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DaShi
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The Taste of Japan
Sep 2000
time: 05:25
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/i...html?oref=login
quote:
Chinese News Media Critical of North Korea
By KEITH BRADSHER and JAMES BROOKE
Published: February 13, 2005
EIJING, Sunday, Feb. 13 - China on Sunday publicly called for the Korean peninsula to be free of nuclear weapons and urged North Korea to return to regional talks regarding its nuclear program. State-run Chinese media and censored Internet chat rooms were uncommonly critical of Pyongyang for having announced Thursday that it had manufactured nuclear weapons.
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The official New China News Agency reported Sunday morning that Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing of China had spoken by phone on Saturday night with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Li called for the regional negotiations to resume as soon as possible and for the "denuclearization" of the peninsula, the agency said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry had made similar points late Thursday night but at a much more junior level, with the statement issued in the name of Kong Quan, the chief spokesman. Bush administration officials have made little secret of their hope of recruiting China's help to put pressure on North Korea.
China has more influence with North Korea than any other country does, providing it with much of its fuel, food and other supplies - although even Chinese influence has proved limited at times.
The broad criticism by state-run media is important because the Chinese government has tended to take a protective position, at least in public, toward North Korea, its neighbor and sometime ally.
National television news on state-run CCTV gave heavy coverage on Saturday to international condemnation of North Korea and demands that it return to regional talks about its nuclear program. Little effort was made to explain North Korea's position - that it needs a nuclear deterrent to prevent the United States from attacking someday.
"Usually the CCTV reports will be more balanced, or even take a more preferential stand" in favor of North Korea, said Jin Canrong, the associate dean of the School of International Studies at People's University.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at People's University, said, "The Chinese government is really angry in their hearts about the declaration of North Korea, so they take a permissive attitude toward the media," allowing greater criticism of North Korea.
Two large sister newspapers, The Beijing News and Southern Metropolitan Daily in Guangzhou, ran a scathing commentary on Saturday by Dongfang Shuo, whom the two newspapers identified simply as a Beijing scholar. Dongfang Shuo is a pen name sometimes used for articles that reflect an evolving or unofficial view among Chinese experts on North Korea.
North Korea's statement on Thursday "can only make the North Korean nuclear issue more complicated and can't have a good result," the commentary said. "Because North Korea always engages in these kinds of marginal tactics, no country in the world would trust that North Korea is now playing a true game."
The commentary suggested that North Korea was mainly trying to attract international attention, as part of an effort to attract foreign aid.
Government censors have tended to delete criticisms of North Korea from Chinese Internet sites in the past. But hundreds of such postings could easily be found on Saturday on Sina.com, a popular news site.
The postings did not question that some countries might need nuclear weapons - China has them - but suggested that North Korea should not be a nuclear power.
"A kitchen knife is used to cut food, but it can't be held by children and crazy people," one posting said. "This is why North Korea can't be allowed to hold nuclear weapons."
To be sure, a similar number of postings defended North Korea, where many Chinese served during the Korean War, and government propaganda has often defended it since then. But postings favorable to North Korea had far outnumbered critical postings in the past. "The enemy of your enemy is your friend," one said. "Nobody likes North Korea, but we should support everyone who opposes the United States."
Television, newspaper and news agency reports here were quite mild in the first hours after North Korea issued its statement on Thursday afternoon. They focused initially only on North Korea's decision to pull out of the regional talks, and said little about the country's statement that it had manufactured nuclear weapons.
The low-key initial response of Chinese media and the Foreign Ministry to Pyongyang's announcement shows that the North Korean statement "was a surprise to China," said Chu Shulong, a foreign policy expert at Qinghua University.
But the Chinese news media have stopped short of suggesting a popular idea among some of North Korea's harshest critics in the Bush administration: trying to change North Korea's government by sending in radios, or other steps to help the country's residents realize how poor and isolated they are.
That idea drew support in Japan on Saturday from Robyn Lim, a Nanzan University professor influential in defense policy circles, who wrote in an essay: "The crisis will be resolved either by war or by regime change. Let's try for regime change."
In South Korea, where the liberal government of President Roh Moo Hyun has pursued an engagement policy of aid and investment with North Korea, conservative newspapers urged him Saturday to take a hard line on the North's nuclear weapons program. |
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13-02-2005 19:01
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