A buffer state against what? South Korea? Japan? The American? If China had wanted resource, the place you want to look at is South China Sea, with thousands of islands, and really large deposit of oil and natural gas and largely unpopulated (except by pirates). The South China Sea has been claimed by China, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand. Really, North Korea is nothing but trouble.

“The North Korean regime does not have one ounce of virtue, and goes out of its way to be rogue-ishly militaristic, offensive in rhetoric, atomically capable, and as inhuman as possible to its own citizens”

But what makes you think China, which has propped up this kind of regime, and who is well known for their own inhuman rights and missile peddlings, will be any better to bring stability and freedom to the region?

There’s a reason why China will want North Korea (even if they have nothing of physical interest). That is, they want the buffer state. And it’s the sole reason why China has fed North Korea with arms, food and oil for 50 years, and why they came to the rescue of North Korea in the Korean War, ensuring a total division of the peninsula, and ensuring that 20 million North Koreans live under a totalitarian system today. If China decided today that the North Korean government should be broght down, they can easily arrange that. But they don’t, why? Because they share similar ideology and values with the North Korean government. They are evil.

Some people here ask, why would China take North Korea - wouldn’t that be irrational? Well who said China is rational? Just read Jing’s remarks which are typical of the PRC brain washed rhetorics:

“The ??liberation?? of Taiwan being number one on that list, the Russian Far East, outer Mongolia, and a chunk of Kazakhstan being others.”

If they have no problems invading Taiwan, Russia, Mongolia, the Spratleys, Vietnam, Tibet, Western China (where they have conquered and subjugated the Turkic people), why wouldn’t they want NK too? It’s proven time and time again, China dosen’t care about world opinions. It thinks it’s big enough to decide on itself to decide what is rational or not, and it will act because China wants to, not because they are pressured to do so from the outside.

“who would benefit from rising friction between sk and china? who, indeed??”

In the rather short run, the U.S. stands to benefit somewhat from a strengthened alliance with Korea (assuming that the U.S. wants that), but in the longer run, growing tension between China and South Korea is in no one’s interest.

Tension, distrust, paranoia about who’s really irredentist and who’s merely saber-rattling as bluff . . . those are the sorts of things that lead to war — even if nobody wants one. Look at August 1914. That was a war in the interest of no European country, as the suicidal Great War irrefutably proved. All the economic links, all the treaties, ententes, agreements, all for nought. War came and destroyed the world that was, it came unwanted, and it came through the bluffing, paranoia, and nervous irredentism that characterized early 20th-century Europe.

Here, too, all the rational arguments are against war. But war is not entirely rational.

Jeffery Hodges

http://www.registerguard.com/n......0530.html

“Countries such as France and Japan at least got a chance to grow rich before they grew old. Now, most developing countries are growing old before they get rich.”

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/e.....330477.htm

China may grow old be the first country to get old before it gets rich. What would result? Well, to tell the truth i have no idea but i would suspect that it would be a big problem for china’s economy. Also, gender imbalance issue could be another big problem for china because a surplus of unmarried males historically leads to lots of crime/prostitution/social problems.

every year, every day that the government keeps the gender-biased 1-child policy is a day that china digs itself deeper into a demographic hole.

is china’s government secretly america’s best ally?

Finally, as I see it, reunification is not invevitable, and a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions is more likely the longer NK continues in its present state. The Chinification of NK is the best option for the region and its citizens.

China??s headache will be different, as by 2050, when the `age?? problem hits critical mass, it will have a population partly in the First World, and a swathe that??s in the middle-income group. How will it split? Old and young?

Stagflation is South Korea??s most immediate nightmare, not China??s. The PRC economy, despite attempts by the government to pull the brakes, is still growing.

The Chinese government??s current policy is to develop the West, not grab the East. What advantages are there to grabbing a chunk of an even-poorer Stalinist country?

It will only add to the liabilities of a government grappling with more important priorities of national development, closing the rich-poor gap, and fighting corruption (Note: where there are corrupt officials, there are also cynical, underhanded foreigners happy to bribe their way ahead of their competitors).

It is all part of a plot, by third party interests, to destabilize the Chinese government and force regime change: constant flogging of the human rights issue (poor Napoleon Beasley), pressure to revalue the yuan.

Unfortunately, some governments are tiring of this double-standard stressed by big powers. Even Japan??s Koizumi has stated that yen re-valuation is a matter for the Chinese government to decide, not outsiders.

China??s relationship with Korea has, through history, been that of sovereign states, under the guise of vassal and suzerain. This has enabled China to maintain secure eastern borders, and Korea, its own integrity.

There is no reason for this to change, unless Korea insists on pressing its historic claims aggressively. China has settled its border issue peacefully with Russia ?? the `unequal treaty?? by which land was ceded to Moscow stands permanently.

My professor taught me to be aware of Orientalists. They learn all about the culture ?? but it is their knowledge, and professed love, of that culture that enables them to discredit and destroy it. Shin Jong-il, you are a wolf in sheep??s clothing.

Yep, Satan’s always got a big nose, no doubt about that…