Trump and China Allied Against North Korea

Uh oh! First there was Bret Stephens, now we have Christopher Ruddy. Ruddy is the chairman of Newsmax, a conservative news organization. Apparently, the New York Times is hard at work trying to open the minds of its liberal readers.

Recently, Ruddy was in China discussing the Trump policy on North Korea. As you know, serious commentators, unwilling to await developments, denounced Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. They could not but rush to judgment, because, after all, they know how it's all going to turn out.  To declare, as media outlets on the left and the right, that Trump had gotten rolled is to prejudge a situation whose outcome is still in doubt.

Ruddy began by addressing the fact that Trump had talked tough talk about Chinese trade practices and currency manipulation during the campaign. His Chinese interlocutors did not take it all very seriously. They saw it more as an opening gambit in a negotiation than as a firm policy.

Ruddy explained:

During the campaign, Mr. Trump denounced Chinese trade policies, saying he would not allow Beijing “to rape our country” any longer. In early April, when President Trump met President Xi Jinping of China at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., he continued the tough talk. He and his aides told the Chinese delegation that the administration would impose restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States if Beijing did not lower its barriers to American investments in China.

And also:

There are also signs that Mr. Trump’s style is resonating with ordinary Chinese. Considering the harshness of his past statements about China, I was surprised by the number of people I met there who expressed respect for him. “He is a very successful businessman,” one said. “He is strong,” another said. One person noted, “I think in the past your country respected such people.”

Apparently, the Chinese never took Mr. Trump’s campaign rhetoric personally. They saw it as his starting point — a “negotiating position,” as Mr. Trump himself might say.

Apparently, people in China respect Trump more than American citizens do. After eight years of a weak and feckless Barack Obama the Chinese seem pleased to be able to deal with someone that consider to be “strong.” Trump’s actions in Syria were designed to send the same message. Where Barack Obama sucked up to Vladimir Putin for eight years, giving him free reign in the Middle East and Crimea, Trump reasserted America's place in the region. The result is that Putin's spokesman has been whining about how Vlad has not been getting enough time to talk to Trump. A deranged comedian draw our attention to the issue with an intemperate rant about Trump. In truth, as Colbert failed to notice, the president who was Putin's cock-holster was Barack Obama. Remember when Obama whispered to Dmitri Medvedev that he was looking forward to winning his second election because they he would be more forthcoming toward Vlad.

Be that as it may, it is astonishing that someone from China seemed to understand that America used to respect people who had achieved success in business… but that now, the media keeps labeling Trump an authoritarian fascist.

Strangely enough, when Trump, in a decidedly un-authoritarian and un-ideological turn, moderates his policies, the media calls him an inconstant flip-flopper. No longer does the media respect flexibility either.

If we examine the facts on the ground, indications are suggesting that the Chinese have changed their policy toward North Korea. One must keep in mind the delicacy of these changes. If Kim Jong-un feels that he might lose too much face, he will be less likely to concede anything.

In Ruddy’s words:

It is too soon to tell whether the Chinese will change their policies. But there are signs that the president’s antagonistic approach has opened the door to strategic cooperation on one of the world’s biggest problems: North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

China already has suspended coal imports from Pyongyang in compliance with United Nations sanctions, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that China would impose more sanctions if North Korea continues its nuclear testing program. China’s foreign ministry spokesman said last week, “I can say in terms of solving the North Korean crisis, China’s efforts can’t be overstated.”

Of course, Ruddy was offering an analysis coupled with an opinion. Admittedly, it was an informed opinion, but neither he nor we have a full grasp of all the relevant information.

As for the facts, an article in the Wall Street Journal confirms parts of Ruddy’s analysis:

North Korea slammed China’s “insincerity and betrayal” in a commentary published late Wednesday, calling statements in the official Chinese media “an undisguised threat” to Pyongyang, as it sought to stave off pressure from Beijing on its nuclear and missile programs.

“China should no longer try to test the limits of the DPRK’s patience,” North Korea said in the commentary published by the official Korean Central News Agency, using the acronym for its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”

The commentary, which was attributed to a person identified only as Kim Chol, comes as China seeks to get North Korea to curb its weapons programs, amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump and other United Nations members.

North Korea was responding to statements that appeared in official Chinese publications. One takes them seriously, especially as they seem to indicate a policy shift:

North Korea’s latest statements referred to recent articles in two official Chinese publications, the People’s Daily and the Global Times, that apparently alluded to the possibility of Beijing confronting North Korea militarily, or ending friendly ties between the two neighbors and Cold War allies, if it didn’t halt its weapons programs.

The commentary also referred to Chinese press statements about North Korea’s weapons programs threatening China’s northeast, which borders North Korea, and about how Pyongyang’s actions were giving the U.S. an excuse to deploy more strategic assets to the region. The article said that the U.S. military buildup in Asia was aimed at China, not North Korea.

China’s hardening line on North Korea, the commentary said, showed that Beijing was “dancing to the tune of the U.S.,” and that China was exercising “big-power chauvinism” that meant “the dignity and vital rights of the DPRK should be sacrificed for the interests of China.”

At the least, this shows that some of Trump’s diplomacy seems to be producing a positive outcome. At the least, it has shown that China is willing, albeit subtly, to turn against its ally North Korea in order to secure better relations and a better trade deal with the United States.