US lawmakers push Beijing puppet WHO to recognize Taiwan as independent state as Chinese coronavirus outbreak continues

BY J. EDWARD MORENO

U.S. lawmakers are pushing legislation that would work toward granting Taiwan recognition in the World Health Organization (WHO) in light of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak that has left Taiwan subject to flight bans and limited information.
The WHO — a branch of the United Nations — has relayed communication on the virus to China, which considers Taiwan a Chinese territory with an illegitimate independent government. 

The island’s status as a nation is a matter of international disagreement: the U.S., Japan, Canada and the European Union all recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, while the UN and Chinese satellites consider Taiwan a province of China. Taiwanese officials have received little information on the virus from WHO while also struggling to communicate with Chinese officials as they attempted to evacuate Taiwanese citizens from Wuhan, where the virus originated. 

Taiwan has 10 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and on Monday night quarantined 247 people repatriated to the island after being stranded in Wuhan.
According to Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu, flights to Taiwan from Vietnam and Italy were canceled last week based on information that grouped Taiwan as part of China. 

Flights from Vietnam were restored, but Taiwan is still “working through all diplomatic channels” to restore flights from Italy.
Wu argues that the WHO's choice to exclude Taiwan from the organization puts the health of Taiwanese citizens at risk. 
“While we are still going through our own channels and through like-minded friends to reason with the WHO to right its wrong, I would like to publicly call upon the WHO to recognize the simple fact that Taiwan is Taiwan and it is not part of the [People's Republic of China]," Wu told press on Sunday. 

"Taiwan is not under China's jurisdiction; Taiwan's and China's health are administered by separate and independent health authorities, and Taiwan's and China's flight information regions are administered by separate and independent civil aviation administrations."
“This is such a simple reality that the WHO should never have missed it," he continued. 

"Again, I call upon the WHO to correct its gross mistake.”
Taiwan was recognized by the WHO under the name “Chinese Taipei” from 1997 to 2016, when pro-sovereignty Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took power, leading China to pressure the UN to subject Taiwan to the “one China principle.” 

The Chinese coronavirus outbreak comes less than a month after Taiwan reelected Tsai by a large margin, sending a message to mainland China about where the Taiwanese electorate stands on the issue of sovereignty.
Last month Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) introduced legislation that would direct the State Department to develop a strategy that would give Taiwan recognition in the WHO. 

The bill passed the House unanimously and is currently in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 
“Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO puts the world at risk,” Yoho wrote in an op-ed in the Taipei Times. 

“That is why I have called for the re-establishment of Taiwan’s observer status on numerous occasions.”
Last week, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a letter to the State Department asking it to push for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO. 

Days later, seven GOP senators — several of whom are also members of the Foreign Relations Committee — penned a letter to the WHO asking them to recognize Taiwan as an independent state.

Today @SenTomCotton @SenRubioPress @JohnCornyn @JimInhofe @SenatorRomney @SenTedCruz and I are calling on the @WHO to grant Taiwan observer status in light of the coronavirus outbreak to better protect global health and security. pic.twitter.com/dogp9EvOCR

                                — Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) January 31, 2020

“The relationship between the United States and Taiwan is a partnership between two vibrant democracies based on shared values and vision,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner in which he argued for U.S. assistance to Taiwan in trade and defense.
The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

Two Chinas Policy

President Welcomes U.S. Officials as Tensions With China Escalate
By Chris Horton

From left, William Brent Christensen of the American Institute in Taiwan; David Meale, a deputy assistant secretary of state; President Tsai Ing-wen; and Leo Seewald of the American Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday in Taipei.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Tsai Ing-wen welcomed American dignitaries on Wednesday in the face of rising tensions with China, saying the self-ruled island needed to protect itself “from new, sophisticated threats coming from across the strait.”
Ms. Tsai made the remarks at a dinner at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, the law that has guided the United States’ unofficial relationship with the island’s government.
The dinner was but the latest round of signaling of Washington’s resolve to stand by Taiwan as tensions mount with Beijing.
In the past two weeks, Washington, Taipei and Beijing have traded words over Chinese jet incursions, Taiwan’s requests for American-made fighter jets, the American military presence in its unofficial embassy in Taipei, and Ms. Tsai’s recent stop in Hawaii.
“We must make sure Taiwan’s economic and security position remains on the right track,” Ms. Tsai told a group largely comprising American businesspeople, emphasizing the need to continue diversifying Taiwan’s economy from reliance on mainland China.
The Communist government in Beijing seeks to assert sovereignty over Taiwan, potentially through military force.
The United States considers Taiwan’s political status to be undetermined, while opposing attempts by China to coerce unification.

