April 29:
China's implementation of international sanctions against North Korea has forced the regime to smuggle titanium for weapons manufacturing. Since March "the Dandong (Liaoning) customs office is closely watching all goods related to weapons production," a North Korean source told Daily NK. North Korean trade companies are hiding titanium plates on the bottom of their trucks crossing the border. If a titanium plate is uncovered during customs inspections in Dandong, Chinese authorities will seize all goods on the truck and investigate the Chinese counterpart who sold the titanium and the vehicle used to transport it. In response to the growing risk, North Korean trade companies are offering higher prices to their Chinese suppliers. Titanium is used to build nuclear reactors and is essential for Pyongyang’s development of long-range missiles.
May 2:
Chinese police have launched a probe into the death of pastor Han Choong-ryul, an ethnic-Korean Chinese national who was found dead on a hill in Changbai, Jilin on the North Korean border. Han is believed to have been murdered by three North Korean security agents who were dispatched into China and returned after the murder. Since 1993 Han was a well-known supporter of North Korean defectors and his church in Changbai county was used as a hideout. “North Korea ordered its security agents to abduct religious leaders in Chinese towns near the border in a bid to stem North Koreans' latest mass defections," the Korean Herald reports. China's foreign ministry said it had "no relevant information" about Han’s murder.
May 3:
Last month, thirteen North Koreans working at a restaurant in Ningbo, Zhejiang defected to South Korea, the Korean Herald reports. The North claimed that South Korea kidnapped them and called for their repatriation, which Seoul denies. "The government is keeping a close tab on North Korea's possible abductions or other terrorist acts on South Koreans," a South Korean spokesman said in comments carried by Yonhap. Chinese authorities return captured North Korean refugees, so human rights groups have set up safe houses that defectors use until they can cross into another country before travelling on to South Korea. Assisting defectors in China has become so dangerous that several groups have suspended operations, while the rising price has deterred many would-be defectors. Brokers charge $10,000 per person to smuggle people out of North Korea, and another $3,500 to get them through China, theTelegraph reports.
May 9:
Capital flows out of China continued in March and April despite a rise in foreign exchange reserves by $17 billion to $3.22 trillion. China’s forex reserves 18 of the last 20 months through February, reducing total reserves by $791 billion. The latest increase is deceiving, as it is largely based on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision not to increase interest rates, the Financial Times reports. By improving the dollar-denominated value of China’s non-dollar assets, the weaker dollar increased China’s reserves by $54 billion in March and April, according to Royal Bank of Scotland. Whether the result of tacit policy coordination or just luck, the weakened U.S. dollar has eased the pressure on RMB. Beijing has spent hundreds of billions to defend the RMB and has backslid on pro-market reforms, re-imposed capital controls, and halted a program to allow Chinese to invest in foreign hedge funds. “Recently the central bank has focused on maintaining stability but that’s not the direction of reform. It’s more like imposing stability is an ad hoc measure. As for when the central bank will return to pushing forward reforms, at the moment it’s tough to say," said Zhang Bin at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
China will end all military-provided paid public services including real estate, military hospitals, travel accommodations, press and publications and in seven unspecified, major institutions and 17 subsidiary institutions. “There will be personnel cuts in the military's paid services," the official Global Times reports. Some employees might have to leave the military, others might keep their jobs in for-profit institutions that will be separated from the military, and still others might be transitioned to new jobs in the military.