Reality Check wrote:
> John, you read this as a warning to North Korea.
> It appears to be just the opposite to me.
> It is a warning to the United States, Japan and South Korea. Give
> China what it wants in the South China Sea and the East China Sea,
> or we will allow war on the Korean Peninsula.
> No more diplomatic help from China to prevent a renewal of the
> dormant Korean war:
> This editorial was written in English, not Korean. It is a warning
> to the United States, Japan and South Korea, not North
> Korea.
I really do think it's a warning to North Korea. That doesn't mean
that it isn't ALSO some kind of warning to the West, although China
issues warnings to the West almost every day, so that wouldn't be
news. What is news in this case is that it's a warning to North
Korea. Global Times publishes in English, not Korean. If the article
had been in Korean, it would have to have been in some other
publication that isn't even seen by the West, and so could have been
completely ignored by the North Koreans. Publishing it in Global
Times in English is a far more powerful way of rebuking North Korea,
by making the criticism public and international. This follows by two
days another major public rebuke of North Korea - endorsing the
Security Council resolution. However, China absolutely does not want
another Korean War. Xi Jinping has much larger strategic war plans on
his plate, and a Korean war would be a major distraction and
disruption to his plans.