Explainer: China’s Response If North Korea Collapse

credit: vox.

London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – China plays an important role in North Korea’s economic dependence. The country has contributed to North Korea’s 90 percent of imports and exports. The Chinese officials are also supporting Pyongyang’s efforts in obtaining foreign currency. The only state that doesn’t have friendly relations with America is North Korea other than China. What would be China’s Response If North Korea Collapse? Read the post below to find out the answers to that.

What Would Chinese Leaders Do If They See North Korea Falling Apart? 

Chinese leaders would take some action if North Korea collapses at some point in time. But what would exactly be that is yet to be seen? It would certainly depend on the circumstances, which may not be easy to define in advance. 

Many factors could come into play and could influence the decisions of the Chinese leaders on this issue. The biggest fear China would be to work with North Korea and upset the officials of all the other nations. Most countries do not intend to support North Korea in any of their missions. Will China support North Korea? The answer is still not clear.

China’s decision-making structure may get affected by the strategies of other countries regarding the possible North Korean collapse. The Chinese reaction is pretty opaque, and the country leaders would not like to advertise their likely actions in advance. As most countries are siding with the United States it would be interesting to see what the Chinese leaders do to support North Korea.

We suspect that the Chinese leaders have not made up their minds on how to give a response to the North Korean collapse. In case of North Korean collapse, there could likely be a war between the United States and China. This will be the first war between two countries with powerful nuclear weapons.

Will Chinese Leaders Intervene With The North Korean status Of Dissolving?

The first fear that China would fear would be a large number of North Koreans seeking refuge in China. Other countries might not welcome them because they would be siding with the United States on that matter.

 If North Korea collapses the locals would try to escape and to survive the humanitarian disaster they would seek refuge in China. They would want to avoid the physical danger and would cross the border into China. We don’t know what would be China’s reaction to these unwanted guests crossing the border. 

The same happened during the famine of the 1990s. North Koreans have been moving to China but on low levels until this day. Chinese leaders would fear the invasion of the North Koreans into their region without a warning. The outcome of North Korea’s collapse could cause a lot of problems for China.

The number of refugees could be magnitude larger as compared to the previous invasions. Some observers have also predicted that under certain circumstances there could be chances of bout several million people seeking refuge in Chine. Even 10 percent or one percent would also destabilize Northeast China and could put a strain on the authorities.

Read More: Money Laundering Sentence Guidelines (Defense & Penalties)

Chinese Leaders Don’t Like To Take External Risks 

There are also some general statements about what would be the reaction of the Chinese leaders in response to North Korea’s collapse. Although it is highly unlikely that North Korea would fall apart because the country is an atomic power. If something like that ever happens then the Chinese leaders would be inclined to intervene. There is extreme uncertainty about what the collapse of the North Korean state would entail.

Chinese leaders are not very good at assessing the situations that they have not experienced and are less likely to experience them in the future as well. haven’t experienced before. This is an old Chinese trait and the Chinese officials fail badly in analyzing what is going on in other countries. They don’t pay any attention to what the leaders of other countries intend to do. Chinese analysts have an interest in telling their leaders what they want to hear.

Chinese leaders don’t take external risks because they believe in nothing going out of the way. If they are comfortable with their status quo, then they would like to preserve it. This is not a unique trait of China as this is common among the leaders of other countries as well. However, the Chinese leaders have been quite conscious of China’s weakness. Compared to the United States, China is very much well aware of the dangers of domestic instability.

Beth Malcolm

Beth Malcolm is Scottish based Journalist at Heriot-Watt University studying French and British Sign Language. She is originally from the north west of England but is living in Edinburgh to complete her studies.