With the threat of another Korean war looming, this week’s US-China summit in Beijing could be the most important in decades.
Most western commentary on North Korea has focused on President Donald Trump’s warnings of “fire and fury” to combat the regime’s nuclear threat. But the Korean crisis also poses a huge risk to China. If a war breaks out, China will literally be on the frontline — potentially exposed to nuclear fallout, refugee flows and dramatic shifts in the regional balance of power.
These acute risks have produced a startling variety of opinions among Chinese experts about the best way forward. There are some who even argue that China and the US should co-operate in joint military operations against North Korea. Others take a completely different line — contending that Washington’s policy is leading to disaster, and that it is time for Beijing to break publicly with the US.