President Obama is taking the advice of China on this. It is the Chinese who have told him to delay the missile test.
Obama thinks he can trust China. He cannot. China does not trust Obama. Obama sees the responsible Chinese vote in the U.N. for sanctions against the DPRK as signaling a closer relationship with the U.S. and a more distant relationship with the DPRK. The Chinese U.N. vote did not signal either. China does what it does based on Chinese interests alone. The Chinese soul is survival. For centuries the Chinese soul has manifested itself in a well-known fear of encirclement. It has propped up the DPRK for decades out of paranoia that without it the U.S. and South Korea would be encircling it from the East. In the Chinese world view China needs the DPRK and needs it to be hostile to the U.S. But China knows this too: the DPRK is a failed state and would be obliterated in a war with the U.S. and the South. China knows, as does Fidel Castro, that this time the DPRK is going to make war. That is why China voted in the U.N. for sanctions against the North. China wants the DPRK to survive, and knows it can't in a war.
China knows what the DPRK'S tripwire is. They know when the DPRK will launch. China will tell Obama whatever is in their best interests to tell him about the launch date, whether it is true or not, in order to prevent war, the DPRK's certain destruction, China's "encirclement" and the thermonuclear obliteration of China itself should it intervene on the North's behalf.
Obama is listening to the Chinese. He should not be, he can't trust them. But the Chinese know they have Obama's trust. And so they talk, knowing he will listen.
Tonight the president took China's advice. Bad move for America.
Obama thinks he can trust China. He cannot. China does not trust Obama. Obama sees the responsible Chinese vote in the U.N. for sanctions against the DPRK as signaling a closer relationship with the U.S. and a more distant relationship with the DPRK. The Chinese U.N. vote did not signal either. China does what it does based on Chinese interests alone. The Chinese soul is survival. For centuries the Chinese soul has manifested itself in a well-known fear of encirclement. It has propped up the DPRK for decades out of paranoia that without it the U.S. and South Korea would be encircling it from the East. In the Chinese world view China needs the DPRK and needs it to be hostile to the U.S. But China knows this too: the DPRK is a failed state and would be obliterated in a war with the U.S. and the South. China knows, as does Fidel Castro, that this time the DPRK is going to make war. That is why China voted in the U.N. for sanctions against the North. China wants the DPRK to survive, and knows it can't in a war.
China knows what the DPRK'S tripwire is. They know when the DPRK will launch. China will tell Obama whatever is in their best interests to tell him about the launch date, whether it is true or not, in order to prevent war, the DPRK's certain destruction, China's "encirclement" and the thermonuclear obliteration of China itself should it intervene on the North's behalf.
Obama is listening to the Chinese. He should not be, he can't trust them. But the Chinese know they have Obama's trust. And so they talk, knowing he will listen.
Tonight the president took China's advice. Bad move for America.
