Friday, May 5, 2017

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. 

13 comments:

  1. I admit I can't make much serious sense of what's happening, even if I'm hoping for a good-cop, bad-cop routine with the U.S. and China working their new found common interest.

    I thought China was supposed to be good-cop, but all N.Korea can say against Trump is that he's ignorant, so maybe we need to switch? Overall, it does seem like N.Korea's state media is not that far from Baghdad Bob.

    And like Bob, I imagine everyone with means is privately preparing their travel papers and exit routes, while publicly defending their supreme leader like every good patriot should.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/04/north-korean-state-media-lashes-out-at-china-and-suggests-trump-is-ignorant/
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    With tensions high over North Korean's nuclear program and the threat of conflict refusing to subside, North Korean state media lashed out Wednesday and Thursday. President Trump was one target, but China — a major ally and benefactor of North Korea — faced its own pointed critique.

    The comments about Trump appeared first in Minju Choson, the principal newspaper of North Korea's cabinet, and were republished on the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) website. The commentary accused Trump of a lack of understanding of North Korea, calling his administration a “mere beginner insofar as its ignorance of its rival was concerned” and warning that “crimes such as regime change in anti-imperialist countries” would not influence North Korea.

    The article also said that, for the North Korean people, “it is their steadfast will to wipe out anyone mulling hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership wherever he or she may be on earth.”
    ---

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  2. George Will seems to be afraid. We are a government of checks and balances, EXCEPT in regards to military action. China might be the only adult in the N.Korean dilemma.

    Maybe play acting "The mad king" can do good, if it prods others into adult responsibility.

    We have a president whose "flexibility" based on the advice of the last person in the room. And what anonymous people tweet to him have equal merit as experts who have studied some part of the world for a lifetime.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-a-dangerous-disability/2017/05/03/56ca6118-2f6b-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html
    ---
    It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability. It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence.

    hat is most alarming (and mortifying to the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated) is not that Trump has entered his eighth decade unscathed by even elementary knowledge about the nation’s history. As this column has said before, the problem isn’t that he does not know this or that, or that he does not know that he does not know this or that. Rather, the dangerous thing is that he does not know what it is to know something.

    The United States is rightly worried that a strange and callow leader controls North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea should reciprocate this worry. Yes, a 70-year-old can be callow if he speaks as sophomorically as Trump did when explaining his solution to Middle Eastern terrorism: “I would bomb the s--- out of them. . . . I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries, I’d blow up every single inch, there would be nothing left.”

    Americans have placed vast military power at the discretion of this mind, a presidential discretion that is largely immune to restraint by the Madisonian system of institutional checks and balances. So, it is up to the public to quarantine this presidency by insistently communicating to its elected representatives a steady, rational fear of this man whose combination of impulsivity and credulity render him uniquely unfit to take the nation into a military conflict.
    ---

    To be fair, Ted Cruz's violent campaign rhetoric was more unsettling, but at least everyone knew he was lying. There's just some Republican curse that requires men show their willingness to mass-murder that gets the right sort of cheers.

    But is Trump clinically insane? I don't know. Is he delusional? Clearly. Some of it is surely trolling for attention. But overall, if it were an act, he'd not be so buffoonish. He would feel shame at his ignorance.

    I don't know how to speak about Trump any more than this. He's got to be the most dangerous president we've had ever because he can justify anything in his mind, because reality is "flexible", being whatever makes him feel good about himself in a given moment.

    I'm cynical which isn't good. Perhaps all of us had better grow up quick, and take better responsibility of our corner of the world since there's no evidence the center will hold.

    As Yeats said 100 years ago, the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand.

    How else do we explain our madness? People want madness.

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  4. Leverage is power. It's amazing what can happen when one uses the leverage they have.

    America's politicians and policy leaders haven't been using leverage for some time. This timidity was caused by deeply-held philosophical "truths" these leaders learned in college and honed at chanting gatherings, Burning Man, and Sunday encounters at Whole Foods. Such people feel guilty that we are a superpower and an economic powerhouse. They feel guilty about our entertainment companies exporting American culture all over the world. They believe American is decidedly un-exceptional. We have so many sins to atone for. Concerns about "cultural sensitivities" became dominant modes of thought at the State Department, which our adversaries understood and exploited.

