President Trump tweeted this morning while Secretary Rex Tillerson is in China meeting with Xi Jinping about what to do with North Korea. ….or put another way: Tillerson chats about Rocket-boy consequences with big Panda while the sound of a lion roaring is heard over the background of the bamboo forest.
If you’ve been following along, Trump/Tillerson creating the need for ‘Magnanimous Panda’ is actually quite fun to watch unfold.

President Trump will never use the U.S. military to solve this regional issue.  The national security strategy is based entirely on economics (leverage) and diplomacy (ownership).  President Trump’s words and rhetoric against Kim Jong-un, and the response from Jong-un in kind toward President Trump, creates the foundation of a need for magnanimous panda to step in.
Remember, Beijing doesn’t want to take ownership of DPRK.  China prefers to retain influence over behavior, they are the enablers, but not be directly responsible for the enforcement of any agreement which comes with attached consequences (economic punishment) for DPRK violations.
(more…)

Before getting to the heart of the latest announcement it is important to note there is a great deal of rapid economic action taking shape in China ahead of Secretary Rex Tillerson’s arrival.   ¹China has stopped the import of recyclables.  ²Chinese manufacturing is slowing.  ³Comac (chinese aerospace) has successfully tested their latest airliner.
#1 is important because it reflects the opinion of the central economic planners in Beijing that #2 is more severe than currently publicized. #3 is important because Canada’s plan in the Boeing -vs- Bombardier trade dispute was to look toward China to purchase Canadian subsidized aerospace products. Purchases won’t happen because China is creating it’s own airline manufacturing industry with Comac (a Beijing subsidized industry). However, China is more than willing to give the illusion of trade in order to steal Bombardier technology.
Those are all subtle signals of economic activity within China.
However, today the bigger economic story is an outcome of President Trump and Treasury Mnuchin outlining specific sanctions against any entity that engages in economic activity with North Korea.
Beijing understands the consequences to the Trump/Mnuchin sanctions and finds themselves in a tight position where allowing DPRK business interests to operate within China violates the intended purpose to cut off North Korea from it’s economic enablers.

(Via Daily Mail) China has ordered North Korean companies in the country to shut down by January as it applies UN sanctions imposed following Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test.
The commerce ministry in Beijing said today the companies, including joint ventures with Chinese firms, have 120 days to close from the date the United Nations resolution was adopted on September 12.

(more…)

Well, well, well…. According to a breaking State Department release T-Rex will be headed to Beijing the day after tomorrow (Thursday) through Sunday.   Yup, everything proceeding swimmingly.  A very predictable plan, for an intensely smart geopolitical strategy.  Walking in a Winner Wonderland !

STATE DEPT – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Beijing September 28 – October 1 to meet with senior Chinese leaders. Secretary Tillerson will discuss a range of issues, including the President’s planned travel to the region, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and trade and investment. Secretary Tillerson’s visit to China reaffirms the Administration’s commitment to further broaden and enhance U.S. economic and security interests in the Asia-Pacific region.

(more…)

President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin are is using the newly constructed sanctions authority to punish eight North Korean banks and 26 bank workers living abroad.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctions (full outline below) rely on an executive order President Donald Trump signed last week to target North Korea’s access to the international banking system. The Trump/Mnuchin action comes as as a separate outcome from the recently passed United Nations sanctions package targeting North Korea.

The eight banks are all in North Korea. The Treasury Department says the 26 individuals are North Korean nationals employed by those banks who work in Russia, China, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the U.S. is targeting those “across the globe” who facilitate financial transactions for North Korea. He says it’s part of the effort to isolate North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. (link)

Treasury announcement below.
(more…)

Well, at least Jake Tapper defined his intent honestly in this interview where he explains his role is to advocate for the devil.  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talks with CNN’s Jake Tapper about President Donald Trump’s criticism of athletes kneeling during the national anthem and the the administration’s tax cut plan:

(more…)

The United States leading diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, makes the historic case for peaceful denuclearization to the U.N. Security Council.

.
[Transcript] SECRETARY TILLERSON: Well, good afternoon. And I appreciate the opportunity to address the Security Council again, and I thank this month’s – this month’s chair, Ethiopia.
Members of the Security Council talk often of threats to global security.
The focus of today’s Security Council meeting is an issue of worldwide implications: nuclear proliferation.
(more…)

U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley holds a press availability in New York City on September 21, 2017 to discuss ongoing diplomatic engagements.

.
No-one in the media has yet to fully grasp the Trump Doctrine’ as it pertains to leveraging the scale and influence of the U.S. economy, all aspects, to gain national security outcomes.  This is what happens when a non-politician, a problem solver, becomes U.S. President.
(more…)

Jumping ju-ju bones, now that we’ve read the stunning content of this executive order it is completely obvious why Beijing took action today with their central bank instructions.
President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin have structured this executive order in such a way that the downstream consequences from any economic engagement with the DPRK effectively cuts off that entity from engaging in commerce or economic activity with the United States.

It’s a jaw-dropping, and effective, way to blockade any economic engagement with North Korea. That reality, and accepting that POTUS Trump gave a heads’ up to Xi Jinping, is obviously what precipitated Beijing to get out ahead of the executive order lest any Chinese entity be directly impacted and blocked from trade with the U.S.
[I bullet pointed the sections below]:
(more…)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will be holding a press conference shortly to outline the latest sanctions against North Korea, and discuss the impact of Beijing’s central bank barring economic transactions between Chinese banks and North Korea.  Start time estimated between 2:45pm and 3:00pm EDT
Update: Video Added

Trump's new executive order bans ships and aircraft that have visited North Korea from visiting the U.S. for 180 days, White House says.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 21, 2017

SECTION TWO: Sec. 2. (a) No aircraft in which a foreign person has an interest that has landed at a place in North Korea may land at a place in the United States within 180 days after departure from North Korea. (link to Executive Order)
(more…)

During a luncheon with South Korea (Moon Jae-in) and Japan (Shinzo Abe), U.S. President Donald Trump announces new sanctions against North Korea (Kim Jong-un).
Moments prior to President Trump’s statement, Beijing (China’s Red Dragon ‘old guard’ communists), announced their central bank has instructed all of China’s banks to stop financial transactions with DPRK entities (proxy provincial financial systems).  Beijing (Red Dragon) is attempting to retain their panda mask as an economic necessity to the international community.  President Trump’s economic pressure is unrelenting:

-Panda Sees Lion Tracks In Shrinking Bamboo Forest-

China has no cultural or political space between peace and war; they are a historic nation based on two points of polarity.  Beijing sees peace and war as coexisting with each other. China accepts and believes opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.  Flowing between these polar states is a natural dynamic to be used -with serious contemplation- in advancing objectives as needed.
The Chinese objective is to win, to dominate, using economic power.
(more…)