If it was an uphill task in June for the United States to win China’s support for its efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs, the chances now are virtually nil.
With an escalating trade war, allegations of Chinese meddling in US elections, and saber-rattling in the South China Sea, China is more concentrated than before on its own security interests – and the last thing it likely wants is for North Korea to fall into America’s sphere of influence.
To be sure, it’s still not clear that North Korea plans to yield to Washington’s denuclearization demands, though the process is inching forward despite setbacks that haven’t yet proven fatal.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after his visit to Pyongyang on October 7 that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had agreed to allow outside inspectors into his nation’s key nuclear and missile testing sites.
That is progress, as is recent news that US President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plan to hold a second summit meeting, but the US and North Korea still have widely divergent interpretations of what denuclearization actually means.
To the US, it entails a “final, fully verified denuclearization”, until which economic sanctions and other punitive trade measures imposed against North Korea will not be lifted. It is thus notable that the US has accused China, as well as Russia, of helping Pyongyang elude United Nations-enforced trade sanctions against Pyongyang.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, on the other hand, told the UN General Assembly in September that there was “no way” his country would disarm as long as US sanctions remained in place.
As for Beijing, the escalating US-China trade war has added an entirely new dimension to the seemingly insolvable North Korea dilemma.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while meeting Pompeo in Beijing on October 8, criticized Washington for imposing tariffs on an ever-widening range of Chinese goods and for alleging China has meddled in upcoming US mid-term elections.
Wang went even further by saying the imposition of the tariffs — and what he termed US support for Taiwan, which Beijing considers a break-away province — was tantamount to “a direct attack on our mutual trust and has cast a shadow on China-US relations.”
Wang added: “We demand the US stop the unwarranted accusations and wrongdoings against China immediately.”
The fact that this was said publicly while Pompeo was in Beijing underlined just how far China and America have drifted apart since Trump met Kim in a much ballyhooed summit in Singapore in June.
Increasingly, China has little interest in mediating the Korean nuclear crisis, a situation that previously consumed America’s security agenda in Asia.
An end to tensions on the Korean Peninsula is in China’s interest, but Beijing wants that peace on its own terms, not Washington’s. That would include a withdrawal of US soldiers and military installations from nearby South Korea. And while China is not in favor of a nuclear-armed North Korea, it does want Pyongyang to be strong enough to resist US pressure.
Even before Trump met Kim, it was clear that Beijing would not brook North Korea striking a unilateral deal with the US that might undermine its security interests. Analysts suggest China could easily derail the process through economic means, including by closing its border and starving North Korea of crucial imports such as fuel.
As initial US-North Korea talks were underway in March, Kim traveled to Beijing, his first foreign trip since he inherited power from his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011.
Until the younger Kim’s private train pulled into Beijing’s central station, many felt he had deliberately avoided China, a country his father and grandfather Kim Il-sung frequently visited with fanfare.
An advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in suggested that Kim Jong-un sought the meeting with Chinese leaders for guidance, considering he had no experience in dealing with Washington in diplomatic terms.
Kim’s maiden voyage to Beijing was followed by a visit to Pyongyang in mid-April by Song Tao, the head of the powerful International Liaison Department of China’s Central Committee, an influential body which conducts foreign policy from behind the scenes.
Tellingly, Kim traveled to China again in May to meet with President Xi Jinping in the northeastern port city of Dalian. Although a formal date has not yet been set, Xi is expected to pay a reciprocal visit to Pyongyang either this month or next.
Neither of those earlier meetings received as much international media attention as the ones Kim held with Trump and Pompeo, but they are of equal if not greater importance in determining the future of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs and foreign policies.
China clearly wants for North Korea to remain within its sphere of influence, particularly as the US ramps up trade and security threats against it. And Beijing no doubt recognizes that the US aims to play on its quietly strained relations with Kim.
In 2013, Kim is believed to have ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek, a leading government figure with close connections to Beijing, for reputedly trying to organize a faction within the ruling elite that was opposed to Kim’s rigid economic policies.
More executions followed in a crackdown on North Korean government insiders who were believed to be in favor of Chinese-style market reforms, a policy direction Beijing is known to have advocated.
Kim is also believed to have ordered Jang’s execution over rumors that Jang wanted to replace him with his estranged half-brother Kim Jong-nam, who was known to have spent time in China.
Kim, in turn, was murdered at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017 in what had all the hallmarks of a state-ordered hit.
