Wang Yi Presents Kerry with the Way Out of War

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking at an hour-long press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry following their meeting in Washington Tuesday, made several crucial proposals which, if accepted, could get the US out of the suicidal course set by President Obama for war on China. Speaking on the Korea crisis, Wang Yi said that he and Kerry had agreed on a formulation for a UN resolution condemning the North Korea nuclear test and missile launch, which will be released after review by both government. But, he added, such a resolution “cannot provide a fundamental solution to the Korean nuclear issue. To really do that, we need to return to the track of dialogue and negotiation.”

He said Kerry agreed on that, but added that the Chinese side had “put forward a basic proposal: that is, we want to pursue in parallel tracks the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the replacement of the Korean armistice with a peace agreement. We know certain parties have different views on this proposal.”

This marks a significant intervention. The North will only discuss the peace agreement, and Obama will only discuss the nuclear program. Pyongyang absolutely cannot and will not give up their nuclear weapon program under the threat of war from Obama, knowing what the US did to Iraq and Libya when they stopped their nuclear program. If a peace agreement could be found which assured their security, then they could consider alternatives on the nuclear program.

Kerry stuck to Obama’s line — give up the nuclear program and well consider a peace plan — but China has put a workable plan on the table.

Wang Yi also spoke to the immediacy of the crisis, saying that he and Kerry agreed that “we need to monitor the situation on the peninsula very closely in the coming two months. Various factors of instability might intertwine and have an impact, so under that situation its very important that the various parties have more dialogue so as to prevent the heightening of tension or escalation of the situation. In particular, we must prevent the situation on the peninsula from spinning out of control.” On the South China Sea, Wang Yi said that despite the hollering from the west, the region is more peaceful than other parts of the world, and no commercial vehicle had encountered any threat to the freedom of navigation. Insurance fees had not risen a penny, he said (the free market says there is no problem!). On the other hand, he said: “I hope friends in the media will not only see the radar [China’s radar site on one of the islands] but more importantly, perhaps, that every day the advanced armaments and equipments emerging in the South China Sea, including the strategic bombers, the missile destroyers — why people have chosen to disregard or ignore them?”

He also directly denounced the Philippines, which has broken the Declaration of Conduct on the South Cina sea, signed by all parties, “whose Article 4 stipulates that disputes will be resolved through peaceful negotiations by the directly concerned parties. China and the Chinese side has always faithfully acted to implement the DOC. And it is exactly one country and let me not avoid mentioning the name — that is, the Philippines — has violated the stipulation.”