An opinion poll conducted by a state propaganda mouthpiece said yesterday that 56 percent of people in China blame the US for the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Just 9 percent of respondents said North Korea was at fault, according to the telephone poll conducted by the Global Times.
Ten percent of respondents blamed South Korea, it said.
Regional tensions are high after North Korean artillery pummeled a South Korean island last week, killing two civilians and two South Korean marines, destroying homes and triggering worldwide condemnation. It was the first time civilian areas in the South had been shelled since the Korean War.
The Global Times report did not say how many people were polled. China is North Korea’s sole major ally and its media heavily censors reports about North Korean actions, playing up Pyongyang’s versions of events to guide public opinion in support of Beijing’s pro-North stance.
Experts say Beijing coddles North Korea, at least in public, because it wants to prop up the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il out of fear that its collapse could spark a refugee influx to China or lead to a US-allied unified Korea.
Just 10 percent of those polled felt Pyongyang had acted provocatively, while 22 percent said it had been “forced to take action.”
Another 57 percent felt the situation was “too complicated to judge,” the newspaper said.
The poll also said 88 percent of people viewed North Korea as either an ally or as filling a strategic defense role for China.
China has avoided joining world condemnation of North Korea for either the shelling or Pyongyang’s claims that it has a working uranium enrichment facility.
Beijing also refrained from joining world criticism after North Korea was blamed for a torpedo attack on a South Korean naval vessel in March.