‘Nuclear blackmail’: North Korea’s bomb test raises threat for China
With China well in reach of Pyongyang’s missiles, Beijing is no longer a disinterested middleman in peace talks, but a target of ‘nuclear blackmail’
China, Pyongyang’s onetime brotherly ally and major benefactor, now faces new, more serious threats from its former ideological partner’s defiant nuclear test on Wednesday.
“Most Chinese used to believe that Washington and Pyongyang were the key players in North Korea’s nuclear problem, with Beijing just the middleman ” said Zhang Liangui, a professor of international strategy studies at the Central Party School in Beijing. “But as North Korea has developed its own nuclear weapons, China is a major victim.”
North Korea is the fourth country after the US, Russia and India with a nuclear potential to strike Beijing. But, while its nuclear arsenal is, in theory, the smallest threat, the unscrupulous North is the most dangerous one.
READ MORE: China must change tack in dealings with North Korea after nuclear test, says US
Wednesday’s test was staged close enough to the border to generate tremors felt in northeastern China’s Jilin province, prompting the evacuation of some local schools and office buildings, CCTV reported.
“Any possible nuclear leaks would be a real danger to people living in northeastern China,” said Sun Xingjie, an international relations professor at Jilin University.
Sun said North Korea was so unpredictable that no one could foresee who were its friends or enemies, though Pyongyang insisted that its nuclear weapons were developed to counter the US and other foes.
“Based on its nuclear capacity, China faces a more actual threat if the bombs are detonated on North Korean soil.”
