Congress is considering a more aggressive approach toward China as it struggles with North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile advances.
Some lawmakers say they should consider fresh sanctions targeting China to convince Beijing to do more, but there are concerns that going after China will also harm the US — and it may not sway Kim Jong Un anyway.
“Economic sanctions against China sounds great, but those will have an impact on the United States, ” said Virginia Rep. Rob Wittman, a senior Republican on the House armed services committee. “People have to be willing to say if we’re going to do that, there’s going to be some suffering here. So we have to be willing, if we’re going to do that, to be all in, which makes it more of a challenge to convince folks here it needs to happen.”
California Rep. Ed Royce, the chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, told CNN Tuesday that he’s considering additional measures to put economic pressure on North Korea.
House Republicans added the House’s North Korea sanctions bill to the sanctions package including Russia and Iran that President Donald Trump signed into law last month, which tightened sanctions on foreign companies doing business with North Korea.
While Royce didn’t mention China specifically, he said he now wants to look at broader sanctions that would impact Beijing’s trade with Pyongyang.
“I think we can cut off the shipping, access to the ports, the sanctions on the entire financial system, ” Royce said. “It’s always been done in fits and starts, it’s never been done in consistent relentless way in which you shut down the billions of dollars they need in hard currency.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday that the US is preparing a new Security Council resolution to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test.
Meanwhile, the President’s national security team, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, is briefing the full House and Senate Tuesday on the North Korean situation.
Democrats say they have faith in Trump’s national security team, but they worry that the President’s tweets — from criticizing South Korea’s approach to the North to suggesting the US could cut off all trade with China — raise troubling questions about the administration’s approach.
