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Friday, April 12, 2013

And Stop Calling Them Shirley

The only troop build-up by China on North Korea's border that I have read about recently only mentioned the addition of a single brigade. Which isn't much. I have read that in general the Chinese are beefing up border security with North Korea, but that doesn't imply it must be the army.

Anyway, while China surely has a reason to build up troops to have the option to keep South Korean troops from sweeping north if the Pyongyang regime collapses, China denies they are building up troops on the North Korean border:

"The reports are not true," Xinhua cited an unnamed Defence Ministry official as saying, in response to what it said was foreign news reports about a build-up.

While I'd expect China to build up troop strength just in case, they say they haven't, and I haven't read anything significant. Which means I really have no idea what China is actually doing.

I assume we know what China is doing. Surely, our ability to detect Chinese troop movements is better than it was in the Korean War when Chinese armies secretly crossed into North Korea while we advanced north after Inchon