With
North Korea test firing ballistic missiles last week, you might ask “Where’s
the United Nations?”
There
are a series of international sanctions aimed at North Korea’s nuclear program.
These
sanctions are in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions passed in the
wake of previous North Korean nuclear tests and ballistic missile tests.
There
is a UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea that is charged
with monitoring these sanctions.
The
Wall Street Journal has reported that an expert panel working on a report for
this UN committee has faced roadblocks from the Chinese representative,
supported by the Russians in some cases.
China
and Russia supported these sanctions, but now they appear to be running
interference for North Korea.
The
expert panel is supposed to report the facts, not represent national
governments.
It’s
blatantly clear that the Chinese representative is doing the bidding of the
Chinese Communist Party.
The
footnotes with dissenting comments are anonymous, but there’s no doubt where
they came from.
In
one case, it’s as petty as insisting that a reference to a company with
“Taiwan” in its name should include an assertion that Taiwan is a province of
China.
Everyone
knows China is obsessed with making others pretend that Taiwan is not a country.
That
leaves no doubt where these objections are coming from. You can draw a straight
line back to General Secretary Xi.
The
bigger problem is that other objections seem designed to minimize and paper
over violations of sanctions.
That
as good as confirms suspicions that China has been helping North Korea evade
the sanctions it supported and claims to support.
Xi
probably thinks that letting North Korea run wild with its nuclear weapons
program will cause problems for the West.
That’s
shortsighted.
It
can’t be in China’s interests to have a nuclear-armed and unstable regime as a
next-door neighbor.
Xi’s
strategy of sowing chaos is playing with fire.
It
is dangerous not just for U.S. interests, but for China and the world.