A Chinese fighter jet on display in Beijing. Two J-11 jets crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in March.

On March 31, two Chinese J-11 fighter jets crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which separates mainland China and Taiwan, for the first time since 1999.
The incursion came days after a United States Navy destroyer and a United States Coast Guard cutter traversed the strait, which, like the South China Sea, is considered to be international waters under international law, but Beijing claims as its territory.
Taiwan jets scrambled and repelled their Chinese counterparts, which came within 115 miles of the island’s coast.
“These actions by China are not only unilateral changes to the cross-strait status quo, even more, they are a brazen provocation to regional security and stability,” Ms. Tsai said in a Facebook post the following day, in her first public comment on the events.
Ms. Tsai warned China against further provocations.
“Our military protects our territory without rest, as president I assure our citizens that I will fight together with our soldiers to the very end,” she wrote.
“We will not yield an inch of our territory!”
The last sentence echoed widely publicized exhortations by Chinese dictator Xi Jinping who has threatened Taiwan with war should it formalize its functional independence.
The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory, but it has never controlled the island, which is still officially ruled by the Republic of China government overthrown in the mainland in 1949.

A flag-lowering ceremony in Taipei.

The dinner on Wednesday was stocked with American business officials, many of whom have expressed concerns about saber rattling from Beijing.
David Meale, the deputy assistant secretary of state for trade policy and negotiations, who was the event’s special guest, pledged that “the United States will remain steadfast in all of its commitments to Taiwan.”
Washington broke ties with Taiwan’s government in 1979 as a prerequisite for establishing formal relations with the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.
Months later, President Jimmy Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act, which calls for Taiwan’s status to be determined by peaceful means, and for the United States to provide the means for Taiwan to defend itself.
In late February, Taiwan asked to buy 66 F-16V fighter jets from the United States.
If approved it would be the first aircraft sale since 1992 and a major reversal of the trend under previous administrations, which avoided large arms deals to Taiwan out of fear of angering China.
Chen Chung-chi, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, said the government hoped that Washington would approve the latest request, which was solely for defensive purposes in the face of a growing threat from China, which he described as a “troublemaker.”
Zhu Songling, the director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University, said that aside from arms sales, some members of Congress were pushing the government toward an increasingly official relationship.
One such bill, the Taiwan Travel Act, signed into law by President Trump, encourages official exchanges up to the highest level, which would include presidential visits.

The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Instead, its interests are represented by the American Institute in Taiwan.

China has used economic enticements to convince Taiwan’s allies to drop recognition of Taipei in favor of Beijing.
The Trump administration is wary of China’s gaining more footholds in the South Pacific, which the United States military views as strategically vital in the event of war with China.
While Washington does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the American Institute of Taiwan serves its interests on the island.
The group is preparing to move into a heavily fortified $250 million compound that was recently built in Taipei.
Legally a nonprofit organization headquartered in Virginia and staffed by State Department employees on leave, the institute drew Chinese criticism this month after its spokeswoman, Amanda Mansour, told Taiwan media that active-duty American personnel from all four military branches had been stationed on the island since 2005.
For years, the institute had sidestepped saying whether it housed American military staff, and Ms. Mansour’s statement raised the question whether it was a message to an increasingly aggressive China.
The personnel will move into the new compound when it formally begins operations on May 6, she said.
Several American senators made recorded video statements shown at Wednesday’s dinner in Taipei, offering American support in the face of Chinese pressure.
The lawmakers included Marco Rubio of Florida, Pat Roberts of Kansas and Cory Gardner of Colorado — all Republicans — as well as Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Democrat.
“The United States must continue to stand by Taiwan and encourage our democratic allies and partners around the world to maintain official relations with Taipei,” Mr. Rubio said, “regardless of any pressure or coercion coming from Beijing.”

Lawmakers seek $7.5 billion to counter China’s expansionism

By Joe Gould

Chinese troops march during a Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad on March 23, 2017. The U.S. Congress wants to increase funding to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. should forge stronger military ties with Taiwan and add $7.5 billion in national defense spending in the Pacific region in order to counter Chinese influence in the region, according to a legislative proposal from four U.S. senators.
The bipartisan Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, or ARIA, would authorize $1.5 billion annually for five years to deter and defend against China. 

