The recent China visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is an important development. This is his second recent trip, the first one coming around the time of the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, believed to be Pyongyang’s doing.
During that visit, Kim obviously gave his own version of the incident, apparently absolving his country of any wrongdoing. China maintained neutrality on the issue, counseling both sides to maintain calm, which disappointed South Korea and the US, as they believed, on the basis of an investigation into the issue, that North Korea was responsible.
When the US and South Korea subsequently conducted joint military exercises to emphasize their preparedness and resolve, Beijing was not impressed. It sought to bar the US from conducting joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, because it constituted a threat to China’s security. (The South China Sea is already being billed as China’s territorial lake.)
Apart from warning the US, China was also implicitly cautioning Seoul against inviting foreign vessels into the Yellow Sea.
Another message is that the Korean Peninsula is China’s security zone and the US involvement could trigger a Chinese response, as in the Korean War of the early 1950s.
Indeed, the Xinhua news agency report of Kim’s visit not so subtly pointed out the link, with the North Korean leader having said: “Through this visit, the [North Korean] side had yet another in-depth experience of the preciousness … of the friendship created by older generations of revolutionaries of both countries.”
The spirit of the Korean War was thus invoked when China halted the US military advance toward the Yalu River.
Against this backdrop of such fraternal ties going back many years, the Chinese press ran a flurry of editorials defending a stable relationship with North Korea.
What it means is that China is veering toward more assured support for North Korea and the Kim dynasty.
The reinforcing of the 1950s fraternal ties, forged during the Korean War, is not a good portent.
The Korean War intensified the Cold War.
This time, it will be China, and not the former Soviet Union, that will hold the opposing flag.
The US is aware of the new danger China is posing to its naval dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. To counter China’s challenge, it is cultivating and expanding political and military ties with countries in the region, like Indonesia and Vietnam.
China is not pleased with an impending agreement between Washington and Hanoi to share nuclear fuel and technology for Vietnam’s plans to build 14 nuclear power stations over the next 20 years.
The two countries reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding in April about cooperation on nuclear power, including access to “reliable sources of nuclear fuel.”
China has accused the US of “double standards” for simultaneously pushing its non-proliferation campaign and disturbing “the preset international order.”
The US is obviously activating regional resistance to thwart China’s moves to declare the Asia-Pacific region as its own bailiwick, as it has done with the South China Sea, the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula.
Although the countries in the region are careful not to antagonize China, they are unlikely to be enthused about a sudden chorus from China of its regional primacy.
RSS