Bribery and the Bleeding Obvious

This author thinks we need to "play the China card" to get North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons ambitions. Unfortunately, the proposal consists of bribing the Chinese and pointing out what should be obvious to the Chinese as if they are too dense to understand. (And other analysts want us to "trade" Taiwan for North Korea, so to speak.)

The so-called China card consists of:

First, the United States should indicate that it is willing to share the cost of caring for any refugees who end up over the border in China (or Chinese humanitarian activities in the North in the aftermath of a collapse). ...

Second, the Republic of Korea, with a nearly $900 billion GDP, should join Washington in making such an offer. ...

Third, the United States should enlist Japan, with the world's second largest GDP of $4.8 trillion, in this effort. ...

Fourth, the Korean Diaspora could offer its private support. ...

Fifth, the Obama administration should promise the PRC that the United States would not take geopolitical advantage of Chinese intervention. Thus, Korean reunification would not result in American troops on China's border. Instead, U.S. forces would come home. ...

Sixth, Washington should point to the risk of further proliferation throughout East Asia. ...

Finally, the United States, backed by leading Asian and European states, should point out that Chinese leadership in resolving the problem of North Korea would enhance the PRC's international reputation.

First of all, it seems ridiculous that a country assumed to be on the verge of overtaking us in a couple decades and with such massive foreign currency reserves should be bankrolled by others.

Second, offering to retreat from South Korea is no gift we should ever consider.

Third, why don't the Chinese already understand what we are supposed to tell them about proliferation and prestige? Are they that stupid?

Clearly, China likes having a nuclear-armed North Korea as a loose cannon on the international deck to make South Korea, Japan, and America nervous. If China wanted to act to stop North Korea, they could. Too much North Korean trade goes through China to survive a Chinese closure of the border.

We should play the China card, but play our China card--not a card that pays China to do what they should want to do anyway.

We should tell the world that we will help any government entity that fears North Korea's nuclear arsenal build their own minimal nuclear deterrent. This would include Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

A loose cannon wouldn't sound so appealing to Peking under those circumstances.