A mix of State Department and Defense Department funds would bolster the U.S. military presence and readiness in the region, improving defense infrastructure and critical munitions stockpiles.
The bill would also support regular arms sales to Taiwan, and fund the enforcement of freedom-of-navigation and overflight rights — moves to defy Beijing’s calls to keep out of the contested South China Sea.
CNBC reported this month that China had installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three of its outposts in the South China Sea.

China’s deployment of long-range missiles to its artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea could further consolidate and enhance the country’s physical control over the region.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Cory Gardner, chairs the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity. he said the idea had originally come from Senate Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain, R-Ariz., and that he would work with appropriators to see it funded.
“This is not a new concept, and this is as close as we’ve come to an Asia-Pacific security initiative,” Gardner told reporters Tuesday.
The other sponsors are the subpanel’s ranking member, Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Todd Young, R-Ind. 

The name of the bill recalls the European Reassurance Initiative, a pot of money to bolster European capabilities against Russia—since renamed the European Deterrence Initiative.
On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver and Deputy East Asian and Pacific Affairs Alex Wong, appeared before Gardner’s subpanel, where they endorsed the legislation’s goals.
“With the help of Congress and the funding provided, we’re trying to build a force that’s appropriate to the longer-term challenges with China’s military modernization program, and trying to work with allies and partners to make sure they are adequately equipped and prepared for those long-term challenges,” Schriver said.
The U.S. is already boosting allies’ maritime domain awareness and maritime capabilities. 

The bill would augment foreign military financing and international military education and training programs, both with the idea to help partners “to resist coercion and to deter and defend against security threats.”
The bill explicitly excludes Myanmar, whose military has been accused of human rights violations, and Philippine counternarcotics activities, which have been linked to extrajudicial killings

War with China and war with Russia would have some overlapping qualities, but the Pentagon needs to figure out how and where to invest to deal with both.

In written testimony, Schriver emphasized the fiscal 2019 budget proposal’s investment in joint, integrated fires to “reach inside an adversary’s anti-access and area-denial envelope with advanced, long-range munitions.”
The Pentagon’s implementation of the National Defense Strategy calls for dispersal equipment and “survivable, sustainable logistics” to help in a potential conflict with China.
Schriver said the competition with China was not only a military rivalry with the U.S. 

The U.S. is seeking to partner with all nations that respect national sovereignty, fair and reciprocal trade and the rule of law.
“It’s a competition of ideas and values and interests. I think many more countries, including the most significant and influential counties in Asia outside of China support these concepts,” Schriver said.

The Manchurian President

Senators to Trump: Show Resolve with Beijing in South China Sea
BY DAN DE LUCE

Senators from both sides of the aisle wrote to Donald Trump on Wednesday urging him to take a tougher line with Beijing in the South China Sea, calling for more U.S. naval patrols to uphold navigation rights in the disputed waterway.
The appeal, backed by three Republicans and four Democrats, reflects growing concern in Congress that the Trump administration could be ceding strategic ground to China.
The letter obtained by Foreign Policy expresses concern that the United States had not carried out patrols upholding “freedom of navigation” in the strategic South China Sea since October 2016. 

Last year, Pentagon officials privately complained that the Obama administration limited its ability to patrol the disputed waters; Rex Tillerson initially promised a much tougher line against Chinese antics in the South China Sea, but none has yet materialized.
“We therefore urge your administration to take necessary steps to routinely exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, which is critical to U.S. national security interests and to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,” the letter said.
The administration has so far rebuffed requests from the U.S. Pacific Command to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, congressional staffers and Pentagon officials say, despite earlier vows by Trump and his aides to assert American interests against China.
The U.S. Navy routinely sails through international waters to assert the principle of freedom of navigation, even pushing back against excessive claims by allies, if needed. 

But the patrols have taken on added political weight in the contested South China Sea, where tensions are running high because of Beijing’s vast island-building campaign and its expansionist territorial claims.
Given mixed signals from an erratic White House, the lawmakers wanted to send a message that there was a “bipartisan center of gravity” on the issue, a Democratic congressional aide told FP.
The senators were trying “to provide ballast for the administration as it engages in the region,” the aide said, adding: “We thought it was important to weigh in and also to try to help shake things loose in the administration on this.”
The letter cites a series of “aggressive” and “troubling” actions by China in the waterway, including building artificial islands on disputed reefs, ramming commercial fishing boats, and issuing warnings to aircraft and ships in international airspace and waters.
“All of these measures raise serious questions about China’s commitment to regional security, the free flow of commerce, and freedom of navigation and overflight,” it said.
In an elaborate dredging operation, China has built up a network of artificial islands on disputed reefs and atolls in recent years, constructing runways and deep harbors that can accommodate military aircraft, naval warships, and missile launchers.
Commercial satellite images published this week showed China is preparing new land-based missile sites at a naval base at the tip of Hainan Island in the South China Sea. 

