While
the global media hangs on every utterance from Donald Trump regarding the
ongoing war of threats directed at North Korea, very little attention is paid
to what China is saying, beyond their agreement to go along with additional
sanctions as shown here.
From
the Global Times, the English language mouthpiece of the Communist Party of
China, we find this op-ed:
"The US
and North Korea have both ramped up their threatening rhetoric. The Pentagon
has prepared plans for B-1B strategic bombers to make preemptive strikes on
North Korea's missile sites. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis issued an
ultimatum to North Korea on Wednesday to "cease any consideration of
actions that would lead to the end of its regime and destruction of its
people...
Many people
believe the possibility of war is very low. If war really breaks out, the US
can hardly reap any strategic harvest and North Korea will face unprecedented
risks. North Korea aims to propel the US to negotiate with it, while the US
wants to put North Korea in check. Neither can achieve its goal, so they
compete to escalate tensions, but neither wants to take the initiative to
launch a war…The uncertainty in the Korean Peninsula is growing.
Beijing is
not able to persuade Washington or Pyongyang to back down at this time. It
needs to make clear its stance to all sides and make them understand that when
their actions jeopardize China's interests, China will respond with a firm
hand.
China should
also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil
first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral. If the US and South Korea
carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the
political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing
so.
China opposes
both nuclear proliferation and war in the Korean Peninsula. It will not
encourage any side to stir up military conflict, and will firmly resist any
side which wants to change the status quo of the areas where China's interests
are concerned. It is hoped that both Washington and Pyongyang can exercise
restraint. The Korean Peninsula is where the strategic interests of all sides
converge, and no side should try to be the absolute dominator of the region." (my bold)
Let's
repeat the key sentence. If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and
try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of
the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so. Basically,
in the eyes of China, the Kim family dynasty, which has been in place since 1948, is to
remain in place no matter how the United States and South Korea feels about his authority to rule the North Korean people.
Keeping
in mind that China sent 2.97 million soldiers into the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (the
official name of the Korean War in China) between October 1950 and July 1954
and that it sacrificed 183,108 of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to push
the American forces to the south of the Korea, one should take any commentary
from China on the current situation very seriously. After all, it was the
military backing of China that allowed North Korea to end the war which it very
nearly lost with an armistice agreement that has been in place since July 27,
1953. In any case, it certainly appears that the United States won't be ridding the world of Kim Jong-un as easily as they got rid of Muammar Qaddafi and Saddam Hussein.
You make it sound as if the U.S. and South Korea were the aggressors. In fact, it was North Korea who invaded South Korea and was being beaten back by a United Nations coalition led by the United States before China intervened to save the aggressor nation.
ReplyDeleteNK and SK had wanted to unite. Guess which 'agressor' nation managed to stop that?
DeleteGenerally, we see little movement in the list of the "Worlds 10 Worst Problems" when they are counted down from least to most crucial. The fact is we would be remiss or negligent not to do some serious reshuffling to reflect the drum beats of war flowing out of Washington and North Korea. Please note, the leap from fourth to first place for "Weapons of war and mass destruction" is very significant because it can be very difficult to get this particular genie back in the bottle once it is out.
ReplyDeleteLike many people, I do not find what is known as the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD to be reassuring. What the world would look like following a nuclear war is very murky, yet today it seems many people consider nuclear weapons as just another tool or option available to solve pesky disputes. The current list of the "Worlds 10 Worst Problems" are listed in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2017/08/nuclear-war-moves-up-list-of-worlds-10.html