In this Jan. 7, 2016, file photo, Chinese pedestrians walk past a giant U.S. dollar note on a display board of a bank in Beijing. President Trump has often named Asia, and China and Japan in particular, as a source of American economic woes. A persisting U.S. trade deficit with most Asian countries and the president’s frequent threats to impose sanctions or raise tariffs on exports from the region make trade a fraught issue. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
The United States excluded on Thursday China’s Bank of Dandong from its financial system, alleging that it has helped North Korea evade financial sanctions to launder funds.
Washington had alerted other businesses in June that it planned to take the action, but it finally went into effect just as US President Donald Trump was to set off on an Asian tour on Friday.
Trump has demanded that Beijing do more to push its neighbor North Korea to stop efforts to build a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching American cities.
Trump is expected to convey this message to President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week, but China is reluctant to push sanctions so far as to destabilize Kim Jong-Un’s North Korean regime.
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
Officials in Washington warn that, while they would prefer Kim to come to the table, Trump has not ruled out a pre-emptive strike to prevent him from crossing the missile threshold.
But, alongside this saber rattling, Washington is also slowly stepping up secondary sanctions on foreign institutions like the Bank of Dandong, which it accuses of funneling illicit funds.
