"China should make clear that if North Korea launches
missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay
neutral."
This is what an editorial in
China's official publication Global Times, known for taking extreme positions,
says. The official mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party has been issuing war threats and warnings of disastrous
consequences to India on a daily basis ever since the India-China border
standoff in Doklam Plateau began in June.
It is an established fact
that China is the only factor that has let North Korea, a rogue state, become
increasingly belligerent over the years in spite of global sanctions that have
been in place for decades. China, in fact, is the only major trading partner of
North Korea and accounts for over 80 per cent of North Korean trade.
After North Korea's first
Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) test, that was surprisingly
successful, and its increasing threats of launching a nuclear missile on the
US, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last week imposed even harsher
sanctions on North Korea in an aim to reduce its exports by one-third.
But seeing the history of
China always extending olive branch to North Korea, experts are divided on
whether imposing more sanctions on North Korea will be of any help. Even though
China has announced to support the sanctions, its track record says it has
never implemented such international agreements in past and they merely
remained on paper.
In the same doublespeak, China's
state run media says here if North Korea attacks the US, China should remain
neutral but would prevent any US or South Korean attempt to overthrow the war
friendly dictatorial regime of North Korea, "If the US and South Korea
carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the
political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing
so."
That clearly means China
would not take any pre-emptive step to stop North Korea from taking that
disastrous step and would not allow even the US and South Korea to do so, even
if it means a nuclear attack by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Clearly
taking the line of China's interests first, the editorial goes on to say that
"China will firmly resist any side which wants to change the status quo of
the areas where China's interests are concerned."
US President Donald Trump has
warned that the US is fully prepared, locked and loaded, to face any North
Korean threat following his reaction to unleash fire and fury on North Korea
after it was revealed that North Korea had developed a miniaturized nuclear
warhead for its missiles that could effectively reach the US mainland.
In response, North Korea has said
that it is readying plans to launch missile attack on Guam, an US island in the
Pacific. Guam is a major US military installation housing the Naval Base Guam and
the Anderson Air Force Base. Apart from high-end military assets like the B52
bombers and the nuclear powered fast attack submarines, the Terminal High
Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), an anti-ballistic missile defence system, are deployed
here. Recently, the US deployed THAAD in South Korea to counter any missile
attack threat from North Korea. China sees presence of THAAD in the Korean
Peninsula a challenge its sovereignty in its area of influence and has been vehemently
opposing it.
North Korea has been rapidly
revving up its nuclear and missile programme after successful test launches of
nuclear capable ICBMs. Trump, who had said earlier that he would not allow
North Korea to have an ICBM, had reacted strongly on North Korean ICBM saying the
US was drawing plans for its “pretty severe” response.
©SantoshChaubey
