It takes the editors of the Wall Street Journal six paragraphs to get to the crux of the situation with respect to China’s support for North Korea:
The problem is that so far there’s little evidence that China is changing its policy toward Pyongyang. The case for optimism includes some editorials in Chinese state media criticizing the Kim regime, as well as reports that China has turned back North Korean ships carrying coal exports. The White House also points to China’s decision last week to abstain at the U.N. and not join Russia in vetoing a resolution condemning Syria’s chemical attack.
Will Trump get the Chinese to stop supporting the North Koreans in their headlong rush to offensive nuclear capability? Stay tuned. I have my doubts. The Chinese authorities write a heckuva good press release. Whether rhetoric and symbolic action will be matched by effective action is an entirely different question.
What I see in all of the brouhaha in the media about Trump’s foreign policy flip-flops or speculations about his being successful where Obama had failed is the remarkable persistence and tenacity of American foreign policy. Regardless of what the candidates run on with respect to foreign policy, they always seem to revert to the mean.
That saddens me to say since I think that American foreign policy went astray decades ago.
More importantly, recently the Chinese government has issued repeated statements calling for a peaceful settlement of the North Korean missile and nuclear programs. This is a warning to the US not to attack North Korea.
Buchanan states it well. America First is not interventionism.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/war-cries-vs-america-first/