The fate of Ma Xiaohong, and the business empire she built on trade with North Korea, has become a measure of China’s willingness to confront its neighbor.
DANDONG, China — Not long ago, Ma Xiaohong was the public face of China’s trade with North Korea.
By age 44, she had built a commercial empire accounting for a fifth of trade between the Communist neighbors. She was appointed to the provincial People’s Congress, granted special privileges to export petroleum products to the North and feted by officials as a “woman of distinction.”
Now, Ms. Ma’s fate has become a test of China’s willingness to support President Trump’s efforts to throttle North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Last year, American prosecutors indicted Ms. Ma on charges of using her companies to help North Korea evade international sanctions. After a briefing by American diplomats in Beijing, the Chinese announced their own investigation into Ms. Ma’s main company.
Fifteen months later, however, it is unclear what has become of Ms. Ma. The government says it has not found evidence to support the American charges that she or her partners aided North Korea’s weapons program. Though she remains under investigation for “economic crimes,” it is not clear whether she was ever arrested or where she is now.
A review of Ms. Ma’s case — involving interviews with officials, diplomats and others, as well as searches in corporate registries — underscored China’s deep ambivalence as it has come under increasing pressure to enforce sanctions against North Korea. While China is on the record opposing the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, it is wary of being seen imposing punishments at the bidding of the United States, especially against its own citizens.
North Korea’s agreement on Tuesday to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month, and to hold talks and other exchanges with the South, may have been symbolic and perhaps a cynical effort to bide time. Yet it suggested that the rising diplomatic and economic pressure, meant to deny it the financial and material resources needed to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, may have had some effect on the North’s leader Kim Jong-un.
Mr. Kim has given no signal that he would give up his nuclear ambitions, but after the North’s initial overtures, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that the talks were evidence that “sanctions and ‘other’ pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea.”
China has shown a willingness to support tougher sanctions at the United Nations Security Council over the last year, but it has done so grudgingly. The reasons for that are historical and strategic. North Korea has long counted on China as its only real ally, for example, but some analysts argue that economic factors also play a part.
“The Chinese don’t want to have to be doing this,” said Ken E. Gause, an expert on North Korea with CNA, a research organization in Arlington, Va. “There’s a lot of money to be made on that border, and there are a lot of connections between the operators on the border and their patrons back in Beijing.”
Ms. Ma’s fate remains shrouded in mystery. There have been rumors of political intrigues and of sweeping arrests of customs officials, but few hard facts.
China has taken steps to shut down at least some of Ms. Ma’s trading empire, freezing her shares of her main company, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. Ltd., for example, according to a government registry. The shares of three colleagues who were also charged by the United States were frozen for a time but later released, suggesting they no longer face criminal charges.
In the government’s first statement on the case in a year, the State Council Information Office responded to questions from The New York Times by saying that Ms. Ma and others face investigation for “economic crimes.”
However, the statement went on to say, referring to Ms.
