China assisting North Korea, says US Defence Secretary
According to US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, the People's Republic of China has been assisting the hermit communist state of North Korea in its nuclear weapons programme. This would be a breach of UN security council resolutions from 2006 and 2009.
€I'm sure there's been some help coming from China. I don't know, you know, the exact extent of that,€ Panetta told members of the House Armed Services Committee when asked whether China had been supporting North Korea's missile programme.
€Clearly there's been assistance,€ said the Defence Secretary. There have been strong rumours that China has similarly helped Pakistan with its nuclear capabilities, something not confirmed or denied. Certainly a Sino-Pakistani (as well as a Sino-Sri Lankan and Sino-Bangladesh relationship) is aimed at hemming in China's biggest geopolitical threat in Asia: India.
The problem has been compounded since both China and India have ramped up defence spending. India recently test-fired a nuclear missile capable of hitting China. Relations between China and India have been seriously undermined by the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh, a territory bordered on the north of India by the Tibet region of China. While it has been administered by India as a state since 1987, China still claims most of it as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
China's relationship with North Korea is chequered. On the one hand, both are long-standing friends who fought side-by-side in the Korean War. The North is broadly seen in Beijing as a buffer against Western influence in the region.
Kim Jong-Il €" the late North Korean leader €" visited China four times between May 2010 and August 2011. That said Beijing has become increasingly impatient with Pyongyang €" as North Korea is seemingly unable to feed its own population.
North Korea in turn, has expressed concerns over China's embracing of market reforms. Although this has clearly catapulted China to the top of world affairs, there are those in Pyongyang who see this as a betrayal of Marxist principles.
China knows that the recent rocket launch by North Korea was used to cement the standing of the new leader Kim Jong-Un. Its failure has been an embarrassment both to Pyongyang and to Kim Jong-Un personally. This in turn could have a potentially destabilising effect.
A nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula could draw America into the region: a deeply disturbing scenario for Beijing. On the other hand, a weak North Korea would no longer act as a buffer against a US-backed South Korea. For Beijing, a united democratic, capitalist Korean peninsula on its border would be a nightmare. But if China cut its energy and food supplies to the North, it could cause a destabilising influx of North Koreans into China.
The United States is clearly rattled by China, whose defence spending is officially just over US$100bn, but could be as high as US$165bn. It is rising just as America's is falling. Even worse, because of Chinese holdings of US debt, very soon America could be financing the entire military of China in debt interest payments.
There is no historical precedent for this. Even the complex relationship between the UK and Germany in the run-up to World War II does not match the level of complexity now involved in the Sino-American relationship €" something British historian Niall Ferguson ironically calls €Chimerica€.
The US is duty-bound to defend Taiwan should China invade. Yet the US could be financing the very military which it would be fighting. The absurdity of this situation should strike everyone, not least America's allies, such as Australia, who may be in the Chinese firing line now HM Government in Canberra has agreed to station marines in the Northern Territory.
What is now becoming of the world is anyone's guess. But China is militarising and readying itself for future dominance in Asia, long the domain of Western powers. As the latter diverts cash into sclerotic welfare states, the Chinese have the money and the inclination to shake up a world, in which the developed countries are ceding authority.
€I'm sure there's been some help coming from China. I don't know, you know, the exact extent of that,€ Panetta told members of the House Armed Services Committee when asked whether China had been supporting North Korea's missile programme.
€Clearly there's been assistance,€ said the Defence Secretary. There have been strong rumours that China has similarly helped Pakistan with its nuclear capabilities, something not confirmed or denied. Certainly a Sino-Pakistani (as well as a Sino-Sri Lankan and Sino-Bangladesh relationship) is aimed at hemming in China's biggest geopolitical threat in Asia: India.
The problem has been compounded since both China and India have ramped up defence spending. India recently test-fired a nuclear missile capable of hitting China. Relations between China and India have been seriously undermined by the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh, a territory bordered on the north of India by the Tibet region of China. While it has been administered by India as a state since 1987, China still claims most of it as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
China's relationship with North Korea is chequered. On the one hand, both are long-standing friends who fought side-by-side in the Korean War. The North is broadly seen in Beijing as a buffer against Western influence in the region.
Kim Jong-Il €" the late North Korean leader €" visited China four times between May 2010 and August 2011. That said Beijing has become increasingly impatient with Pyongyang €" as North Korea is seemingly unable to feed its own population.
North Korea in turn, has expressed concerns over China's embracing of market reforms. Although this has clearly catapulted China to the top of world affairs, there are those in Pyongyang who see this as a betrayal of Marxist principles.
China knows that the recent rocket launch by North Korea was used to cement the standing of the new leader Kim Jong-Un. Its failure has been an embarrassment both to Pyongyang and to Kim Jong-Un personally. This in turn could have a potentially destabilising effect.
A nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula could draw America into the region: a deeply disturbing scenario for Beijing. On the other hand, a weak North Korea would no longer act as a buffer against a US-backed South Korea. For Beijing, a united democratic, capitalist Korean peninsula on its border would be a nightmare. But if China cut its energy and food supplies to the North, it could cause a destabilising influx of North Koreans into China.
The United States is clearly rattled by China, whose defence spending is officially just over US$100bn, but could be as high as US$165bn. It is rising just as America's is falling. Even worse, because of Chinese holdings of US debt, very soon America could be financing the entire military of China in debt interest payments.
There is no historical precedent for this. Even the complex relationship between the UK and Germany in the run-up to World War II does not match the level of complexity now involved in the Sino-American relationship €" something British historian Niall Ferguson ironically calls €Chimerica€.
The US is duty-bound to defend Taiwan should China invade. Yet the US could be financing the very military which it would be fighting. The absurdity of this situation should strike everyone, not least America's allies, such as Australia, who may be in the Chinese firing line now HM Government in Canberra has agreed to station marines in the Northern Territory.
What is now becoming of the world is anyone's guess. But China is militarising and readying itself for future dominance in Asia, long the domain of Western powers. As the latter diverts cash into sclerotic welfare states, the Chinese have the money and the inclination to shake up a world, in which the developed countries are ceding authority.
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