Thursday, March 24, 2016

Xi -Obama Meeting on North Korea

Ben Blanchard, writing for Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-diplomacy-idUSKCN0WQ08A] says China's leader will press Obama for a meeting on North Korea's nuclear testing.  He says the meeting will be about Korea.  

"On this issue, China's position is consistent. We are dedicated to the decentralization of the Korean peninsula," he told a news briefing." 

Decentralization is an interesting term, to say the least, having more to do with getting the U.S out of South Korea than getting North Korea to stabilize and get out of the nuclear weapons delivery business.  Xi is apparently not happy about the US applying independent sanctions against the North and talking about putting THAAD missile interceptors in South Korea.  The article says this threatens China's security, which is diplomatic shorthand for something a little more serious than that.  They must have really liked having the US put more ships into the South China Sea.  

Xi is going to want to get all the activity he can before the US elections in November, when a new President will be selected.  None of the candidates will have a foreign policy that will look good to China, and a few of them look downright unfriendly.  


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