"Has China Just Issued A Red Line For War Against ..." Topic

…North Korea?

"China will attack North Korea's facilities producing nuclear bombs and has revealed the "Red Line" North Korea must cross for this act of war to occur.

The editorial in the newspaper Global Times, which is owned by the People's Daily (the newspaper of the Communist Party of China), said the threat of a "nuclear leakage or pollution" at North Korea's nuclear facilities that damages the environment of northeast China (which shares a border with North Korea) will trigger a response from China…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Well, that is certainly an odd take on the situation.

Papa Spank

Agree!

Amicalement
Armand

I guess that's China's not very subtle hint to NK to calm down a bit.

So… the US threatening to bomb said facilities would be considered a threat of nuclear leakage or pollution and result in China taking action against NK? :)

Weird. I think the Pentagon planners would die from dancing jigs of joy if they could watch China and No. Korea fighting each other and doing the dirty work for Uncle Sammy.

Replacing the regime in North Korea would be doing the dirty work for the Koreans. The North Korean civilians would benefit more then anyone else. They could be brought into the 21st century.

Hopefully it can be done without anyone fighting. There are good reasons that it would be better if the Chinese used their considerable influence to make it happen. It is their back yard, and the North Koreans have not spend 50+ years stating that they are evil incarnate, as they have with the U.S., and to a lesser extent the U.N.

Outsiders imposing themselves on Korea has always worked out so well for the Koreans, historically.

I think the Pentagon planners would die from dancing jigs of joy if they could watch China and No. Korea fighting each other and doing the dirty work for Uncle Sammy.

Yeah, but in the long run it would totally undermine justification for a US military presence on the Korean peninsula. Which would enable the Chinese to apply covert political pressure on South Korea to remove it from the US orbit. Then the Chinese could use the carrot of facilitating a peaceful reunification with the South…provided that the new Korean peninsula is firmly ensconced in China's orbit. It would give the Chinese major international prestige to pull that off diplomatically (perhaps over several decades but they play the long game anyway), and remove that ever-present "back door" into China's northern flank that a US-friendly Korean government provides.

This could be a bit alarming…

'US ‘may launch strike' if North Korea goes through with nuclear weapons test – reports '

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I have always wondered at the hypocrisy of a state that has a large nuclear arsenal objecting to a non-nuclear state trying to achieve the same – though the thought of NK having a viable nuclear arsenal is not exactly reassuring.

Link this titbit with the deployment of the US 'sniffer' plane and you can see what came from the presidential summit….

@Garrison: There's this odd "critical mass" of nukes (pun intentional) that countries need to have before they realize that actually using a nuke is a horrible idea.

This number is about 200 warheads.

Most of the world doesn't greatly object to Israel having nukes (worst-kept secret ever), since the chance of Israel actually using them is very close to zero. Unless someone gasses/nukes Tel Aviv, in which case that number approaches one.

Most of the world greatly objects to Libya or Iraq having nukes, since both nations had shown willingness to use chemicals on their own citizens.

Even the Chinese greatly object to the Norks having nuclear weapons, since attacking South Korea or Japan with a nuke will draw the US back into a war instantly. And it's not like the Norks don't attack the South on a regular basis, either.

Apparently Pyongyang has bee ordered ready for evacuation.

I heard that too, Weasel. Interesting times..

China and NK's relationship has been going downhill for quite some time, and China has more to fear from NK's nuclear capacity than America does.

China holds more military exercises on NK's border than SK/US does.