China will not step in to save North Korea if the Pyongyang regime collapses or starts a war, a retired People’s Liberation Army general said, possibly signaling waning patience in Beijing with its wayward, nuclear-armed ally.
“China is not a savior,” Wang Hongguang (王洪光), formerly deputy commander of the Nanjing military region, wrote in the Global Times newspaper, which is close to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Should North Korea really collapse, not even China can save it,” he said.
His comments were made in a contribution to the paper’s Chinese-language Web site on Monday.
The outspoken Wang has made critical comments about North Korea before and it was not clear whether his words indicated a policy shift regarding Pyongyang.
China has long been the isolated North’s key ally and aid provider.
Beijing came to the fledgling country’s aid during the 1950-to-1953 Korean War, when its intervention against US-led UN forces defending South Korea helped seal an eventual stalemate that has lasted to this day.
China’s role has grown as the North’s economy has shrunk in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union almost a quarter of a century ago, with which Pyongyang had close trade and aid ties.
However, over the same period, Beijing has moved to develop diplomatic relations and booming trade ties with Seoul, Pyongyang’s bitter rival. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and South Korean President Park Geun-hye have exchanged visits, while Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have so far kept their distance.
Wang said China would not get involved in any new war on the Korean Peninsula.
“China cannot influence the situation on the Korean Peninsula. China has no need to light a fire and get burnt,” he said. “Whoever provokes a conflagration bears responsibility. Now there is no more ‘socialist camp.’ It is not necessary for China’s younger generation to fight a war for another country.”
Wang criticized the North for its nuclear development, using it as an example of how its interests can differ from China’s and saying it had “already brought about the serious threat of nuclear contamination in China’s border area.”
However, he also criticized Western countries for what he described as “demonizing” North Korea and interfering in its internal affairs in the name of human rights.
“China absolutely does not meddle,” he wrote.
Beijing would “support what should be supported and oppose what should be opposed” regarding the North, he said, indicating China was not ready to completely give up on its troublesome neighbor.
China would neither “court” nor “abandon” North Korea, he wrote.
“This should be China’s basic attitude,” he added.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS