TAIPEI - Pyongyang's proclaimed successful
nuclear test, which has sparked anger and fear
around the world and prompted passage of more UN
sanctions, is not deterring Chinese business
people living on the border from doing business
with North Korea. They are confident that Beijing
will not enforce really harsh punishments.
"For North Korea, reform and development
is still its goal. It is just a matter of time. We
are still keen on doing business there," said Zeng
Chengbiao, chairman of the Zhongxu Group which is
based
in
Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province. Zeng has
been planning to operate a department store in
Pyongyang and is also interested in investing in
mining there. Zeng said his company is preparing
to announce a major investment after the Chinese
Lunar New Year in February.
Zeng is a
typical example of the hundreds of Chinese
business people who remain enthusiastic about
trading with or investing in North Korea, despite
the international furor and unconfirmed reports
about Pyongyang's running out of electricity and
food while major players in the Security Council
debate punishments for North Korea's nuclear test.
A sense of normality in Pyongyang and
continuing routine bilateral interactions with
China could be the reasons for these businessmen's
calm. "Everything is the same as usual. Lots of my
clients are in town for business [after the test's
announcement]," said an anonymous Beijing-based
trader, who has dealt with North Koreans for more
than a decade.
In the Chinese city of
Dandong on the North Korean border, and even in
Pyongyang, Chinese businesspeople and citizens all
claim confidence. "I checked with my friends at
the customs, and they said that goods are in and
out as usual," said Liu Yen, a church worker from
Dandong.
In Pyongyang, Chinese traders are
still answering calls made to their North Korean
10-digit mobile phones, hoping to find more
sources for soybean oil, sugar, monosodium
glutamate and flour. Michel Ji, representative of
Jilin Cereals, Oil, Foodstuffs, Import and Export
Group in Pyongyang, who has been traveling back
and forth between the two nations for four years,
said that his company has imported up to10 million
tons of sugar, MSG and oil from North Korea.
Prices of products from China, he said, are still
too high.
"There will definitely be
sanctions, but none of them will affect people's
livelihoods," Ji said.
Since Pyongyang
initiated economic reforms in July 2002, Chinese
businessmen have crowded into North Korea -
perhaps the last virgin territory for capitalism.
China's non-financial direct investment in North
Korea was about US$14.37 million in 2005 and $14.1
million in 2004, according to the Chinese Commerce
Ministry.
Bilateral trade reached almost
$1.4 billion in 2004, and jumped to about $1.6
billion in 2005, while during the first eight
months of 2006 it hit $1 billion.
Some 40
Chinese companies from Liaoning province alone
have just returned from North Korea after
attending the second Pyongyang Autumn
International Commercial Exhibition. A
Pyongyang-Tianjin joint-venture bicycle
manufacturing company, which reportedly produces
300,000 bicycles annually, dominates North
Korean's bicycle market, while more companies are
waiting for the two governments' approvals for
investing in the slowly opening nation.
Shortly after Pyongyang's announcement of
its nuclear test, Tokyo declared a total ban on
North Korean imports and prohibited North
Korean-flagged ships from entering Japanese ports.
North Korean nationals are also prohibited from
entering Japan, with few exceptions.
Over
the weekend, the Security Council approved the
US-sponsored resolution for imposing punishing
sanctions against North Korea. The sanctions
demand that the North abandon its nuclear weapons
program and orders all countries to prevent North
Korea from importing or exporting any material for
weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles.
It orders nations to freeze assets of people or
businesses connected to these programs and bans
individuals from traveling there.
Furthermore, the resolution calls on all
countries to inspect cargo leaving and arriving in
North Korea to prevent any illegal trafficking in
unconventional weapons or ballistic missiles. The
final draft was softened from language authorizing
searches, but was still unacceptable to China -
the North's closest ally - which said it would not
carry out any searches.
"China will not go
too far," predicted Cui Yingjiu, a Beijing-based
retired academic who was Kim Jong-il's classmate
during his studies at Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung
University in the early 1960s. Aside from concern
about China's national interests, analysts in
Beijing also doubt the significance of any harsh
punishment, as they believe the North Korean
economy is relatively independent.
"They
can still live by simply eating grass. What would
these economic sanctions really do?" said Niu Jun,
professor at the Peking University's School of
International Relations, who visited North Korea
in July.
Shortly after the UN resolution
passed, US ambassador to the UN John Bolton told
reporters that the next step was to start work on
implementing the resolution. But none of the
current moves are scaring away Chinese
businessmen.
Ting-I Tsai is a
freelance journalist based in Taipei.
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