The Chinese military reportedly has deployed multiple anti-ship missile launchers on the western side of the base, and the satellite photos indicated it was making preparations for missile sites on the eastern side of the base. 

The work at the forward base would help China project its military power at a much greater distance into the western Pacific.
The letter was signed by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.); Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.); Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.); Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.); and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
A bipartisan group of senators sent a similar letter to the previous administration last year, urging — unsuccessfully — then-President Barack Obama to expand naval patrols in the South China Sea. But Obama’s deputies were reluctant to jeopardize cooperation with China on climate change and other issues.

Failure to sanction China helped North Korea

Three U.S. administrations backed away from punishing Chinese banks and businesses for helping their neighbor's weapons program. 
By JOSH MEYER

Even as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping pledge to stop North Korea’s fast-advancing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, there’s one uncomfortable secret that neither leader has publicly acknowledged: Chinese banks and businesses are playing key roles in providing Pyongyang with access to the global markets they need to acquire critical parts and technologies.
For at least a decade, North Korea has sidestepped U.S. and United Nations sanctions against its own trading and financial institutions by establishing a global network of front companies, shell companies, and third-country agents to seek parts, technology and financing for its weapons programs, according to interviews with current and former counter-proliferation officials and congressional documents.
These front companies rely on assistance provided by Chinese banks to gain access to U.S. and global financial systems, often by conducting transactions in U.S. dollars, and on Chinese businesses to obtain weapons parts, according to those sources.
In a little-noticed letter sent to the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in February, six senators called on the administration to target Chinese banks and other entities as a way of effectively cutting off North Korea’s access to hard currency it uses to finance its illicit WMD programs.
“With the risks of proliferation and war now at a critical stage,” they wrote, “we have no more time to waste on inaction.”
One of the financial institutions the senators cited as facilitating North Korea’s weapons programs is one of China’s biggest — the Bank of China — raising concerns among U.S. officials that the assistance being giving to Pyongyang is state-sponsored.
The assistance provided by Chinese entities to North Korea goes as far back as the 1960s, and includes some state-run operations, according to current and former national security officials here and overseas, other experts and a POLITICO review of counterproliferation documents.
During that time, Chinese businessmen and financiers also helped spread technology to virtually all of the world’s other illicit WMD programs too, including some assistance on chemical and biological agents, these sources say.
As U.S. intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies watched, Chinese individuals and companies provided significant amounts of specialty components and technology to Iran, Pakistan, Syria and other nations. 
That assistance, and the participation of Chinese banks and financial institutions, has been instrumental in the research and development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons by these regimes.
Career counterproliferation experts in the U.S. government have been quietly ringing alarm bells about China’s role in the global black market in WMD parts and technology for years, and with increasing urgency as North Korea and Iran made rapid advances in their programs, three senior U.S. national security officials who recently retired told POLITICO.
But instead of taking strong and public action against Beijing, they say, three successive U.S. administrations — under Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama — opted to quietly nudge it behind the scenes and accept its repeated promises to put an end to the proliferation activity emanating from within its borders.
Officials say that despite comments by both Trump and Xi about working together to thwart North Korea, they are wary that his administration is on the same path, despite mounting tensions over North Korean missile tests. 
The latest apparent provocation came early Sunday, when North Korea tried to test a missile, which exploded almost immediately upon being launched.
Although Trump himself has avoided publicly calling out China for its role in North Korea’s WMD programs, he praised Xi earlier this week, saying he is confident that the Chinese president will do what it takes to pressure Beijing’s neighbor into dropping its nuclear threats, and standing down its illicit research and development programs.
"I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea," Trump tweeted on Thursday.
"If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will. U.S.A.!"
In recent weeks, White House officials have begun anonymously floating the idea of sanctioning some Chinese institutions, in part as a way of avoiding military action against Pyongyang.
And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly raised the issue in his recent visit to Beijing.
Some veteran counterproliferation officials said while they welcome such efforts, previous administrations also considered them but ultimately backed down when China opposed them, in some cases by insisting the sanctions would destabilize its neighbor and hurt the North Korean people.
“Over time, every time we get close to putting in secondary sanctions, the Chinese agree to do a little more” to apply pressure to North Korea, said Dennis Wilder, who served from 2015 to 2016 as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific.
“They’ve been very good at playing the game of ratcheting up the pressure on North Korea at times when it helps them avoid us imposing sanctions.”
That’s especially the case when the U.S. has threatened to directly sanction Chinese entities, its financial institutions in particular, for their role in assisting North Korea, according to Wilder and others.

