The Marmot’s Hole

CNN ran a story yesterday on how Chinese leaders hope that by using their “clout” with Pyongyang, they can count on Washington to keep Taiwan in check. Read the piece, although it doesn’t actually analyze the “Taiwan Card” as much as it should. All I care to say is that any comparison between North Korea and Taiwan is flawed from the start - North Korea is a decrepit, Stalinist dictatorship that is being kept on life-support by Beijing, while Taiwan is an economically vibrant democracy that would do just fine on its own as long as the PRC just leaves it alone. And as I’ve stated before, Beijing’s “clout” has been more a fiction of Chinese Foreign Ministry propaganda than a reality on the ground. China allowed this problem to fester, and the last thing the US should do is reward it for having done so.