China testing us

The Korean crisis is as much about China as it is about North Korea. These circumstances hinge as much on the personal qualities of Kim Jong-Un and Xi Jinping as they do on our national character. We must communicate in terms comprehensible to these two men.

An analogy of the importance of context is the success of Gandhi. His Satyagraha movement worked only because the British were self-consciously “good Christians,’ capable of shame. Had Gandhi faced Hitler, Stalin or Tojo, he and the Congress Party leadership would all have been murdered and his followers massacred.

The East Asian cultural value of “face” matters more than American norms. Weakness in the face of Kim’s threats invites attack. If Kim intimidates us into accepting his possession of a credible nuclear threat to our homeland, China will know that their ambitions in India, Vietnam, the Spratley and Paracel Islands, Taiwan and beyond will meet no serious opposition.

The Chinese always test each new American president. They are doing so now. That is why President Trump’s blunt language is so crucial; its very abnormality might get then to question their assumption that no matter the provocation we will not act.

Ralph K. Ginorio

Coeur d’Alene