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China Can't Afford to Let North Korea Fail, Lee Says

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  • China Can't Afford to Let North Korea Fail, Lee Says

    Courtesy Bloomberg:
    China Can't Afford to Let North Korea Fail, Lee Says (Update1)
    2006-09-05 20:20 (New York)



    (Adds Lee's comment on North Korea in sixth paragraph.)

    By Angus Whitley and Chua Kong Ho
    Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- China cannot afford to let the North
    Korean regime collapse because the communist state functions as a
    buffer from U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, said Lee Kuan
    Yew, the founder of modern Singapore.
    A failure of Kim Jong Il's regime would lead to ``refugees,
    all kinds of problems, but most important, a buffer state is
    gone,'' Lee said late yesterday at a conference in Singapore.
    South Korea would take over and U.S. troops would be able to move
    north to China's border, he said.

    Lee, who expressed views on a range of global trouble spots,
    also said Taiwan had ``no choice'' but to be a part of integrated
    China. He urged Taiwan not to do anything ``stupid'' that might
    trigger intervention by China.

    North Korea, under U.S. sanctions, has refused to return to
    six-party talks aimed at ending the nation's nuclear program. The
    governments of China and Taiwan, administered separately since
    the end of a 10-year civil war in 1949, have been diplomatic and
    political foes for half a century, bickering over their claims of
    sovereignty.

    China, the only nation that holds influence over North Korea,
    doesn't want the smaller communist state to develop a nuclear
    weapon because that would make China's own arsenal less potent,
    Lee said.

    ``It's a messy business,'' he said. The North Korean
    authorities must be aware the regime ``cannot last,'' Lee said.

    Supporting Role

    Lee, 82, who holds the position of Minister Mentor in the
    Singapore government, said the 10-nation Association of Southeast
    Asian Nations, or Asean, had no choice but to play a supporting
    role for China, India and Japan. Singapore, an island nation of
    4.3 million people, can ``make a living'' by helping others do
    business in the region.

    ``We have to accept that, but it doesn't mean the end of the
    world for us,'' said Lee, who was being interviewed by Steve
    Forbes, chief executive of Forbes Magazine. ``We are good
    facilitators. That's our job.''

    Formed in 1967, Asean comprises a combined population of 558
    million and total trade exceeding $1 trillion. Members are
    Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines,
    Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

    China is home to the world's largest population and the
    fastest-growing major economy. U.S. prevalence won't last forever,
    Lee said. It will ``definitely'' continue for three decades,
    though the country may not be dominant in 100 years, Lee said.

    Islamic Parties

    Lee also called for a worldwide coalition against
    ``radical'' Islam and warned of a ``clash of civilizations''
    should such Islamic parties came to power in Muslim countries.

    Singapore's neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia are
    predominantly Muslim. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim
    population and has suffered suicide attacks by Muslim extremists,
    including bombs in the tourist resort of Bali in October 2002.
    Anger over U.S. support of Israel in the Middle East means
    that moderate leaders in Muslim countries are reluctant to take a
    stand against extremists for fear of alienating segments of their
    populations, he said.

    ``If the non-Muslim world plays it deftly and does not push
    the moderates into too defensive a position, the radicals will
    lose,'' he added.

    --Editor: Tighe

    Story illustration: See {TOP <GO>} for top stories and
    {TOP SAS <GO>} for top stories in South and Southeast Asia.

    To contact the reporters on this story:
    Angus Whitley in Singapore at (65) 6212 1352 or
    [email protected]
    Chua Kong Ho in Singapore at (65) 6212 1153 or
    [email protected]

    To contact the editors responsible for this story:
    Paul Tighe at (612) 9777-8626 or
    [email protected];
    Adrian Kennedy at (65) 6212-1513 or
    [email protected].

    #<508981.178113.1.0.7.4.25>#
    -0- Sep/06/2006 00:20 GMT

  • #2
    the divided peninsula accords with China's national interest.
    It was when the Great Way declined,that human kindness and morality arose.
    It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared,that the Great Artifice began.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Davis_Chan
      the divided peninsula accords with China's national interest.
      Yeah, right up to the point when millions of North Korean refugees start flooding in, lol.
      "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008

      Comment


      • #4
        Explain to me why the People's Republic needs a buffer state against U.S. troops?

        I mean, when North Korea collapses, and order is restored to the Korean penninsula, guess where all those U.S. troops and their equipment are going?

        Anywhere but China!
        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by highsea
          Yeah, right up to the point when millions of North Korean refugees start flooding in, lol.
          That's the only reason why China is keeping NK afloat. They ain't moving south. They're moving north. Anybody seriously think that Kim ain't a bunch of headaches and heartaches for Beijing?

