NYT: Doubting U.S., China Is Wary of Korea Role

[DeepModem Mom]

Doubting U.S., China Is Wary of Korea Role
By HOWARD W. FRENCH

Published: February 19, 2005


SHANGHAI, Feb. 18 - The dispatch by China of a high-level envoy this weekend to persuade the North Koreans to return to talks on their nuclear weapons would seem to present it with an ideal opportunity.

China's economy is growing enormously, casting shadows in every direction. Its fast-modernizing military has the attention of every power, regional or global. No other country, meanwhile, enjoys the kind of long, unbroken friendship that China has nurtured for over five decades with North Korea. In short, all the pieces would seem to be in place for Beijing to score its first big coup in global diplomacy, brokering an end to the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula.

The only problem with this optimistic scenario is that it is shared by almost no one in China.

For now, the Chinese remain reluctant to take major diplomatic risks on North Korea, convinced that this longtime ally, a country that Chinese soldiers shed blood in large numbers to defend, will never turn against them. Analysts say that Beijing's top priority is to maintain quiet on its frontier, and that it would take a more aggressive tack only if tensions between Washington and North Korea were to increase seriously.

Beyond such doubts, however, lingers an even more fundamental reason for the reluctance of China to take the lead in this crisis: its deep-seated skepticism about the United States' strategic designs in the region....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/international/asia/19china.html?hp&ex=1108875600&en=14808959a726cd09&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Deja Q]

1. And yet the US has no qualms in dealing with China. I don't get it:

Traitor* said "You are either with us or against us".

N Korea is against us.

CHina works w/N Korea.

China must be against US.

Though China doesn't mind getting stronger from the trade imbalance that the unscrupled corporate america has fueled.

:shrug:

[hedda_foil]

2. Okay, folks, I have a semi-related question.

The global feudal lords seem to have decided to put all their eggs in the China (and India) basket because that's where they can not only make goods ultra cheaply but where they can create billions of consumers to buy the crap. They've obviously decided the US is no longer a profitable investment and are getting out of our production, service and labor markets as fast as they can. (I assume they figure we can't consume enough to make it worth their while.)

Here's the question: The global lords don't own China. How do they figure they're going to prevent the Chinese from cutting them out of the spoils a few years down the road?

[NNN0LHI]

3. The corporation honchos do not care if China cuts them out in a few years

They will have already made their money and short sold their own stock holdings by the time it hits the fan. The stockholder are the ones who will take the beating. And who cares about that? No one but but the stockholders who are holding stacks of worthless paper will care. Just like Enron.

Don