Not only are Obama’s domestic priorities driving him in the wrong direction with China, perhaps even worse, he seeks the wrong answers from China even on national security issues. US policy on Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programs highlights this anomaly. Both former US president George W. Bush’s and the Obama administrations have allowed China to escape responsibility for stopping Pyongyang’s nuclear program, something it has the unique capacity to do, given the North’s reliance on China for energy, food and other critical resources.
Although China says it opposes a nuclear North Korea, it is unwilling to take tough measures because it fears even more the collapse of the Pyongyang regime and the possible reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
While eliminating North Korea would end Northeast Asia’s nuclear problem and lead to regional and international stability, China will not act for fear of enhancing the US position in the region.
By contrast, on Iran, we face a regime determined to acquire deliverable nuclear weapons, and undeterred by UN Security Council sanctions resolutions. Nonetheless, the Obama administration proclaims that a fourth set will somehow achieve what the first three have failed to do, despite China’s lack of support. Even if another resolution is adopted, would it have an impact? The near-certain answer is: “No.” Instead of begging China for support, the US should make its own decisions to do what is necessary to prevent what now looks almost inevitable absent an Israeli military strike: Iran with nuclear weapons.
Many people blame China for pursuing its national interests, but Beijing is just doing what comes naturally. The real question is why the US is not doing the same.
John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
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