The dear leader’s enablers
Posted by ampontan on Monday, June 14, 2010
GEORGE JONAS, columnist for the National Post of Canada, is a treasure of the Anglosphere–everything he writes, whether serious or light-hearted, is worth reading.
Readers with an interest in Northeast Asian affairs will find this recent column especially worthwhile. It’s called Dear Leader’s see-no-evil enablers, and it examines the international response to North Korea’s sinking of the Cheonan. Here’s the point:
Westerners who look to China for relief against North Korean aggression fail to see that China is the problem, not the solution.
To illustrate:
…(A)fter North Korea sank the Cheonan, the world’s advice to the injured party, South Korea, was: Forget it…Don’t go after the bully. Don’t even bother calling the cops of the United Nations. Complain to China.
North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim is China’s pet, said pundits…The trouble was that, as some predicted, far from muzzling Kim, Wen wasn’t even going to say “bad dog” to him. In fact, he would veto anyone who tried. Muzzling Kim wasn’t the pressing task. What was? The Chinese president spelled it out at the end of the Seogwipo summit:
“The pressing task now is to respond appropriately to the serious effects of the Cheonan incident,” he said, “to steadily reduce tensions, and especially to avoid a clash.”
In other words, following the loss of its patrol boat with 46 sailors, South Korea’s pressing task was to take active steps to avoid a clash.
Mr. Jonas offers no solutions. He simply forces the dogs to look at the mess they’ve made on the living room carpet instead of pretending it isn’t there.
Ignoring the mess will have unpleasant consequences. What form they take and when they occur is not yet apparent. But occur they will.
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PaxAmericana said
For better or worse, it looks like most of the world doesn’t believe the US/SK line on the event, including most of the South Koreans I’ve run across. So the first consequence is probably within SK society. Having a large percentage of your citizens think you are an opportunist on this will probably make SK politics even more feisty than they were in the past.
This is not meant as any kind of praise for NK, China, or Russia. But we do have to keep in mind that Western politicians can be rotten to the core, and look out for their tricks. Not having looked in to this sinking much, I don’t feel qualified to have much of an opinion.
No Prize for Demonizing China | Left Flank said
[...] No Prize for Demonizing China Posted on 14 June 2010 by miguknamja4 GEORGE JONAS, columnist for the National Post of Canada, is a treasure of the Anglosphere–everything he writes, whether serious or light-hearted, is worth reading. Readers with an interest in Northeast Asian affairs will find this recent column especially worthwhile. It’s called Dear Leader’s see-no-evil enablers, and it examines the international response to North Korea’s sinking of the Cheonan. Here’s the point: Westerners who look to China fo … Read More [...]