Six senators accused Chinese banks — including the Bank of China — of facilitating North Korean proliferation by partly disregarding their obligations to enforce U.N. sanctions on the country. 

“You can imagine that if Treasury designates the Bank of China, the Chinese would have to worry about how once the bank is tainted, all sorts of people would move their money out, and other banks would end or slow their activity with the bank as well," Wilder said.
"Now you would have a stigma attached to these institutions.”
An official in the Bank of China's New York branch said he was unable to respond to charges that the bank facilitated North Korean arms programs.
“We’re not able to make any immediate comment," he said.
"Personally, I don’t have the information, and it is difficult for us to coordinate a response. We will have to find out.”
The bank has in the past also referred calls to Brett Philbin, a Washington-based vice president at the Edelman communications firm.
He did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
If the United States were to seek sanctions against Chinese entities, it has already has identified dozens of individuals, companies and banks around the world that have been facilitating and financing North Korea’s weapons activities, former officials said.
“Treasury has done their homework on this for many years, and there are files available at Treasury for Trump to review,” said Wilder, who was also special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council from 2005 to 2009.
“There are sanctions packages that are either ready to go, or could be ready in a minute” against the Chinese entities.
Last September, the Justice and Treasury departments indicted and sanctioned one Chinese trading company, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Ltd., and alleged that it was responsible for more than $500 million in trade with North Korea.
The enforcement actions, and related financial freezes, were considered especially sensitive because the massive Chinese conglomerate is headed by a Communist Party member who U.S. officials believe has long aided Pyongyang’s nuclear program, according to former officials.
In its last days, the Obama Treasury Department also quietly took action against Chinese businessman Mingfu Chen as part of a broader sanction package targeting a procurement network for Iran’s ballistic missile program.
And several Chinese individuals and companies have been targeted in crackdowns against Iran’s nuclear program over the years as well.
But other Chinese trading firms, including Chinpo Shipping and 88 Queensway, continue to engage in commerce that facilitates North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
And even less has been done to go after the Chinese financial institutions that make most of North Korea’s procurement efforts possible. 
In a Senate hearing several months ago, Obama administration Treasury officials acknowledged that they had not sanctioned a single Chinese bank for its involvement in North Korea’s efforts.
“We cannot be serious about North Korea sanctions until we’re ready to confront the China challenge,” said Anthony Ruggiero, a veteran U.S. intelligence and financial counterproliferation official until December.
“The big question is whether there is political will.”
“I get that you don’t want to sanction the Chinese entities the day before Xi walks into Mar-a-Lago,” Ruggiero said in reference to last week’s summit between the two leaders.
“But what about the week after?”
Historically, the U.S. has had great success in squeezing North Korea via sanctions, especially those imposed on complicit third-party financial institutions.
A 2005 crackdown on Banco Delta of Macau, for instance, prompted banks around the world to freeze and shutter North Korean accounts, making it much more difficult for Pyongyang to finance its WMD programs through criminal conduct.

In a letter sent to the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in February, six senators called on the administration to target Chinese banks and other entities to effectively cut off North Korea’s access to hard currency it uses to finance its illicit WMD programs.

