China expert: What Beijing Is Thinking About N. Korea

China’s policy of using North Korea as a buffer between it and US forces in the south might be putting the United States and China on a collision course, writes Minxin Pei at The Atlantic. But that doesn’t mean China’s going to change its approach — from Beijing’s perspective, “the alternatives are hardly more palatable.” One possibility would be to increase its aid to North Korea to bribe it back to the negotiating table. But Pyongyang would likely take the money and run. Another would be to reverse course and work with Washington toward a reunification of the Korean Peninsula. That, however, might require a US exit from Korea, which could “fatally undermine the U.S.-led system of alliances in East Asia.”