Is China backing away from censuring North Korea over the sinking of South's Cheonan warship?

Despite indications last week that it might take a harder line on North Korea over the North's apparent sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship, China now appears unwilling to censure its Communist ally.

China appears to be maintaining its unwillingness to censure North Korea for its involvement in the sinking of a South Korean warship, despite earlier indications to the contrary, as a summit between China, Japan, and South Korea ended without any public statement concerning North Korea.

The Korea Times reports that Chinese Primier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made a joint statement at a news conference Sunday calling for regional peace and stability. But despite efforts by Mr. Lee to convince China to join in the international condemnation of North Korea's sinking of the South Korean cruiser Cheonan, the joint statement made no mention of North Korea.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said he doubted the Security Council would take up the Cheonan case. "Wen Jiabao's speech today gave no practical measures in dealing with the Cheonan incident," Yang said. "He said nothing about how specifically China will get involved in regard to the U.N. Security Council."

OK nothing N. Korea does appears to change China's attitude, as long as it is not directly against them. I thought that things might be a little different because this time N. Korea directly attacked S. Korea with so many SK sailors killed. So I would assume that would be the case from now on. I suppose they will accept NK's third nuclear test, and even NK's limited war against SK.

China still refuses to take SK's report on Cheonan's sinking which implicates N. Korea, according to SK media. Now that SK has a smoking gun, China wants to dodge the issue by not even laying their eyes on it. It is getting a little desperate and even petty.

Just as Chia Head tries to demonstrate that he calls the shot and there is nothing outsiders can do about it , China is also displaying the same. China owns this crisis as much as or more than N. Korea does. Should not complain about its blowback in the near figure.

For example, when Chia Head and his ilks are boxed into a corner due to coup, uprising, or internal power struggle, they could bring one of their nukes into the bunker under Mt. Baekdu, and threaten to detonate it. It would cause absolute chaos in N.E. China, especially if it is done during the warm season of the year when winds blows from S. East to N. West. The fallout from nuclear detonation would blanket N.E. China. Of course, Chinese will try to stop them. But then N. Koreans would set it off before Chinese get to it. The nuclear detonation could bring another disaster as well. Mt. Baekdu is actually a dormant volcano. It has not erupted over 1000 years. However, lately its steam vents are showing more activity and frequency of minor tremors suddenly picked up. Nuclear detonation inside the volcano at a well-picked location would not only create nuclear destruction and fallout but could also the volcanic eruption, kicking up enormous amount of ash up in the air.

When people talk about Chia Head going down in a blaze of glory, they usually think that he could attack S. Korea or U.S. forces with his nuke. However, nuclear suicide in Mt. Baekdu is also a good possibility.

As I posted last week, China holds the Norkies leash. They don’t jump unless China kicks them in the butt. So, if they are “backing away” from a censure, you can be sure they KNEW what ole’ Kim and his Norkies were up to, or at the very least, they see a way to play it to THEIR best interests.

The Chinese are COMMUNISTS. They hate us, they hold much of our debt, and they would love nothing more than to find a way to force our implosion. If the Norkies can contributre to that WITHOUT China having to get their hands dirty, so much the better.

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