1# > A < Posted  2011-2-24 10:05  Only show this user's posts

China's strategy driven by desire to check US




By Sunny Lee


China’s interests in the Korean Peninsula are primarily driven by competition with the United States, a veteran Chinese analyst on Korea said recently.


“The primary reason that Beijing pays attention to the peninsula is less about Korea per se, but has more to do with the U.S.,” said Xu Baokang, an expert on Korean issues.


Xu, 61, is one of the best qualified Chinese to comment on both sides of the divided Koreas because he knows them in an up-close and personal manner. He lived in Pyongyang for 15 years, followed by 16 years in Seoul, until 2008, as a correspondent for the People’s Daily. With his rare experience, he frequently sits on an expert panel that discusses relations between Beijing and Seoul.


According to Xu, the reason the United States pays attention to Korea is also mainly due to its geopolitical importance in maintaining America’s strategic interests in East Asia. “The Korean Peninsula is where the different interests of powerful stakeholders converge and collide,” Xu said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times.


He uses the context to explain the diplomatic confrontation Seoul had with Beijing over their different strategies on Pyongyang last year.


“The Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents didn’t happen out of the blue. They have a historical background. And this is the fact that the Korean Peninsula was divided by powerful stakeholders during the Cold War era who had different interests,” he said.


“Let’s face it,” Xu continued, “China and South Korea also differ over the North Korean issue.” He argued since the two tragedies last year had a Cold War background, a fundamental solution can be found by removing the Cold War structure on the peninsula.


“Unless this structure hovering over the Korean Peninsula is eliminated, military conflicts between the two Koreas will continue.”


The countries have technically been in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War because it ended with a truce, not a peace treaty that would have officially ended the conflict. According to Xu, a fundamental solution is therefore needed to change the truce to a peace treaty.


Xu said South Korea should be included as a party to the proposed peace treaty. The country is not a formal party to the armistice because Syngman Rhee, the South Korean president then, feared that a truce would lead to a permanent division of the Korean Peninsula. The temporary ceasefire pact was signed between North Korea and China, and the U.S.-led United Nations.


Pyongyang has long given the impression that Seoul hardly counts when it comes to negotiating a peace treaty.


All in all, the Chinese expert said the peace treaty should consist of the United States, China plus the two Koreas. In addition, he said, Russia and Japan should be also invited as observers to guarantee the peace treaty regime remains in place.


North Korea has long advocated a peace treaty. But skeptics see it as a ploy to receive massive economic aid and to demand the withdrawal of U.S. military from South Korea once the tension-thawing pact is signed. They argue that China supports the peace deal because the withdrawal of the U.S. military benefits its strategic interests in its leadership competition with the U.S. in the region.


Xu disagrees. He says China doesn’t harbor any hegemonic ambitions on the Korean Peninsula, emphasizing the track record of what Beijing and Washington did, respectively, in the aftermath of the Korean War.


“After the Korean War, Chinese troops left the Korean Peninsula, but the U.S. didn’t. China doesn’t have any operating authority over North Korean troops, but the U.S. has over the South Korean military,” he said.


Xu said Beijing doesn’t want tension on the Korean Peninsula and argued that between China and the United States, it is in fact Washington that wants tension. “The U.S. doesn’t want full-blown tension on the peninsula because it will be burdensome for it to manage. But then, a certain degree of tension also benefits the U.S. because it justifies the presence of its troops in the region. South Korea will also buy American weapons and America will expand its influence,” Xu said.


In the aftermath of the sinking of the Cheonan, China simply called for calm in both Koreas. China repeated its stance during North Korea’s shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island as well. Critics say the country remained technically neutral, but de facto sided with Pyongyang by shielding it from international criticism. A total of 50 South Koreans lost their lives, in the torpedo attack and artillery shelling.


“South Koreans may have been disappointed by China’s stance. But in rational analysis, it played a constructive role in preventing a war on the Korean Peninsula,” Xu argued. “If China had sided with South Korea and as a consequence if there was an outbreak of a major armed clash between the two Koreas, think about who are the people who will suffer eventually? It’s you, the Koreans.”


Korea Times