    We have allowed China to import our industrial capacity and manufacturing might. We have engaged in globalized labor arbitrage that impoverishes our fellow citizens by making them into uncompetitive commodities because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks it's a nifty idea (this is why the USCC hates Trump with the fury of 1,000 white-hot suns). This has happened for a whole slew of reasons, especially our nicey-nice, undisciplined education system that does not produce enough science/math performance, but makes everyone special... so special that they reach adulthood and cannot get a job. This is the globalization reality: it's great for the elites who do have high expectations and discipline for their own children, but think it's a crime against humanity to institutionalize discipline in our schools so that kids actually learn. With that backdrop, it's no wonder that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We show in our actions that we don't really care about upward mobility, we care about kids feeling good about themselves. And please keep in mind that the public education system is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party. This is a fully bi-partisan disaster.

    So whether you view China as the culprit or simply as opportunists, it doesn't really matter. The result is the result. In order to have a functioning, sustainable service economy, you have to have industry for that services industry to serve. The totalitarian communist Chinese know they have a good deal, and they are willing to back off their support for the Stalinst Norks when it suits their needs. That's what leverage and negotiation is about. But when you feel guilty or embarrassed about your country's wealth and power, you're willing to give away the farm. After all, you don't "farm" anymore, anyway. Your kid is a globalized systems consultant with a Yale degree who is vegan with a bitchin' urban pad and a hot yoga instructor... and a Democrat to boot, which means your kid really cares about the little people. In China.

    I am relieved that Trump is throwing America's weight around. It's a relief after 8 years of bowing to royals, sending unmarked planes in at night with pallets of cash to placate theocratic lunatics, treating Gitmoans like petty criminals, and turning a blind eye to "Great Successors" around the world. When the North Korean regime is toppled, the world is going to walk in and see what this has all been about when we're dealing with the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern times -- starvation, disease, the consequences of fourth world medicine, decades of 24-hour brainwashing, etc. The Kims' end cannot come too soon. These guys are global extortionists. And now the Norks are threatening the Chinese... nothing like the foot-binding being on the other foot, eh? The Chinese are playing ball because they have a lot to lose, and that's because Trump has finally used our leverage to further true American foreign policy interests. I hope Iran is next.

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  5. China knows it's not talking to a wimp, but a man interested in making deals with others which are mutually beneficial.

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  6. IAC: When the North Korean regime is toppled, the world is going to walk in and see what this has all been about when we're dealing with the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern times -- starvation, disease, the consequences of fourth world medicine, decades of 24-hour brainwashing, etc. The Kims' end cannot come too soon. These guys are global extortionists. ... I hope Iran is next.

    The Neocon dreams of "nation building" have come again, and who could disagree, except those who recall what a mess we made of Iraq. If only shock and awe could win hearts and minds as well as a good holy war.

    Iran next? At least Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons, but now we're also reminded why Iran would like nuclear weapons, so when fools sing "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to beach boy songs, Iran spokesmen can play Baghdad Bob while they're being invaded with a little more "leverage".

    It is still sort of strange that the US is on the same side as Iran, against ISIS, and on the opposite side as Saudi Arabia, our middle eastern buddy who helps keep oil prices in dollars rather than some other currency.

    Of course Trump's ISIS plan, the one he couldn't tell the public, because it might warn the enemy, but then he said it anyway, just to be clear, as George Will mentioned:
    “I would bomb the s--- out of them. . . . I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries, I’d blow up every single inch, there would be nothing left.”

    Maybe we do have to deal with ISIS before Iran, and Trump's working on that. This presidential Memorandum is from January 28, 2017, now 90 days ago, planning in 30 days, a preliminary draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS. I wonder if that draft was made?
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/plan-defeat-islamic-state-iraq

    How many fronts can Trump possibly challenge at once? I do recall he said he liked to keep many balls juggling at once, knowing most won't work out, and I understand the logic. Baseball hitters only need a 300 average to be great.

    At least we know why Trump is not engaged with Congress over the healthcare changes. He's playing soldier, because he was elected on a populism of nation building, just like he planned on the campaign trail, right?

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  7. Ares,

    One day you might gain enough wisdom, though I seriously doubt it, to understand that much of this is all part of the same strategy. If you didn't suffer from TDS so much you might be able to think on a global level. When one inherits the failures of the previous administration whose strategy consists of "kicking the can down the road" and that the United States was and is the real enemy in the world then solving this takes a multi pronged approach. Trump has done an excellent job, despite the democrats trying to keep the deep state people in place to handicap him, of selecting the right people to put his strategy in place over the long run. If you paid attention you might even notice a subtle strategy here. I would try to explain it to you, but I am not into wasting my time. It would seem we learn the words, but we fail to understand the meanings which would mean having the important concept of true imagination.
    Just when I think you are starting to open that closed mind you come back and prove me wrong.

