Posted on 05/30/2010 9:23:48 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
China resisted pressure yesterday from South Korea and Japan to censure North Korea publicly for the sinking of a warship, calling only for regional tensions over the incident to be defused.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gave no sign that China is ready to back United Nations Security Council action against its ally over the sinking, following a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
"The urgent task now is to defuse the impact of the Cheonan incident, change the tense situation and avoid clashes," he told a joint news conference on the southern resort island of Jeju.
"China will actively communicate with the relevant parties and lead the situation to help promote peace and stability in the region, which fits our common and long-term interests best," he added.
International investigators reported on May 20 that a North Korean submarine fired a heavy torpedo to sink the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.
But Mr Paik Haksoon of the Sejong Institute think-tank, said Mr Wen's comments "indicate that China is still questioning the authenticity and authority of the investigation".
"There would be no point in taking this issue to the UN Security Council without securing support from China," he said.
Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said he also doubted the Security Council would take up the Cheonan case.
"Wen Jiabao's speech gave no practical measures to deal with the Cheonan incident... He said nothing about how specifically China will get involved in regard to the UN Security Council."
South Korea announced reprisals including a trade cut-off after the report by international investigators on who was behind the sinking.
The North denies involvement and has responded by cutting ties and threatening war.
(Excerpt) Read more at todayonline.com ...
they refuse to sanction them because they support them.
Now there’s a shocker!
China is playing with fire.
Another fine example of Hopey/Changey’s appeasement foreign policy at work.
That appeasement policy vis-a-vis North Korea goes back to the Clinton Administration. Pants on the ground!
China and Russia are proving daily that they are unworthy to be part of the UN Security Council, or counted among the civilized and honorable nations of the world.
True, the Chinese leadership conduct diplomacy based on national self interest and not some abstract theory of peaceful coexistence. Unfortunately our leaders continue to subjugate our national interest to their utopian fantasies. Naivite is extremely dangerous in a world where nations such as Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, and Venezuela possess modern weapons and have no inhibitions about using power to further their own objectives.
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