And while the Justice Department indictment of Dandong Hongxiang is a step in the right direction, the case also underscored how little the U.S. government is doing to root out Chinese support for North Korea’s WMD programs, said Ruggiero, who was working for Sen. Marco Rubio at the time.
U.S. authorities knew about Dandong Hongxiang’s activities for six years before taking action against it, Ruggiero said. 
China also has been reluctant to provide U.S. authorities with financial documents that the Treasury Department needs in order to investigate the conglomerate and related proliferation network, and freeze assets.
But when it disclosed the indictment, the Justice Department said there were “no allegations of wrongdoing” by the U.S. correspondent banks or foreign banks that did business with the conglomerate.
To Ruggiero and other critics, that suggests that U.S. authorities either didn’t pursue the obvious financial leads, or didn’t act on them.
“It’s pretty shocking that we let them violate U.S. law for so long. We would have never allowed that occur if it was Iran,” Ruggiero said.
“Why did we let the Dandong Hongxiang network sit there for six years? What was that network involved in and why didn’t we go after Chinese banks?”
Dandong Hongxiang has declined to comment on the case.
In their letter to Mnuchin, the six senators, all Republicans, called on the Trump administration to do more to crack down on China, and to determine its role in aiding and abetting North Korea.
The letter was written by Ted Cruz of Texas and Cory Gardner of Colorado, and co-signed by Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, David Perdue of Georgia, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida.
“Although the Treasury Department sanctioned Dandong Hongxiang and its corporate officers, freezing the assets of a handful of entities is a far cry from what is necessary: a determined, sustained, and well-resourced campaign to investigate, uncover, and sanction the complex web of similar Chinese, Middle Eastern, and other third-country companies and banks that fund Kim Jong-un’s regime, facilitate proliferation, and break sanctions,” the senators wrote.
“All necessary legal tools are in place to begin conducting such a campaign in earnest, today,” the senators said, especially to go after the Chinese banks — including the Bank of China — that they accused of facilitating North Korean proliferation by flouting U.S. “Know-Your-Customer” obligations and disregarding their obligations to enforce U.N. sanctions on North Korea.
Citing the lack of any banks targeted along with Dandong Hongxiang, they said, “It is difficult to construe this inaction as anything less than a lack of political will” on the part of the U.S. government.
Over the years, some career counterproliferation officials have pushed for deeper investigations into the procurement networks to determine whether Beijing is actively involved or just aggressively looking the other way.
Vann Van Diepen, a top U.S. counterproliferation official for the past 25 years, said that while China engaged in the state-sponsored spread of WMD technology in earlier decades, it has been much more cagey in recent years, to the point where the U.S. doesn’t know the extent of its official support.
Publicly, China has supported some United Nations crackdowns on WMD proliferation, but it has quietly been allowing that activity to occur within its own borders, not stopping operators that it knows are aggressively helping Pyongyang and at times willfully looking the other way.
"China hasn't devoted the priority, effort, or resources to thwart this," Van Diepen said.
"And when that continues to be the case over 20 years, even when they have been criticized, over time it becomes a choice, and you have to wonder what's going on. At a minimum they can certainly find out if they want to."

GOP senators call for 'firm response' to Chinese seizure of Navy drone

BY KRISTINA WONG

Republican senators are calling for a "firm response" to China's seizure of a Navy drone, including recalling the U.S. ambassador to China until the drone is returned.
"This brazenly hostile act is outrageous and must be met with a firm response. The U.S. Navy was operating in international waters conducting a standard exercise, and China should return the underwater vehicle immediately,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.).
Gardner is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, "The United States must not stand for such outrageous conduct.
“The Chinese Navy’s seizure of a U.S. unmanned oceanographic vessel in international waters is a flagrant violation of the freedom of the seas. China had no right to seize this vehicle," he added.
The incident occurred Thursday around noon local time in international waters off the coast of the Philippines, according to a defense official.
The USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was preparing to retrieve its unmanned drone out of the water as part of its typical mission to collect data on the ocean and weather patterns, the official said. 

The drone had surfaced and sent out a signal as to its location per normal operations.
A Chinese ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch then dropped its own small boat in the water and swooped in to grab the drone, the official said.
The Bowditch crew called over radio to the Chinese ship to ask for the equipment back. 

The Chinese crew confirmed receipt of the message, but began sailing away, leaving with the drone.
Around noon local time on Friday, the U.S. State Department filed an official demarche with China. The official said the matter is now in the State Department's hands.
Gardner urged the Obama administration to recall the U.S. ambassador to China until the drone is returned and a formal apology is issued.
"The United States must send a message to China, unilaterally and through the United Nations, that if its hostile behavior in the South China Sea continues, there will be repercussions," he said.
McCain added: "We are not witnessing a China committed to a ‘peaceful rise.’ Instead, we are confronting an assertive China that has demonstrated its willingness to use intimidation and coercion to disrupt the rules-based order that has been the foundation of security and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region for seven decades.
"As I have said repeatedly, we must adapt U.S. policy and strategy to reflect this reality and ensure we have the necessary military forces, capabilities, and posture in the region to deter, and if necessary, defeat aggression.”