Where does the Chinese Government sit in terms of regime change?
And the idea of the economic strangulation… Mm mm. The Chinese Government’s policy towards North Korea is in some sense, I would argue, reactive and conservative. The Chinese Government in some objective sort of way enjoys a very favourable situation in the Korean peninsular today. You could even make the argument that the situation is better for Beijing then it’s been for a hundred or a hundred and fifty years. The Korean peninsular is divided. Both governments in the peninsular want to curry favour with Beijing and do so actively. On China’s border there’s a sort of a socialist or surreal socialist buffer zone to keep spiritual pollution and other unfortunate tendencies away. Down in the south there’s a vibrant, dynamic, capitalist system now China is South Korea’s number one trade partner. South Korea also invests very significantly in China, foreign direct investment, is tremendously involved in technology transfer and managerial expertise transfer to China. It’s the best of all
