[The warning comes at the end of a week of threats and counter-threats between Washington and Pyongyang, and as the United States weighs its options to deal with the threat of North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.]
By Simon Denyer
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In this U.S. Department of Defense, a
B-1B Lancer prepares to take off
from Andersen Air Force base, Guam on
Aug. 7.
(Richard P. Ebensberger/AFP/Getty
Images)
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The Global Times newspaper is not an official
mouthpiece of the Communist Party, but in this case its editorial probably does
reflect government policy, experts said.
China has repeatedly warned both Washington and
Pyongyang not to do anything that raises tensions or causes instability on the
Korean Peninsula, and strongly reiterated that idea Friday.
“The current situation on the Korean Peninsula
is complicated and sensitive,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a
statement.
“China hopes that all relevant parties will be
cautious in their words and actions, and do things that help to alleviate
tensions and enhance mutual trust, rather than walk on the old pathway of
taking turns in shows of strength, and upgrading the tensions.”
In an editorial, The Global Times said China
should make it clear to both sides: “when their actions jeopardize China's
interests, China will respond with a firm hand.”
“China should also make clear that if North
Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates,
China will stay neutral,” it added. “If the U.S. and South Korea carry out
strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political
pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.”
The warning comes at the end of a week of
threats and counter-threats between Washington and Pyongyang, and as the United
States weighs its options to deal with the threat of North Korea’s nuclear and
missile program.
The brinkmanship weighed on world financial
markets for a fourth consecutive day. Main indexes were down in Frankfurt and
Paris, and London’s FTSE 100 touched its lowest level since May. Asian markets
also slumped, including South Korea’s KOSPI, dropping 1.8 percent. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average was largely flat after the opening bell.
On Tuesday, President Trump threatened to
respond to further threats from North Korea by unleashing “fire and fury like
the world has never seen.” Pyongyang in turn threatened to strike the U.S.
territory of Guam in the Western Pacific with ballistic missiles.
The paper’s comments reflect the 1961
Sino-North Korean Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance,
which obliges China to intervene if North Korea is subject to unprovoked
aggression — but not necessarily if Pyongyang starts a war.
“The key point is in the first half of the
sentence; China opposes North Korea testing missiles in the waters around
Guam,” said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Renmin University of China in
Beijing.
With the situation on the Korea Peninsula
sliding dangerously toward the point of no return, Chinese media are starting
to declare their positions on any potential war, he said. “Secondly, in a
half-official way, China is starting to review and clarify the 1961 treaty.”
China has become deeply frustrated with the
regime in Pyongyang, and genuinely wants to see a denuclearized Korean
Peninsula. But it has always refused to do anything that might destabilize or
topple a regime which has long been both ally and buffer state.
That’s because Beijing does not want to see a
unified Korean state allied to the United States right up against its border:
indeed, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers died during the 1950-53
Korean War to prevent that from happening.
So for now, the current uneasy status quo for
China still seems better than the alternatives.
That is doubly true ahead of an important
Communist Party Congress in the fall, at which President Xi Jinping wants to
project an aura of stability and control as he aims to consolidate his power at
the start of a second five-year term.
Nevertheless, experts said debate is underway
behind the scenes in China about its support for the North Korean regime.
In an article on the Financial Times China
website in May, for example, Tong Zhiwei, a law professor at the East China
University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, argued that China should
make terminating the 1961 treaty a near-term diplomatic goal, because North
Korea, also known as the DPRK, had used it as cover to develop its nuclear
program and avoid punishment.
That, he wrote, was not in China’s interests.
“In the past 57 years, the treaty has strongly
protected the security of the DPRK and peace on the Korean Peninsula, but it
has also been used by the North Korean authorities to protect their
international wrongful acts from punishment,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, China has reacted strongly to the
United States sending a warship close to an island it controls in the South
China Sea.
The U.S. Navy destroyer, USS John S. McCain,
traveled close to Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands on Thursday, in
the third “freedom of navigation” exercise in the area conducted under the
Trump administration, Reuters reported.
China’s Defense Ministry said two Chinese
warships “jumped into action” and warned the U.S. ship to leave, labeling the
move a “provocation” that seriously harms mutual trust.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the operation had
violated international and Chinese law and seriously harmed Beijing's
sovereignty and security.
“The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with
this and will lodge solemn representations to the U.S. side,” the ministry said
in a statement.
Shirley Feng in Beijing and Brian Murphy in Washington
contributed to this report.
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