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China Not Center for Routing Terrorism Funds: Top U.S. Official
BEIJING,
May 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A senior U.S. official in
charge of tracking and freezing terrorist assets said Thursday, May 9,
it was unlikely China was a center for terrorism-related funds.
Deputy
Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam told reporters in Beijing that his
assessment came because China's closed financial system makes it hard
for terrorists to direct large amounts of funding across its borders,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
He
did not, however, comment on the country’s often tense relations
with the United States.
"I
think it's unlikely that there are large holdings of terrorist
finances in this country, given the difficulty of making transfers
through the bank out of China," he said.
"This
is not a great financial center where it would be likely that
terrorists would use it as a roundhouse for routing of payments into
China and out again." he said.
China's
currency, the yuan, can only be exchanged freely for trade in goods
and services but not for transactions such as investments in the stock
market.
Dam,
who heads a multi-agency group targeting terrorist funds moving
through the banking system, had talks earlier in the day with
officials in Beijing on China's efforts to track terrorist assets.
"The
report card ... on China is very, very good," he said. "They
are very much of the same mind that we are about terrorism and about
the importance of attacking the financial base of terrorism."
In
tracking terrorist funds, China has followed a list of individuals and
organizations published by the United Nations "to the
letter", while taking into account "most" of a similar
U.S. list, he said.
"Any
instance where they haven't followed the U.S. list is matched in many
European countries, for example," he said. "They are doing
everything that other countries are doing."
The
main purpose of Dam's Asia tour, which also includes stops in Malaysia
and South Korea, is to convince local officials about the merits of
liberalizing trade and investment in financial services. North Korea
is not included due to its strained relations with the U.S. President
Bush has included the country in his “axis of evil,” along with
Iraq and Iran.
"I
am in Asia to initiate a strategic economic dialogue on worldwide
financial sector openness," he said. "Openness to trade and
investment in financial services has been left off the global economic
agenda far too long."
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