the posed photo, as the two men shook hands with broad smiles in front of their nations’ flags, and then they moved quickly into the hotel conference room, surrounded by staff. There, Shanahan presented Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe with a gift.
But what at first glance looked like a coffee-table book was actually 32 pages of photographs and satellite images of North Korean ships getting and delivering shipments of oil.
Many of the photos are stamped with dates, times, locations and descriptions, and, according to officials, represent proof that Pyongyang is violating punishing economic sanctions right off China’s coast.
“I gave him this beautiful book,” Shanahan said a day after his meeting with Wei and his top staff at a national security conference in Singapore. “I said this is an area where you and I can cooperate.”
The pointed message from the acting Pentagon chief comes as the Trump administration is at odds with China over a wide range of issues, including trade, Chinese theft of American technology, the possible sale of US weapons to Taiwan and how to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons programme.
China agreed to the UN sanctions against its ally and neighbour North Korea, but, as the photo book illustrates, appears to be allowing violations to take place.
On one page of the book viewed by Associated Press, a photo shows the North Korean-flagged oil tanker Kum Un San 3 next to the M/V New Regent, a Panama-flagged tanker, and a number of lines and hosepipes are draped between the two ships. The photo is dated June 7, 2018.
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The UN, in an October press release, said the June 7 ship-to-ship transfer was a violation and said it likely involved oil. The UN sanctioned the two ships and said they are subject to de-flagging and prohibited from entering UN member ports.
Another photo in the book shows the North Korean tanker An San 1, and says it is “offloading refined petroleum” through an undersea pipeline at the terminal in Nampo, near Pyongyang.
Lieutenant Colonel Joe Buccino, a Pentagon spokesman, said Shanahan devised the book to show that enforcement of UN sanctions off the Chinese coast is “an area for potential coordination and collaboration” with the Chinese military.
A US defence official said Shanahan had the photographs and information in the book declassified and bound.
I think it was probably embarrassing. They probably thought they were getting something wonderful, that would highlight something positive
Shanahan presented the book to Wei at the start of their meeting, saying he had a gift for the minister, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The official said Wei initially appeared taken aback at receiving a gift, but when he realised what it was he quickly turned it over to his staff.
During the meeting, Shanahan told Wei that the US and Chinese navies could work together to prevent such violations of the UN sanctions, said the official.
“It’s actually very clever,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China power project at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
“It’s really calling out China. This is a way of telling them that we know what’s going on, we have quite a bit of evidence, and here’s an opportunity for you to expand cooperation with the United States.”
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Glaser, who also attended the Singapore conference, said she spoke with members of the China delegation and they described the meeting between Shanahan and Wei as positive and upbeat. No one, she said, mentioned the book.
“I think it was probably embarrassing,” she said. “They probably thought they were getting something wonderful, that would highlight something positive, not something calling out China for their failure to step up and crack down on North Korea.”
The oil and trade sanctions against North Korea have hurt its already struggling economy, and both Russia and China have called for easing them. China is not likely to want to openly evade the sanctions and face diplomatic friction with the United States, but more than 90 per cent of North Korea’s foreign trade has gone through China.
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The UN Security Council in March said North Korea was continuing to defy its resolutions through a “massive” increase in ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal. The US Navy has been working with a number of countries, including South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France, to catch sanctions violations such as ship-to-ship transfers.
Shanahan’s meeting with Wei at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference earlier this month came the evening before he delivered a speech that denounced China’s efforts to steal technology from other nations and militarise man-made outposts in the South China Sea as a “toolkit of coercion.”
But he also made clear the US wanted to work with China on other international issues.
In a brief mention of the book during questions after his conference speech, Shanahan said the two countries must work through their differences.
“Trust is built over time,” he said. “Trust is built by working on projects and being shoulder to shoulder. It isn’t done by conferences or by policies or by speeches. We need to find areas in which we can grow.”
