China Stands on NOKO, Sits on US

There is no negotiating with China.  It wants things its own way, and proceeds on that path regardless of what anyone says, including the UN, the US or any other entity in the world.  They smile when they do it.

I reference the stand on North Korea  which is that the US should stop holding exercises with the South in exchange for an agreement from North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons.  This is new kind of nuclear blackmail, which I am sure we will see again.  A country no longer has to have  have nuclear weapons; all a country has to do is announce that they want them.

We hold joint exercises with the South to show the North that we have the capability to defeat them if they move to take over the South as they did 40 years ago.  That is ancient history to millennials, but yesterday to the Chinese.  Most millennials don’t even know that we had a war with North Korea and China on that same ground.  The only reason North Korea is developing nuclear weapons is because China allows its companies to do business with them and help them with the development.  They could stop it any time but don’t.

So, China holds out the carrot and says we stop having exercises with the South - our readiness for a hostile takeover of the South - in exchange for delaying the nuclear program of North Korea the same way we agreed to delay the nuclear program of Iran.  We must have STUPID written across our negotiators foreheads to allow the suggestion of this kind of agreement.

The treatment of President Trump in China was a clear indication they know how to get what they want.  The rolled him in butter and fluff.  They signed some trade agreements to make him look good.    Then they offered him a solution to the North Korean nuclear problem.  

In the meantime, China tightens its grip on the South China Sea.  Three aircraft carriers are not going to stop them.  Only an alliance of our friends in the area can do that - undoubtedly the reasons for the visits before and after China.  I hope those visits were more productive than we can imagine.