Chinese Duplicity and American Delusion

China won’t confirm sanctions on North Korea, as US claims
By Associated Press

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is headed toward the Korean Peninsula for an exercise with South Korea.

BEIJING — China’s foreign ministry on Friday refused to confirm or deny U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s assertion that Beijing has threatened to impose unilateral sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests.
Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China’s support for U.N. sanctions on the North but repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer when asked at a daily press briefing about what other plans China might be considering.
“As for what kind of actions China will take if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it is a hypothetical question and there is much speculation about that, so I have no comment on it,” Geng said.
“China firmly opposes any actions that violate the United Nations Security Council resolutions. This position is quite clear,” he said.
China wants North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, but has opposed unilateral sanctions imposed without a U.N. mandate.
Beijing has come under growing U.S. pressure to use its leverage as North Korea’s largest trading partner and main source of food and fuel aid to compel Pyongyang to heed U.N. resolutions.
Tillerson said Thursday that Washington knew China was in communication with the regime in Pyongyang.
“They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear test,” he said on Fox News Channel.
Tillerson said China also told the U.S. that it had informed North Korea “that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own.”
Earlier Thursday, the senior U.S. Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific said the crisis with North Korea is at the worst point he’s ever seen, but he declined to compare the situation to the Cuban missile crisis decades ago.

History's Stupidest President

Donald Trump accused of 'shocking ignorance' after suggesting Korea used to be part of China
By Rachel Roberts 

Feeble-minded: Donald Trump said in an interview that Korea "used to be part of China" following his meeting with Xi Jingping.

Donald Trump has been accused of “shocking ignorance” after stating that Korea used to be part of China after he met Xi Jingping earlier this month.
Speaking in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump said that Mr Xi “Went into the history of China and Korea … and you know, you’re talking about thousands of years … and many wars. And Korea actually used to be a part of China.”
Commentators believe Trump might have heard Xi’s potted history of the countries from a Chinese perspective as there is a growing school of nationalist thought in China that ancient Korean kingdoms were part of the Chinese empire.
Trump revealed the Chinese leader had explained the situation on the Korean Peninsular – divided into communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea following the Second World War -- which led him to conclude, “After ten minutes, I realised it’s not so easy.”
South Korean daily newspaper Korea Joonang Daily said in an editorial: “We are dumbfounded that the leader of 21st-century China made such a ridiculous claim. If Trump really conveyed Xi’s words correctly, it is nothing but a grave challenge to the identity of the Korean people. “
It added: “As China’s power has grown remarkably over the last three decades, China’s historical perception is increasingly taking a worrisome turn.”
Rah Jong-yil, a former South Korean ambassador to both London and Tokyo, told The Telegraph: “I suspect that Xi said, in effect, that Korea was part of China because it was overwhelmingly under Chinese influence historically and Trump bought that.
“It shows his shocking ignorance of the situation in north-east Asia. 

That is very disturbing to us.
"Somebody needs to enlighten Trump about the facts of the region and he should not fall for this sort of silly nationalism from the Chinese," Mr Rah added.
”It is true that the Korean peninsula was under the influence of China, but that was under the Ming dynasty -- which was a long time ago and nothing to do with the People's Republic of China.
“In the distant past, Korea may have looked up to China as a model of political or economic development, but today we consider the communist-led nation to be economically, politically and socially backward.”
Critics have repeatedly claimed there are gaping holes in Trump’s knowledge of world affairs and history.
Earlier this month, it was suggested he may not know the name of the leader of North Korea after he repeatedly referred to Kim Jong-un as “this gentleman” in a Fox News interview.
He also appeared to think he was dealing with the now deceased father of Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, who was in power in North Korea during the Clinton presidency and for most of Barack Obama's first term.
He said: “You know, they’ve been talking with this gentleman for a long time. You read Clinton’s book, he said, ‘Oh, we made such a great peace deal,’ and it was a joke.
“You look at different things over the years with President Obama. Everybody has been outplayed, they’ve all been outplayed by this gentleman. And we’ll see what happens. But I just don’t telegraph my moves.”
Washington has been attempting to work out how to deal with the hard line communist state and its suspected nuclear arsenal for decades. 

Trump’s position appears to be hardening with his recent warning that, “if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.”