MEDIA FUELS RUMORS ABOUT CHINA’S POSSIBLE INVASION TO NORTH KOREA

Chinese soldiers march past Tiananmen Square before a military parade in Beijing marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Kevin Frayer / Getty Images)

The Daily Star posits that because China is building a six-lane highway in its northeast on route to North Korea, this means preparation for deployment of tanks and troops to its North Korean border. The photos obtained by Daily Star Online show Chinese construction workers digging tunnels through the mountains and massive cranes constructing bridges over rivers. Truly an unprecedented act of aggression.

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As the situation on the Korean Peninsula escalates, the US experts are quick to stoke the fires as some sort of wishful thinking, trying to at the very least make it look like Beijing may support the US and South Korea, if the conflict was to escalate even further.

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Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on US-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that China’s Jilin province even budgeted and paid for improvements in road infrastructure inside some parts of North Korea in recent years. No doubt to improve logistical access to the Rason port inside North Korea.

This hysteria regarding China’s military involvement in the matters is not limited to the US. South Korean news agency Chosun reported in April that Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops to the North Korean border in two groups to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.

Dean Cheng, an Asia security expert at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington, said Beijing would have a ”vast array” of contingency plans involving military options to seize Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons. And just last week the Rand Corporation said any conflict between North Korea and South Korea and the US would quickly spiral into World War III. If that were the case, American and Chinese troops would then rush across the border in a race to take control of the nuclear weapons and missile facilities.

Northeast China is already host to thousands of North Koreans. If there is to be another conflict on the Korean Peninsula, China would be worried about a large number of Koreans fleeing across the border.

Most likely the observed media hysteria is just a part of the ongoing media campaign aimed to show that China may put a blind eye to the US-led intervention in North Korea or even support it.

However, the Chinese leadership does not see the Kim regime as a threat to its security. In turn, the Chinese military is actively prepares for a standoff with the US in Asia Pacific.

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