Against that cloak and dagger backdrop, there is clearly a level of lingering mistrust between Beijing and Pyongyang. As China’s relations with the US deteriorate on several fronts, Beijing will likely view suspiciously any further warming of ties between Pyongyang and Washington.
As China continues to provide North Korea with sanctions-busting economic sustenance, Beijing ultimately has greater leverage than Washington over Pyongyang. Whether China would be willing to torpedo America’s denuclearization efforts will depend on the wider state of their fast declining and increasingly acrimonious bilateral relations.
China can demand from America all it wants but means nothing to the USA security interest. America is threatened by nuclear weapons while China is using it’s position as a bargaining chip to continue it’s unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft of American ingenuity and hegemony in the South China Sea. Only an idiot would believe one outweighs the other.
China can demand from America all it wants but means nothing to the USA security interest. America is threatened by nuclear weapons while China is using it’s position as a bargaining chip to continue it’s unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft of American ingenuity and hegemony in the South China Sea. Only an idiot would believe one outweighs the other.
WHAT A ROUSE THIS SO CALLED DENUCLEARIZATION OF THE NORTH.WHEN THE U.N REFUSES TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOST DANGEROUS ILLEGAL NUCLEAR ARMED REGIME AND THAT IS ISAREL WITH OVER 400 WARHEADS AND SUBMARINES BUILT BY GERMANY ARMED TO THE TEETH WITH AT LEAST 20 MISSILES TIPPED WITH NUCLEAR HEADS. ROAMING THE SEAS AT WILL,AND COULD FIRED THEM AT ANY TARGET THEY CHOSE. THE US TRACKS RUSSIAN AND CHINESE SUBS ,BUT DOES NOTHING ABOUT THE ZIONIST ISRAELI REGIME.
WHAT A ROUSE THIS SO CALLED DENUCLEARIZATION OF THE NORTH.WHEN THE U.N REFUSES TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOST DANGEROUS ILLEGAL NUCLEAR ARMED REGIME AND THAT IS ISAREL WITH OVER 400 WARHEADS AND SUBMARINES BUILT BY GERMANY ARMED TO THE TEETH WITH AT LEAST 20 MISSILES TIPPED WITH NUCLEAR HEADS. ROAMING THE SEAS AT WILL,AND COULD FIRED THEM AT ANY TARGET THEY CHOSE. THE US TRACKS RUSSIAN AND CHINESE SUBS ,BUT DOES NOTHING ABOUT THE ZIONIST ISRAELI REGIME.
Wishy washy.
I think, Alternatively, Beijing is one pulling all the strings in what I would term a Being Pyongyang strategic partnership.
Likely treaties:
a) to denuclearise, DPRK are placed firmly under China’s [security] umbrella hence the confidence in Kim after his trips to Beijing and…
b) a commitment by Beijing to transfer the DPRK into economic powerhouse exactly like that of ROK.
Wishy washy.
I think, Alternatively, Beijing is one pulling all the strings in what I would term a Being Pyongyang strategic partnership.
Likely treaties:
a) to denuclearise, DPRK are placed firmly under China’s [security] umbrella hence the confidence in Kim after his trips to Beijing and…
b) a commitment by Beijing to transfer the DPRK into economic powerhouse exactly like that of ROK.
This author is making intellectual back-flips to paint China as the bad guy here. Another way of phrasing what is happening is that China does not want a U.S. militarily-occupied North Korea (like the presently militarily-occupied South Korea). They want a sovereign North Korea, or a Unified Korea that is not militarily occupied by the U.S. Because if that were to occur, the U.S. would immediately put THAAD on the Chinese border and it’s X-band radar would allow them to spy on China and Russia, along with destroying the environment. The question is, is the U.S. capable of negotiating peace with a country without militarily occupying it for decades afterwards? Probably not as they are an imperialist power.
This author is making intellectual back-flips to paint China as the bad guy here. Another way of phrasing what is happening is that China does not want a U.S. militarily-occupied North Korea (like the presently militarily-occupied South Korea). They want a sovereign North Korea, or a Unified Korea that is not militarily occupied by the U.S. Because if that were to occur, the U.S. would immediately put THAAD on the Chinese border and it’s X-band radar would allow them to spy on China and Russia, along with destroying the environment. The question is, is the U.S. capable of negotiating peace with a country without militarily occupying it for decades afterwards? Probably not as they are an imperialist power.
I said it once and I’ll say again:
Kim is taking the Chinese for a [nuclear securitys and economic infrastructure] sucker.
