Posted on 09/17/2016 7:53:17 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Sep 11, 2016 @ 12:01 AM
Did Kim Jong Un Just Nuke China's Economy?
Gordon G. Chang , Contributor
I write about Asia, especially the Chinese economy. Full Bio
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Friday, North Korea detonated a nuclear device, claiming it to be a “warhead.” The warhead, Pyongyang said, would pave the way for “a variety of smaller, lighter, and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power.”
The boast seemed nothing out of the ordinary for bombastic ruler Kim Jong Un, but the test, the North’s fifth, is generating far more concern in Washington and other capitals than previous ones.
Why the angst? There are many reasons, but the most important is that the Kimist regime is setting off nuclear bombs and firing ballistic missiles at accelerated paces. The current Kim, since coming to power in December 2011, has launched 37 such missiles, more than twice his father, his predecessor. During young Kim’s reign, there have been three nuclear detonations, two of them this year.
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So it is high time, many feel, to impose real costs—on China. That, by the way, is what the two leading presidential candidates are saying. “We should make trade very difficult with China,” said Trump after the January test.
And after the test last week, Hillary Clinton, in the words of CNN, said she was in favor of “cranking up sanctions.” Moreover, it looks like she is thinking of imposing measures on not just the North Koreans. “We have a lot of leverage,” she said in a reference to Chinese companies and financial institutions, “and we are going to exercise that leverage.”
/snip
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
P!
China wants to keep N. Korea exactly where it is. A buffer between China and the freedom of South Korea. Therefore China has nothing to fear from N. Korea. North Korea merely has to not bother China. Saber Rattling by North Korea is just simply what North Korea does to distract its citizens from everything else.
And regarding the Hill Beast. Everything she says is a lie. Hill Beast will do just about nothing with regards to China. Remember...China owns much of the USA debt. China tells the Dems what to do. Not the other way around.
HIllary is trigger-happy. North Korea is another reason she doesn’t need to be in the White Hut.
And Bush and Hussein are both feeling very smug about now.
‘Bridge to nowhere’ shows China’s failed economic effort to engage North Korea
Costing 2.2 billion yuan ($330 million) and partially completed last year, the dual-carriageway bridge today sits abandoned, the impressive border post on the Chinese side deserted and locked, not a soul to be seen.
On the North Korean side the unfinished bridge ends abruptly in a field, with little sign of infrastructure work happening.
It is sobering to consider that North Korea has detonated multiple nuclear devices and has developed the missile technology to deliver them to foreign lands, yet has no municipal infrastructure of any sort beyond its capital, Pyongyang, and has operated for decades as a nation that regularly starves its people in the millions.
There is no doubt that the financial and technical resources necessary to make that happen has been provided by Moslem countries that have used their oil revenues to support North Korean efforts functioning as a research laboratory and as a procurement conduit isolated from the influence of the western world and its putative allies.
And this has been ongoing without restraint ever since the insipid Dubya prattled on about the “Axis of Evil” over fifteen years ago, yet failed to properly prosecute the asinine wars he inveigled us into, which his monstrous successor, Hussein, totally destroyed any partial benefit we may have accrued, all at a titanic cost of blood and treasure.
North Korea is China’s junkyard dog. It’s useful until it maims a neighbor (i.e. A trading partner). But then world history is full of examples of major trading partners going to war against eachother. Something economists keep forgetting.
China and South Korea are indistinguishable from each other economically, and have a strong trade relationship. Politically, South Korea is only a couple of decades removed from a military dictatorship, itself - and though they might allow more public political outbursts than China does, Seoul would not tolerate any type of revolution against its entrenched power structures better than Beijing would. In any hot conflict between North and South Korea, China would back the South without hesitation.
So why does China continue to prop up North Korea? Two reasons: the existence of Japan - which is still hated by both China and South Korea for its WWII atrocities. North Korea is a cheap way to rattle Japan's cage as needed without China having to take the blame. And China doesn't want to deal with millions of North Korean refugees streaming northward into China in the event of a revolution. China sees their best interest as keeping a lid on the status quo. I think they are wrong, and would do themselves a big favor if they would help rid the world of the Kim regime, but they aren't ready to go there yet.
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