China’s pesky ally

China in a bind over a reckless ally and old rival.

BEIJING / NEW YORK: China is in a bind over what to do about North Korea’s stepped-up nuclear and missile tests, even though it is annoyed with its ally and has started talks with other UN Security Council members on a new sanctions resolution against Pyongyang.

China shares a long land border with North Korea and is seen as the only country with real power to bring about change in the isolated and belligerent nation. However, Beijing fears strengthening sanctions could lead to collapse in North Korea, and it also believes the United States and its ally South Korea share responsibility for growing tensions in the region.

China is in a difficult spot, a source close to the Chinese leadership said when asked if Beijing's attitude to North Korea had changed after its fifth nuclear test last week.

“On the one hand, China is resolutely opposed to North Korea developing nuclear weapons for fear of triggering a nuclear arms race in the region,” the source said, referring to Japan and South Korea following in Pyongyang’s footsteps.

“On the other hand, North Korea is a big headache but regime change is not an option,” the source added. “Collapse of the regime would lead to chaos in (China's) northeast” bordering North Korea, the source said, requesting anonymity.

The prospect of a unified Korea under Seoul’s leadership and the possibility of US troops on China’s borders has long been a nightmare for Beijing.

A collapse in North Korea, sending a flood of refugees across the relatively porous border into China’s rustbelt northeastern provinces, would also be deeply destabilising to Beijing’s rule as well as a huge economic cost.

Those concerns have been around for years, but now Beijing is also deeply angered by a US decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile system in South Korea, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system. It has said its own security has been compromised and that North Korea’s recent belligerence is due to this deployment.

Publicly, China has not linked the THAAD deployment with whether it will support sanctions on North Korea. It condemned the latest missile and nuclear tests but said sanctions alone could not resolve the issue and has called for a resumption of talks with Pyongyang.