Page 59 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

As a result, America has allowed the PRC to build up its
military, bully its neighbors, and cheat on trade obligations,
and have also acquiesced in the removal of a huge chunk of U.S.
manufacturing to China.

Washington also allowed unrestrained Chinese investment
and corporate acquisitions in the United States for decades.
The Obama administration said nothing when Chinese
hackers stole 23 million Office of Personnel Management
government employee records in 2015 and the PRC has never
been seriously punished for its well-known espionage activities
against the United States. Washington has also overlooked
North Korean computer “spies” operating out of China – and
against U.S. targets – presumably with Chinese government
approval.

And there is fentanyl. In 2022 77,000 Americans died from
fentanyl abuse and the body count is higher now. Almost
all fentanyl precursors come from China, which is deeply
involved in the financial part of this drug assault as the huge
illicit earnings need to be recycled.

One of the reasons for not responding ferociously is to not
alienate Beijing, whose help we supposedly need for dealing
with North Korea.

The same dynamic applies with Japan, where there is a
longstanding belief that China doesn’t want a nuclear armed,
threatening, and dangerous North Korea, and that its help is
needed to rein in North Korea. Thus, many Japanese officials
argue that it is essential to accommodate the PRC.

58 Section I : North Korea-China Relations: How and Why Does Beijing Protect and Empower Pyongyang?