The China card
tigerhawk.blogspot.com
Notwithstanding earlier reports that China was not willing to twist North Korea's parts arm to bring it to the table, Hu Jintao met with North Korea's premier on Wednesday and offered to help restart nuclear talks. Since North Korea can't feed its people or make electricity or power its military without China, Hu Jintao has it within his means to make something happen here. Having dithered for months and blown off the last "six party" talks, why did Hu Jintao summon the North Koreans now? Because of Bush unilateralism!
Condaleeza Rice just went to China, and she was not easy on the Chinese. She went on about Taiwan, democracy, and other topics calculated to annoy her hosts.
Then, suddenly, it looks as if Europe may not resume the sale of advanced weapons to China as quickly as hoped in Beijing.
Now, suddenly, China is playing ball in North Korea.
TigerHawk believes he smells a deal. We know that we cannot stop the Europeans from selling arms to China forever, but we can slow down the lifting of the embargo. Looked at this way, the European arms embargo card is an American strategic asset, but a wasting asset. Condi may have played the embargo card in Beijing, and offered a deal: Get North Korea back to the table, or wait another couple of years (or to the end of the Bush Administration) to get the European arms embargo lifted.
If the NoKos start negotiating and the Europeans start selling arms to China, you read it here first! |
