LOS ANGELES -- Mistake-making is a common occupation of governments everywhere, but lately the Chinese government has made two monster blunders that uncomfortably reopen the question of whether China has made all that much progress after all. The issues concern North Korea and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
In general, Chinese diplomacy has been otherwise nimble if conservative. But it has been embarrassingly clumsy on North Korea. Asked (reasonably enough) by Washington to step up the pressure on Pyongyang to drop its nuclear-weapons program, Beijing has said it lacks leverage. This hapless claim flies in the face of credulity. If China does wield scant influence over its former soul mate, those in charge of its North Korean policy should be fired.
Year after year of substantial aid and ideological comfort to the North should not yield so little in return. If China aspires to be the most influential power in the region, it can scarcely hope to attain that with ineffective policies. Beijing urgently needs to locate some leverage before the Pentagon starts to view North Korea as another Iraq.