China's Dandong businesses hit hard by UN sanctions on DPRK

The effects of Chinese sanctions against neighbouring DPRK have trickled down to the companies based in the border city of Dandong.

The city in China’s northeast Liaoning Province is where the bulk of cross-border trade takes place. For locals who live across from the DPRK, it’s hard not to feel the squeeze.

Businesswoman Fang Hua told CGTN that she and her husband have invested some money in the trade business with the DPRK, but are losing money because their counterparts across the border can’t pay them back in cash.

Another local said that companies in Dandong that export oil products to the DPRK are facing restrictions. “Business has gone down.”

It’s not just the large-scale trade of weapons-grade material that is banned entirely. For exporters of home appliances, like water heaters or flooring tiles, business is also in a slump, even if those products are not on the blacklist.

Requests for interviews were turned down by nearly every business owner on the street famous for selling hardware. People simply do not want to talk about trade during difficult times.

One place to observe the dwindling trade in Dandong is on the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, through which almost 80 percent of the bilateral trade passes. While necessities are still being transported to the DPRK, the days of trucks full of seafood, coal, iron, and iron ore crossing from the DPRK into China appear to be over for now.

Lyu Chao, director of peninsula studies at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.

According to the latest trade statistics from the customs administration, exports to the DPRK fell nearly 7 percent in September compared to a year ago, while imports fell almost 38 percent.

Lyu Chao, director of peninsula studies at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said China has made its economic sacrifice in supporting UN resolutions. “Especially for the Dandong economy, its seafood and textile industries have suffered big losses," he said. "Not to mention, the mass layoff of labor in those trade companies which are affected by the sanctions.”

Lyu said the key to reviving Dandong’s economy hinges upon whether or not Pyongyang will give up its nuclear ambitions.

(CGTN)