PLA Influence on China's National Security Policymaking by Phillip C. Saunders & Andrew Scobell

Author:Phillip C. Saunders & Andrew Scobell [Saunders, Phillip C. & Scobell, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9780804794626
Google: CsArrgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 25490359
Publisher: Stanford Security Studies
Published: 2015-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

7

The PLA Role in China’s DPRK Policy

Andrew Scobell

Introduction

No country has posed a greater challenge for China’s foreign policy in the twenty-first century than North Korea. Policies toward the United States and Taiwan have each proven major tests for China, but neither has posed the sustained policy challenge to the same extent as North Korea. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has proved to be a near constant headache for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since the early 1990s.1 Unlike cross-Strait relations, which have ameliorated appreciably since 2008, and relations with the United States, which have tended to fluctuate considerably over time, the Pyongyang problem has not abated and appears to be chronic. Beijing’s truculent neighbor has conducted nuclear tests (October 2006, May 2009, and February 2012) and missile launches (notably July 2006, July 2009, April 12, 2012, and May 2013). Moreover there have been numerous other provocations, most notably the torpedoing of the Cheonan (March 2010) and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island (November 2010). There has been no respite for China where the DPRK is concerned.

North Korea policy represents an ongoing daunting and sensitive security challenge for China. What are the key characteristics of China’s DPRK policy and how does the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) influence it? While scholars and analysts have given considerable attention to China’s policy toward North Korea, details of and insights into the making of China’s policy toward North Korea have proven elusive. While the PLA is believed to have significant influence on and noteworthy involvement in China’s relationship with its troublesome neighbor, no clear picture has emerged of the military’s role or its mode of influence in the North Korean policy process.2

During the Hu Jintao era, the most senior leader with formal responsibility for DPRK policy was Dai Bingguo—a state councilor with extensive diplomatic experience. He had held posts in the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Under the leadership of PRC President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, primary responsibility for North Korea appears to have been split between Vice President Li Yuanchao and State Councilor and former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Both the Central Committee’s International Department and State Council’s MFA have been key organs in dealing with DPRK policy. The former has been particularly important as the main interlocutor since traditionally the key relationship has been party-to-party (i.e., ties between the CCP and the Korean Workers’ Party). Nevertheless, during the past decade the MFA has emerged as an increasingly important player on DPRK policy with two roles: first as the primary instigator and official host organ of the Six Party Talks, and second as the main mechanism for interaction with the United States on Korea matters (see below).

On the surface, the PLA would appear to be a key and influential player in China’s North Korea policy. The PRC’s only formal alliance is with the DPRK—by the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance between the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea signed in July 1961.

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