Seems that we are getting close to another lever - from The Washington Post:
Chinese bank involved in probe on North Korean sanctions and money laundering faces financial ‘death penalty’
A U.S. judge has found three large Chinese banks in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in an investigation into North Korean sanctions violations. The order triggers for the first time a provision that could cut off one of China’s largest banks from the U.S. financial system at the demand of the U.S. attorney general or treasury secretary.
The three banks are not identified, but details in court rulings align with a 2017 civil forfeiture action in which the Justice Department alleged that China’s state-owned Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank worked with a Hong Kong front company accused of laundering more than $100 million for North Korea’s sanctioned, state-run Foreign Trade Bank.
The bank at risk of losing access to U.S. dollars, the lifeblood of international finance, appears to be SPDB, China’s ninth-largest bank by assets, whose roughly $900 billion makes it comparable in size to Goldman Sachs. Matching details include SPDB’s ownership structure, limited U.S. presence and alleged conduct with the other banks.
A lot more at the site - we 'kinda' knew that China had been supporting the Nork regieme but this is the first serious action against real proof that we have done. All international trade is done in US Dollars so pulling the plug on the banks would be a crushing blow to them and to China in general.
Nice to see people in our government with actual leadership and initiative. Kicking the can down the road is no way to govern a nation...
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