China is betting that U. S. President Donald Trump won’ t make good on his threats of a military strike against North Korea, with Beijing continuing to provide a lifeline to Kim Jong Un’s regime.
China is betting that U. S. President Donald Trump won’ t make good on his threats of a military strike against North Korea, with Beijing continuing to provide a lifeline to Kim Jong Un’s regime.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson singled out China and Russia as “economic enablers” of North Korea after Kim on Friday test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile for the second time in a matter of weeks. While Tillerson said the U. S. wants a peaceful resolution to the tensions, the top American general called his South Korean counterpart after the launch to discuss a potential military response.
China on Saturday condemned the latest test while calling for restraint from all parties, a muted reaction to Pyongyang’s progress on an ICBM capable of hitting the U. S. mainland. Despite Kim’s provocations, analysts said Beijing still sees the collapse of his regime as a more immediate strategic threat, and doubts Trump would pull the trigger given the risk of a war with North Korea that could kill millions.
“The military option the Americans are threatening won’ t likely happen because the stakes will be too high, ” said Liu Ming, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “It’s a pretext and an excuse to pile up pressure on China. It’s more like blackmail than a realistic option.”
Relations between the world’s biggest economies have soured after an initial honeymoon between Trump and President Xi Jinping. The U. S. last month sanctioned a regional Chinese bank, a shipping company and two Chinese citizens because of dealings with North Korea, a move that could be a precursor to greater economic and financial pressure on Beijing to rein in its errant neighbor.
Read more: The options for dealing with North Korea
China has repeatedly called for both sides to step back, proposing the U. S. halt military exercises in the region and North Korea freeze its missile and nuclear tests. The U. S. has dismissed that proposal, saying North Korea must first be willing to discuss stopping and rolling back its nuclear capabilities.