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  8. Ares gain wisdom???? That's a good one! A real knee slapper!

    Ares has regularly displayed his/her deeply-held belief that he/she is one of our enlightened "betters", despite the fact he/she has the shallow, two dimensional viewpoint of a credentialed, but truly un-educated childish adult from one of those institutions we all know can't teach squat!

    I'll wager Ares looks remarkably like either Josh Marshall or that Antifa babe, "Moldy-Locks", the one who was going to "bring back a 100 NAZI scalps" from confronting the Alt-right crew in Berkeley! How'd that work out for her?

    Ares is the kind of person who praises a clear and present dangerous enemy such as Islam,(and certainly NOT TRUMP!) in hopes of being destroyed last! No wisdom for it, is possible!!!

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  9. Anonymous said... Ares has regularly displayed his/her deeply-held belief that he/she is one of our enlightened "betters", despite the fact he/she has the shallow, two dimensional viewpoint of a credentialed, but truly un-educated childish adult from one of those institutions we all know can't teach squat!

    Its funny how you come across the same way, although maybe with a touch more arrogance, contempt, resentment, fear and self-pity.

    Myself, I don't know what my deeply-held beliefs, at least about the wider world. As usual, for things outside of personal experience, I'm just guessing what I might be seeing, trying out different narratives to see how they fit or don't fit. But I have no illusions any narratives are large enough to not make fools of all of us.

    The neocons seem most willing to try out their ignorance on reality, and it looks like Trump will follow them hook, line and sinker, under the slightest of baiting.

    I have no evidence of any wisdom in Trump, TDS or not. I see someone who can't be bother fact-checking anything, and thus someone who can easily be manipulated into anyone's puppet who whispers the right sweet-nothings into his ear.

    C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters can't possibly do justice to the self-deception that exists within our president's mind.

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  10. Ares thinks I'm a neoconservative. I would hope anyone who reads my comments here would find that as humorous as it is preposterous.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism

    No need to comment on "Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons..." or "I don't know what my deeply held beliefs..." all that topped off by his deep thoughts about Screwtape.

    Such profound thought speaks for itself.

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  11. Ares, let me be clear... I am not for nation-building in Iran. I am for an old-fashioned war with Iran -- the kind we used to before we became the world's policeman. And with unconditional surrender as its sole aim. Just like FDR with the Japanese. A declaration of war, full-out mobilization, a draft, massive armament economy, an expeditionary force... the whole smash. No nukes, though, unless the Iranaians use nukes first. If they did, I'd turn Persia into a mirror and set it up as a UNESCO monument for world peace. That's how serious I am. I have advocated for this since the Iran Hostage Crisis. No Islamist lunatics should be able to humiliate the United States like that. Yes, I am for vanquishing our greatest sworn enemy in the world. Furthermore, I am for a hard peace, like we did in rebuilding Japan. But we had to rebuild Japan because we brought them to their knees. Yes, sir... THAT kind of war. The Iranian theocratic regime is the darkest, most dangerous force we face in the world. It has been that way for almost 40 years now. And in 8 short years your buddy Obama gave them just about everything they wanted, with nothing in return. Death to America, indeed.

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  12. http://endofminjok.blogspot.com/2017/04/lack-of-honest-discussion-on-korea.html

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  13. Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said... Ares, let me be clear... I am not for nation-building in Iran. I am for an old-fashioned war with Iran -- the kind we used to before we became the world's policeman. And with unconditional surrender as its sole aim. Just like FDR with the Japanese. A declaration of war, full-out mobilization, a draft, massive armament economy, an expeditionary force... the whole smash.

    Apparently wars like this are no longer possible in a post-nuclear age. But didn't we try that in Vietnam? Or yes, I understand the generals wanted to, but the public was too squeamish once they found out we were roasting women and children alive with our flame throwers.

    Maybe you're right, and Steven Pinker was just lucky in pointing out the chance of a violent death has been steadily falling decade after decade in our fossil fuel age, but as this ends, we can't be so subtle in our domination. So no more economic hitmen to indebt third world countries into bad contracts that lead to the privatization of their assets and utilities to foreign corporate interests. Now the post-democratic age. Local war lords will rule other countries in their fear campaigns, and we'll rule the war lords when they get too uppity.

    It sounds like a bold plan to reduce the world population back down to a level that stone age energy sources can provide. And it might just work, if only we can build our walls high enough to keep the terrorists out, and make sure no other country can stop us.

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