China hasn't followed South Korea, Japan and the U.S. in blaming North Korea for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun yesterday repeated a call for "restraint" by both sides and said China had no "firsthand information" on the sinking.
China wants to avoid a conflict on the Korean peninsula, and is concerned that taking South Korea's side may provoke North Korea into further escalations and even lead to war, said Shen Dingli, vice dean of the Institute of International Affairs at Shanghai's Fudan University.
"North Korea is dying, and we can make things worse," Shen said. "We have assumed North Korea is not a rational actor."
That actually makes perfect sense. Amazing.
2 comments:
No.
North Korea is- as one expert blogger put it- a vassal state of China. China, he posits, is embarrassed by North Korea's attack. It shakes things up. Keep in mind, North Korea has never been punished for any other terrorist act it has committed.
I think China should be taken out of the equation. China doesn't care about either Korea, only power.
Just my thoughts.
Hi Osumashi. As you know I have no use at all for Communist China. However in this case it may be that they have accidentally spoken some truth. Kim Jong Il is getting really old and messed up. His country is likewise falling apart.
I would not be at all surprised to see him trying to go out in a blaze of glory while he still has an army worth the name. He also may be itching to let one of those shiny new nukes of his off the leash.
Either way, China looks very, very -bad- for letting their vassal go nuts and wreck the third largest economy in Asia, South Korea. Plus they lose a boatload of money.
Refusing to admit reality for a while might be an effective strategy to keep Kim baby in his box.
As to China being out of the equation, I think its entirely possible they will have a major economic collapse some time soon. Remember how the USSR looked really strong and tough right up until the whole thing fell apart? I suspect there's a whole lot of that going on in China right now.
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