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by TopHatter
            Explain to me why the People's Republic needs a buffer state against U.S. troops?

            I mean, when North Korea collapses, and order is restored to the Korean penninsula, guess where all those U.S. troops and their equipment are going?

            Anywhere but China!
            well,just like US were dislike USSR deployed its missile in Cuba.Nobody likes a stranger or hostile one close to him.Such violent reaction of China in Korea perhaps due to the distrust of US,if US was belong to communist camp at that time,things would go to a different way. :)

            historically,China had fighted with Japan in Korea three times to against Japanese ambition of the continent.geopolitically, this peninsula is vital to China.
            It was when the Great Way declined,that human kindness and morality arose.
            It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared,that the Great Artifice began.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by highsea
              Yeah, right up to the point when millions of North Korean refugees start flooding in, lol.
              when i was in high school my chinese teacher who came from northeast of china told the class the famine and refugees of NK,it horrified me.The disaster was not just because of the stalin model economy,more importantly,was the rigid leadership.
              It was when the Great Way declined,that human kindness and morality arose.
              It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared,that the Great Artifice began.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Officer of Engineers
                That's the only reason why China is keeping NK afloat. They ain't moving south. They're moving north. Anybody seriously think that Kim ain't a bunch of headaches and heartaches for Beijing?
                But isn't it the responsibility of S.Korea to finance the rebuilding.....
                Seek Save Serve Medic

                Comment


                • #9
                  Strategically China is buffeted by the US and its friendly nations (need not be allies in a military sense) from all sides.

                  Therefore, buffers are required by China and preferably of the non Han variety! ;)


                  "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                  I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                  HAKUNA MATATA

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    China cannot afford to let the North
                    Korean regime collapse because the communist state functions as a
                    buffer from U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, said Lee Kuan
                    Yew, the founder of modern Singapore.
                    Lee is pretty good at ripping off stuff from people he's read and presenting the material as his own - most of the time the stuff he rips off is pretty good. Sometimes, he slips up big time. The reality is that China, as a continental-sized country, is its own buffer state. Singapore needs buffer states. Britain needs buffer states. China doesn't need buffer states. China wants North Korea around not as buffer state, but a perennial thorn in the side of both Japan and South Korea, not to mention Uncle Sam. The Chinese strategy seems to be this - be nice to us or we'll sic Kim Junior onto you.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Davis_Chan View Post
                      well,just like US were dislike USSR deployed its missile in Cuba.Nobody likes a stranger or hostile one close to him.Such violent reaction of China in Korea perhaps due to the distrust of US,if US was belong to communist camp at that time,things would go to a different way. :)

                      historically,China had fighted with Japan in Korea three times to against Japanese ambition of the continent.geopolitically, this peninsula is vital to China.
                      Nobody likes an idiot that threatens others with nuclear weapons either especially when they back out of a treaty they signed. Communisms dead friend. Kim will soon find this out for himself and his country as soon as they are bled dry by sanction if not starvation and despair first.
                      Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by 667medic View Post
                        But isn't it the responsibility of S.Korea to finance the rebuilding.....
                        SK, like most of the world, do not want the burden of having to "rebuild" the North. They talk alot about the need for unification but they rarely put out any policies towards it.
                        Bribing the North is cheap compared to rebuilding it and it seems that's the path they chose.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by 667medic View Post
                          But isn't it the responsibility of S.Korea to finance the rebuilding.....
                          Why in the world would you think this???

                          Personally, I think China should fund any rebuilding, since they are the ones responsible for the complete and utter failure of North Korea as a State, and all the misery it has brought to it's citizens.

                          It would serve Beijing right if a few million starving refugees flooded in...
                          "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            A united Korea may be bad news for China. It would be a nuclear power, one of the "richest" nations in the world with a low wage labor pool which would make Korea possibly more attractive than China for foreign investment, and have a very, very strong military.
                            All this spells "multipolarity" in North Asian affairs. It would be China-Korea-Japan(US assistance, but Japan would have to start taking defense burdens upon itself in this world).
                            The current state of affairs means China only has to negotiate with ONE power (the US) which doesn't have a strong history and intense dislike for China, unlike Korea or Japan. Plus, as previously stated, North Korea makes a decent, if difficult-to-control, threat towards the United States.
                            "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              GVchamp,

                              several things.

                              1. um, south korea is no longer really in the cheap clothes and toys business. same with china (to a lesser extent).

                              2. neither south korea nor japan have a history of intense dislike towards china, except for japan circa 1875-1945 (these days, japan's foreign policy seems to stumble from feeling to feeling, guilt to fist-shaking to thank-god-for-the-chinese-economy).
                              There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                              Comment

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