Saturday
The heightened tensions with North Korea raise puzzling questions about China. It seems quite unable to put any brakes on its neighbour’s belligerence.
It cannot be because it does not want to, at least, reduce tensions, including the, by now, very real military threat to itself. The North Korean military comprises 25{781366457d9c05ca9285c5eb3e04ac75968647e24436986cab65f74e6f4b3aad} of the population and numbers around six million (with almost twice that number in reserves) – almost three times China’s 2.2 million. That situation is made worse by the report that more than half of Chinese recruits have been rejected as unfit for service – a large portion of them due to excessive masturbation. And no, that is not a report from The Onion.
Chinese reticence to act can only be because China lacks the will or confidence to tackle the situation.
What sort of leadership dithering, spread over many decades, has allowed the situation on their own border to get this far out of control?
The official China line is that it is worried about a million refugees if the NK government collapses. Humanitarian concerns are implausible. We know from the stories of those who risk their lives to escape NK that not everyone is brainwashed. Most North Koreans would surely celebrate the collapse and be highly unlikely to race off into the arms of another totalitarian regime across the border.
Even if it did happen, China would, on current policy, see that as a business opportunity. One million refugees equal two million kidneys and a lot of other high-demand, high-price body-parts.
If North Korea can face down China, maybe it is time for those with traditional ownership of the islands of the South China Seas to consider more assertively enforcing their claims.
China has lost face. Its image as a regional power has suffered a major setback.