“The clock has run out on North Korea,” Buck declared to kick off Wednesday’s discussion of the forthcoming meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping (which Buck also covered earlier in the week with a national security specialist of a different stripe).
On Wednesday, Buck fielded a call from Gordon Chang, author of the book The Coming Collapse of China, to hear Chang’s take on the stakes and talking points for President Trump as he sits down with Jinping and talks about China’s belligerent neighbor.
“If China wanted to, they could economically strangle North Korea,” Chang said. “North Korea’s crude oil comes from China. Their jet fuel comes from China. There would be no North Korean Air Force without the Chinese. If the clock has run out North Korea, it should also have run out on China.”
Chang described how the Chinese have been supplying materials and components for North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, and for its missiles.
“It’s an economic issue,” Chang said. “China could be cutting off materials and components for missiles, and Chinese banks could stop their money laundering for North Korea.”
Chang dismissed the argument, largely fronted by China, that North Korea is an American problem because America created it.
“That just is ludicrous. The Chinese realize the North Koreans are difficult to deal with, but they keep dealing with them. We’ve got a North Korea problem, but we really, really got a China problem.”
Chang did discuss the possibility that North Korea would turn on their Chinese benefactors.
“The Chinese and North Koreans are blood enemies,” Chang said. “Clearly the Chinese are worried, and should be worried, but China supports North Korea because in the short term, North Korea keeps us off balance, distracts us from talking about issues that we have with China, and endlessly creates bargaining chips for the Chinese.”
Click above to hear Buck and Gordon discuss these countries’ long-term strategic objectives, and the checking power the Philippines has on the situation, in full.