China
Toughening stand? Think again!
It will not take stand against Pyongyang as a Singapore newspaper implies. Here's why.
Jul 14, 2006

Time to diffuse North Korea's
rocket man (excerpted)
Columnist Dan Blumenthal,Weekly Standard.
July 13, 2006

The truth is that while China may be annoyed that its "little brother" does not do its bidding all the time, Beijing thinks that any type of punitive response is a far worse option, especially if it paves the road to sanctions, or even an American strike.

A Chinese analyst recently told me that China has an active treaty with North Korea: It would defend the North Koreans if attacked since its credibility with other allies such as Pakistan would be on the line.

What's more, he said that "some in China" believe that keeping the North Korean threat alive helps China by expending US energy and giving China a card to play in case of a Taiwan conflict: It could draw US forces away from the Strait if there were a crisis on the Peninsula.

If this thinking is widespread, it certainly explains Chinese reluctance to do much of anything to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme...

...The nations of the world simply have to enforce their own, and international, law.

What about China? China is unlikely to go along with this policy, which will certainly complicate our efforts.

But should it choose to be the only country in the world propping up a criminal, brutal and highly threatening regime, we ought to reconsider whether China has any interest in playing the role of "responsible stakeholder" we have assigned it.

This has broader implications for how we think about China. Though China's ability to threaten US interests is still limited, it is neither our friend nor our partner.

We certainly do not need a China policy that pretends otherwise.

(Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow in Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute.)