All quiet along the border
Yin Huxin, a biology PhD candidate, saw his tea cup tremble and felt the floor shake for about a minute while playing poker with his cousins in Yanji, Jilin Province, on February 12.
"Come on, an earthquake in the middle of Spring Festival?" Yin complained as he soon received messages telling similar stories from friends living nearby. Later, he learned on Weibo that North Korea had conducted its third nuclear test, which is believed to have triggered a 4.9 magnitude earthquake.
An Yan, a Jilin resident of the Korean ethnic minority, was enjoying a family reunion when he received a news alert about the nuclear test on his phone. "This is bold provocation," he shouted, slamming his wine cup on the table.
North Korea announced that the underground nuclear test was successful around noon that day, quickly drawing worldwide condemnation from all sides, including China. Amid this great political tension, residents along the border seem to be remaining calm, although mixed feelings are present.
Radioactivity concerns
Hunchun is a small city on the eastern side of Jilin Province, near the borders with Russia and North Korea, and is only about 100 kilometers away from the reported nuclear test site. Three days after the explosion, the streets were quiet and many stores were still closed as people enjoyed the last few days of the Spring Festival break.
Some local residents told the Global Times that they had felt the earthquake and knew about the nuclear test, but that life continued as usual. "Nuclear radiation is the biggest concern for us," said a local resident named Cui.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environmental Protection dispatched 12 emergency radiation monitoring teams to China's northeastern borders hours after the nuclear test, and has published data collected daily by monitoring stations across the country. No artificial radioactivity had been detected in the air as of Tuesday.
However, the public questioned the results, as the authorities only published data collected from stations in 31 provincial capitals, no details from the border towns.
Lin Li, a graduate student from Wuhan-based Huazhong University of Science and Technology, jumped on a plane to Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, some 20 hours after hearing the news, hoping to carry out some independent research.
Lin brought with him an independently developed radiation-monitoring device, created by his team led by Professor Xie Qingguo. For the next five days, Lin and his three classmates traveled more than 5,000 kilometers along the northeastern border and monitored the radiation levels in the towns closest to the test site, including Tumen, Antu and Changbai.
"The radiation levels in the air in all sites was normal in multiple tests conducted at different time windows," Lin told the Global Times.
The device they developed has been acknowledged by the China Institute of Atomic Energy and China Academy of Engineering Physics, "but we still brought two sets of imported equipment for comparison to ensure accuracy," said Lin.
Yin Huxin was also worried about possible radiation pollution contaminating groundwater and soil, and said this could cause severe long-term damage if crops absorbed the radiation. The region is China's main grain-producing base.
"There's no way to know the effect for now, but I might ask my family to drink filtered or bottled water in the future," said Yin.
Lin and his team also took samples of groundwater and soil in the downstream basins of the Yalu and Tumen rivers, which mark the China-North Korean border and lie close to the test site. But as Lin explained, "this would be a long-term procedure which requires regular visits to collect more samples."
An anonymous official with the provincial emergency management office told the Global Times that authorities have been working on monitoring radioactivity in water, soil and air along the border hours and that an emergency plan was in place. However, no official monitoring reports about water and soil results have yet been released.
Stiff upper lip
Despite the concerns, Hunchun residents are remaining calm. Li Jinlong, the town's press officer, told the Global Times that the city was peaceful without panic, and that the local government had been filing daily air radiation reports but that no abnormal findings had been detected.
Managers of several local supermarkets also said that they had not seen panic buys of bottled water or salt as happened in some cities after the 2011 nuclear leak in Fukushima, Japan.
"Neighbors came to buy groceries as usual but many of them mentioned the test and joked that Chinese people are immune to chemicals," a storeowner named Jin told the Global Times.
Hunchun is an international trade demonstration zone, which gives China a direct route to the sea by renting the North Korean port of Rajin. North Korea's Rason special district lies across the Tumen River, 48 kilometers away from the Quanhe Control Point in Hunchun, which Pyongyang aims to turn into a North Korean version of Shenzhen as a pioneer economic and trade area.
Quanhe Control Point was operating normally on February 15 although it was less busy than usual because of the holiday. "There are no special clearance procedures because of the nuclear test," said a frontier guard.
Business as usual
For the thousands of private business owners who frequently trade across the border through Quanhe, the latest nuclear test has garnered a range of reactions.
A local businessman surnamed Zhao told the Global Times that he is one of many traders who import seafood from North Korea into China and sell daily commodities from China back across the border. "Small businesses like ours were not influenced by past nuclear tests. I understand their desire of self-protection in the past, but this one is too close," he said.
Another entrepreneur, Zheng, working in light industry in Rason, said he was advised by friends to pay close attention to policy trends. "There are various preferential policies and regulations to encourage investment in Rason and it's easy money, but North Korean businessmen often break the rules and it's hard for us to complain," he said.
Li Jinlong echoed Zheng's point, saying that the original border trade fair on the North Korean side was shut down and rebuilt in Hunchun as local residents were frequently swindled.
An official in charge of the mutual development of Rason with the Jilin provincial development and reform commission, named Wang, told the Global Times that the biggest development barriers now are obscure regulation and a poor legal mentality across the border.
Apart from businessmen, border residents are also struggling to comprehend the whole situation. An Yan has family ties in North Korea and for years was sympathetic about the country's struggle, but he says this nuclear test was a stupid decision.
"So what is this, a threat or a show of power?" he asked.
Zhang Kelie, a legal professional in Ji'an, another county across the Yalu River from North Korea, said that local residents were "used to" NK's actions in the past and had seen some progress in their legal awareness. "But Kim Jong-un is testing how far he can go. Residents here once taunted the North Korean side by firing firecrackers to mimic artillery fire, but what can we really do besides worrying about radiation?"
Zhang's measured reaction encapsulated the phlegmatic attitude of many living along the North Korean border. It may be worth noting, however, that the timing of the nuclear test during Chinese New Year may have prevented stronger reactions from a country happily engaged in the most important holiday of the year.
Chinese dilemma
The test drew worldwide condemnation and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the same day that "the Chinese government is firmly opposed to this act."
The UN Security Council, the US House of Representatives, the European Union, South Korea and Japan all quickly proposed resolutions to apply additional sanctions against North Korea.
It also placed China in an impossible dilemma. Beijing's official statement said that "China always supports denuclearization on the (Korean) Peninsula" and suggests that China will still work to address the situation under the frame of the Six-Party Talks "through dialogue and consultation."
Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Peking University, commented that the nuclear test suggests a paradigm shift, which makes further multilateral dialogue with North Korea on nuclear issues impossible for the time being. He said China should take concrete actions this time.
Different voices also exist and continue to call for calm negotiation to secure border safety while accepting that certain sanction measures are still needed.
Wang Junsheng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that it's possible China will reduce food and energy aid to North Korea, or even freeze some trade programs.
Increased security checks along the Hunchun border area reflected a subtle shift.
However, the border remains very quiet and local people have no idea how the situation will develop.
Jiang Yingwen, director of Hunchun's bureau of development and reform, told the Global Times that several big Chinese enterprises including the Yatai Group, Lenovo and Beidahuang Group had entered Rason to work on cement production, information technology or agriculture and that this development has been going ahead smoothly.
"We haven't seen an immediate effect on cooperation since the nuclear test, and we hope this won't happen," Jiang said, adding that North Korea might even disregard the international sanctions, "They can even trade in cash without a banking system to avoid the financial sanctions."
It seems that no matter the lofty decisions taken in the halls of state, on the ground, commerce will go on. The operators of a local international trade center were busy answering calls for new business opportunities, expecting future riches.
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