(08-13-2017, 01:51 PM)wrong_box Wrote: I suspect that the US will negotiate with China about a first strike, targeting specific and limited targets, such as launching sites, missile manufacturing facilities, storage facilities, research and development facilities and such rather than a full scale attack on the regime. I don't think China is so much against destroying NK's nuke program, they just don't want to have a full scale war with that crazy [BLEEP] on their border. Not to mention the amount of refugees that would flood into China...

I don't see that happening, at least not with a government that's better at publishing phone call transcripts than it is at getting healthcare reform passed. China has already made it know that if the US shoots first, they will defend NK. If the US shoots first and China lets it be (or worse, if the US shoots first and word is leaked that China ok'd it), China has destroyed any and all credibility it had with its allies, and any of the respect that a world-leading nation gets would be wiped out right then and there.

China is not negotiating a first strike with the US. What I suspect they are discussing is what counts as a "first shot" from NK--and possibly what they can do to facilitate such an action being taken. China does not want to lose NK. If they do, they have a sworn enemy (SK) right on their border. That said, I'm sure they also don't want Kim Jong Un bringing nuclear war to their doorstep, so my expectation is that they'll quietly work to remove the Kim Jong regime from power and institute a puppet government that China controls.

---