His objective: take his country into the twenty first century much as how the US had helped built post way Japan and post South Korea’s economy.
Armed with this confidence and sense of security, he’s playing the Americans as sucker with his promise to denuclearize and de-Udonize the Korean Peninsula.
Two birds with one little stone.
.
I said it once and I’ll say again:
Kim is taking the Chinese for a [nuclear securitys and economic infrastructure] sucker.
His objective: take his country into the twenty first century much as how the US had helped built post way Japan and post South Korea’s economy.
Armed with this confidence and sense of security, he’s playing the Americans as sucker with his promise to denuclearize and de-Udonize the Korean Peninsula.
Two birds with one little stone.
I said it once and I’ll say again:
Kim is taking the Chinese for a [nuclear securitys and economic infrastructure] sucker.
His objective: take his country into the twenty first century much as how the US had helped built post way Japan and post South Korea’s economy.
Armed with this confidence and sense of security, he’s playing the Americans as sucker with his promise to denuclearize and de-Udonize the Korean Peninsula.
Two birds with one little stone.
Peter Lee, Sure!! According to your logic this is why China has claimed the South China Sea for its own despite other smaller nations longstanding claims to the same territory. And I bet you support this and the militariization of these same Islands as well despite President Zi promising this would not happen. The fact is American ingenuity created on its own the technology to make it the prominent Superpower of the World. Further, China’s theft of American intellectual property down through the years and cut-throat state sponsored business and unfair trade practices rebuilt China to what it is today including the PLA military. All the while continuing to lie and deny these claims. The United States experiences over 500 cyber attacks daily in hopes of continued theft of American intellectual property. Communist China can lie and deny all they want but the toy is not putting out anymore milk to these communist bastardy under President Trump! Read the article below and this happens regularly. If China is doing this to the USA one knows what they are doing to their smaller Asian neighbors! If the USA is caught doing this in China most people never know because they don’t give you prison time but are murdered.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chinese-spy-charged-with-trying-to-steal-us-aviation-trade-secrets-officials
Peter Lee, Sure!! According to your logic this is why China has claimed the South China Sea for its own despite other smaller nations longstanding claims to the same territory. And I bet you support this and the militariization of these same Islands as well despite President Zi promising this would not happen. The fact is American ingenuity created on its own the technology to make it the prominent Superpower of the World. Further, China’s theft of American intellectual property down through the years and cut-throat state sponsored business and unfair trade practices rebuilt China to what it is today including the PLA military. All the while continuing to lie and deny these claims. The United States experiences over 500 cyber attacks daily in hopes of continued theft of American intellectual property. Communist China can lie and deny all they want but the toy is not putting out anymore milk to these communist bastardy under President Trump! Read the article below and this happens regularly. If China is doing this to the USA one knows what they are doing to their smaller Asian neighbors! If the USA is caught doing this in China most people never know because they don’t give you prison time but are murdered.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chinese-spy-charged-with-trying-to-steal-us-aviation-trade-secrets-officials
Israel doesn’t pose a threat to the World like China and has a duly elected government by THE PEOPLE unlike Communist China! ALL World Wars were started by dictators who took it upon themselves to claim other peoples lands and territory because they didn’t have elections and we’re accountable to their own people’s! How about China? The people are not afforded the same opportunity most of the civilized world has to elect their own government! That’s the difference between Israel and China and most of the entire World. So quit parroting the words you use here which are text book defense and lies from the China Communist Party!!
Israel doesn’t pose a threat to the World like China and has a duly elected government by THE PEOPLE unlike Communist China! ALL World Wars were started by dictators who took it upon themselves to claim other peoples lands and territory because they didn’t have elections and we’re accountable to their own people’s! How about China? The people are not afforded the same opportunity most of the civilized world has to elect their own government! That’s the difference between Israel and China and most of the entire World. So quit parroting the words you use here which are text book defense and lies from the China Communist Party!!
.
Evil lurks everywhere…
Clearly, this author or his/her base, is trying to STIR, SWAY, and “MANIPULATE” public sentiments away from this unique Chinese Korean relationship…
Evil also knows no bounds…
.
.
Evil lurks everywhere…
Clearly, this author or his/her base, is trying to STIR, SWAY, and “MANIPULATE” public sentiments away from this unique Chinese Korean relationship…
Evil also knows no bounds…
.
That is the pot calling the skillet black!
That is the pot calling the skillet black!