Anti-Immigration Fence Has Been Erected
Dave Price
But not the one we've been talking about.
Just think about this for a moment: how bad do things have to get for people to risk death trying to immigrate into a country poorer than Mexico?
UPDATE: This is one of those one-way fences, apparently.
Could China really be about to stage a Korean coup d'etat? Well, it's not like there'd be an international outcry.
Not that their method of dealing with the problem will be particularly humane. It's just that there isn't much in the way of restraints to keep them from acting in such a way as to preserve harmony within China. And preserving harmony is a tremendous value there.
When the Soviet Union fell apart, I, a Reagan conservative, found myself thinking, "We're going to miss the Soviet peace-keeping forces."
One other thing: the college I was at had some North Korean students, but they lived in a guarded building where teachers went to teach separate classes and where they lived.
i guess another question is, once kim is removed, even if the government were then staffed by reformist, pro-chinese generals, how long do you think it would take for them to start normalizing relations with south korea? and then once that trigger is pulled, how long before the chain reaction leads to complete reunification?
the earlier article about the fence seemed to indicate that demarcation of borders was at least one reason for the fence, and if the chinese are worried about that, maybe they know something we don't about the impending implosion of the kim regime, followed by rapid reunification with the south? certainly the belligerence of exploding a nuclear device could symbolize, i think, a fundamental acknowledgement of impotence, or a last gasp attempt at maintaining control on the part of n. korea.
Oh, the possibilities!
I get shivers just thinking about the idea that the long nightmare might have a happy awakening.
Nice dreams. I wish I shared them. Instead, I keep thinking how unlikely it is that China would want a unified Korea -- which presumably would be friendly to the U.S., if not an outright ally -- on their border.
Also, one understated issue with respect to China is the massive, high-quality Nork counterfeiting. China is essentially a dollarized economy, with a nearly voucher-like relationship between RMB and USD, so counterfeiting USD is almost as bad in Chinese eyes as counterfeiting its own currency. The counterfeiting upsets China nearly as much as it upsets the US.
China does care about its world image, and doesn't like having the world think it's the Nork's "godfather". So, the idea that China could want to engineer a coup could be seen in China as the least bad option among several.
That China is concerned about NK because it makes communism look bad is just too bizarre for words.
[Pausing to watch the pigs fly past my window.]
I'm just waiting for NK to hold the big chair on the UN Human Rights council. It would make as much sense as everything else.
Oh, I don't know. This is not the China of 20 years ago. They are practically de facto U.S. allies now. Half their economic growth is built on selling stuff to us.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.