Personal record for Trump, listening for 10 minutes. That's how long it took China's Xi to convince America's Jeeh! that "it's not what you think," China's power over North Korea.
This 38North is a good site for DPRK-specific news and you know how much I want to transform Public Occurrences into an "all North Korea, all the time" site. It's not so easy
The article that the link takes you to offers informed suggestion on Chinese thought and action, and that I am always interested in, for real. The knowledgeable 38North writer confirms what this idiot blogger thought, and wrote, in the previous post: that there really has been a change in Chinese tone. Now, why? Peter 38 North offers three suggestions:
1. If there were war, there goes the neighborhood: nuclear fallout, refugees, yada yada, and China lives in that 'hood.
A. I'm going to make this a separate sub-suggestion because in my opinion it deserves it but respect Peter's enumeration: China is not down with a reunified Korean peninsula because it will be unified as an American peninsula and combined with Japan and Taiwan to become a platform for the U.S. to confront China. China would rather go halfsies with us even if that means they get the racist dwarf half. That sounds stupid but it is true and Peter thus concludes his first suggestion. Uncle Ben wishes to add that Chinese thinking here taps into an ancient Chinese anxiety: the fear of encirclement. The soul of China, the animating principle of their thought and behavior, is survival. Encirclement makes them fear for their survival. Yes, that is stupid, too, I just wanted to add that level of Chinese stupidity to Peter's. Next!
2. China is more batshit now than in previous Korean crises because they really do think the DPRK and the U.S. could rumble with nukes this time. I also thought that and wrote it in the previous post. Peter suggests however that the Chinese fear is not that those crazy DPRK-niks bird pump and set off a glow in the dark peninsula but that the Americans are going to! China really believes, really most sincerely believes, that there has been a consensus in America, not just in the current illegitimate, mutant, pseudo official America, but in Official America, and for some years, that the DPRK was NOT going to be allowed to develop ICBM-tipped nukes which could make Seattle and L.A. glow in the dark and that therefore the real danger now is in a preemptive American nuclear strike regardless of whether the DPRK does another underground nuclear test or test fires another missile. You can debate that all you want, I'm not going there again, the De Facto's redebated this last Friday, General McMaster was clear on Sunday but who knows what Trump told Xi in Florida, Pence said today "the sword is at the ready," the point is, this is what the Chinese think, suggests Peter 38 North.
3. China needs a "constructive" relationship with the U.S.
Okay, so on that last one, I don't know. That's the shortest paragraph of Peter's suggestions. Did they not want a constructive relationship with the U.S. in the past? When would that have been? Do they REALLY want a constructive relationship now? What does that mean specifically? If Xi convinced Trump in 10 minutes, 600 seconds you know, that Chinese "power" over the DPRK "is not what you think," that "it's not easy" for China to influence the DPRK, then that sounds like a pretty damn constructive relationship Xi constructed, Trump is satisfied, and the Chinese need do no more.
What it sounds like to me.
This 38North is a good site for DPRK-specific news and you know how much I want to transform Public Occurrences into an "all North Korea, all the time" site. It's not so easy
The article that the link takes you to offers informed suggestion on Chinese thought and action, and that I am always interested in, for real. The knowledgeable 38North writer confirms what this idiot blogger thought, and wrote, in the previous post: that there really has been a change in Chinese tone. Now, why? Peter 38 North offers three suggestions:
1. If there were war, there goes the neighborhood: nuclear fallout, refugees, yada yada, and China lives in that 'hood.
A. I'm going to make this a separate sub-suggestion because in my opinion it deserves it but respect Peter's enumeration: China is not down with a reunified Korean peninsula because it will be unified as an American peninsula and combined with Japan and Taiwan to become a platform for the U.S. to confront China. China would rather go halfsies with us even if that means they get the racist dwarf half. That sounds stupid but it is true and Peter thus concludes his first suggestion. Uncle Ben wishes to add that Chinese thinking here taps into an ancient Chinese anxiety: the fear of encirclement. The soul of China, the animating principle of their thought and behavior, is survival. Encirclement makes them fear for their survival. Yes, that is stupid, too, I just wanted to add that level of Chinese stupidity to Peter's. Next!
2. China is more batshit now than in previous Korean crises because they really do think the DPRK and the U.S. could rumble with nukes this time. I also thought that and wrote it in the previous post. Peter suggests however that the Chinese fear is not that those crazy DPRK-niks bird pump and set off a glow in the dark peninsula but that the Americans are going to! China really believes, really most sincerely believes, that there has been a consensus in America, not just in the current illegitimate, mutant, pseudo official America, but in Official America, and for some years, that the DPRK was NOT going to be allowed to develop ICBM-tipped nukes which could make Seattle and L.A. glow in the dark and that therefore the real danger now is in a preemptive American nuclear strike regardless of whether the DPRK does another underground nuclear test or test fires another missile. You can debate that all you want, I'm not going there again, the De Facto's redebated this last Friday, General McMaster was clear on Sunday but who knows what Trump told Xi in Florida, Pence said today "the sword is at the ready," the point is, this is what the Chinese think, suggests Peter 38 North.
3. China needs a "constructive" relationship with the U.S.
Okay, so on that last one, I don't know. That's the shortest paragraph of Peter's suggestions. Did they not want a constructive relationship with the U.S. in the past? When would that have been? Do they REALLY want a constructive relationship now? What does that mean specifically? If Xi convinced Trump in 10 minutes, 600 seconds you know, that Chinese "power" over the DPRK "is not what you think," that "it's not easy" for China to influence the DPRK, then that sounds like a pretty damn constructive relationship Xi constructed, Trump is satisfied, and the Chinese need do no more.
What it sounds like to me.
