World

US Preemptive Strike On North Korea Could Start A War With China, State Media Suggests

REUTERS/Stringer

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Ryan Pickrell China/Asia Pacific Reporter
Font Size:

China state-run media has potentially offered insight into how China might behave in the event of a renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

China and North Korea are allies, but Beijing has grown frustrated with its old friend as the latter has become more of a liability than a useful asset. At the same time, China is determined to prevent the U.S. and its allies from massing troops and storming the peninsula in an assault on North Korea, possibly by force if that proves necessary.

“The memory of the hot-fighting of the Korean War is still very vivid for Chinese decision makers,” Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt, an international security expert at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “But, national security always comes first.”

China “will firmly resist any side which wants to change the status quo of the areas where China’s interests are concerned,” an editorial in the state-run Global Times, an affiliate of the People’s Daily but not an official mouthpiece for the Chinese government, said Friday.

“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral,” the article explained, signaling to Pyongyang that if the North decides to launch an attack on the U.S., Pyongyang will be on its own in the ensuing fight against Washington and its allies.

But, then the article turned its attention to the U.S.

“If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” the article said, leaving readers guessing as to the exact meaning of “prevent them from doing so” and what that might entail.

Looking at history, there is evidence that suggests the article is referring to the possibility of a shooting war against the U.S. and its allies.

When it comes to a war in North Korea, China has always had four options. One, China can sit on the sidelines. Two, China can join the U.S. and its allies to topple the regime. Three, China can join North Korea against the U.S. and its allies. Four, China can rush in and pursue its own objectives, which could potentially involve overthrowing the regime but preventing the U.S. and its allies from establishing a democratic North Korea on China’s border. There are undoubtedly variations of each of these options, but these are China’s choices.

“You could imagine scenarios in which any of those could happen,” Eberstadt explained to TheDCNF.

Were China to choose to wage war against the U.S. in response to preemptive strike on North Korea, China would be forced to pay an extremely high cost, likely much higher than anything the U.S. would be forced to pay.

“Blood is a big expense. That goes double for China,” Eberstadt remarked. “The exposure of the Chinese economy in any kind of risky scenario like this is absolutely immense … The financial and economic equities that would be at stake for China in any sort of risky situation are truly daunting.”

The losses for China militarily, economically, and politically would be far worse than any negative outcomes experienced by the U.S., a RAND Corporation report on the possible outcomes of a military conflict between the U.S. and China published last year explained.

“If war is triggered, we will have greater determination than the U.S. to fight it to the end, and we can endure more losses than the U.S.,” the Global Times wrote in response to the report. This line of thinking is not new for China. “China should be willing to sacrifice every city east of Xi’an” in a conflict with the U.S., Zhu Chenghu, a PLA officer, said in 2012.

The recent editorial in the Global Times comes during an escalating war of words between North Korea and the U.S.

North Korea revealed this week that it is considering launching four intermediate-range ballistic missiles into waters around Guam, home to numerous U.S. strategic military assets and more than 100,000 civilians, in a show of force for President Donald Trump.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump announced to reporters Tuesday. “They will be met with the fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said, they will be met with the fire and fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

“I will tell you this, if North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,” he explained Thursday. “They should be very nervous. Things will happen to them like they never thought possible.”

Follow Ryan on Twitter

Send tips to ryan@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel