The six-party talks attempting to resolve North Korea's nuclear threat will lead nowhere; not because of North's willingness, as reported, or unwillingness, as expected, to accept compromise; rather because China is fishing in the troubled waters.
This assertion is founded on the following arguments:
China has absolutely no desire to see the crisis resolved. From Beijing's point of view, North Korea is a huge buffer zone of geo-strategic importance. As Beijing is fully aware of the effect a democracy right across the Yalu River would have and as it sees no advantage in resolving the crisis, China's presence at the talks is just a show with a hidden agenda.
China intends to exploit North Korea as its hatchet man, for the North can easily stir up trouble and set fires in numerous hot spots around the globe, while China can maintain seemingly clean hands. After all, North Korea depends almost entirely on China for survival and wields no power whatsoever to refuse this role imposed on it.
In addition to using North Korea as a conduit to sell and spread weapons of mass destruction, China has been using Pyongyang's facilities to develop secret weapons. Obviously, Beijing has no intention of giving up these expedient sites.
China also senses a golden chance to extort and claim the lion's share of aid that the US and Japan are willing to provide to the North in exchange for its compromise. Pyongyang, realizing its weak bargaining position against Beijing's demands and that China will not end up the true benefactor, therefore has no incentive to yield.
China has seen in the crisis ample opportunities to boost its interests and realizes that the longer the situation drags on, the better its interests will be served. The US and Japan may be well advised not to expect China's assistance, which is nothing but lip service.
Kengchi Goah
New Jersey
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder
Former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) used to push for reforms to protect Taiwan by adopting the “three noes” policy as well as “Taiwanization.” Later, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) wished to save the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by pushing for the party’s “localization,” hoping to compete with homegrown political parties as a pro-Taiwan KMT. However, the present-day members of the KMT do not know what they are talking about, and do not heed the two former presidents’ words, so the party has suffered a third consecutive defeat in the January presidential election. Soon after gaining power with the help of the KMT’s