The council voted 15-0, with no debate, to adopt a resolution drafted by the U.S. and China in the aftermath of the Feb. 12 underground blast.

North Korea “will exercise the right to a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors and to defend the supreme interests of the country,” a foreign ministry statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said today. It warned the UN “not to make another big blunder.”

“We take all North Korean threats seriously enough to ensure that we have the correct defense posture to deal with any contingencies that might arise,” Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said today after testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

China’s enforcement of sanctions is crucial, said Davies. China “remains central to altering North Korea’s cost calculus,” he said in testimony. “Both geography and history have endowed the People’s Republic of China with a unique —- if increasingly challenging -— diplomatic, economic, and military relationship” with North Korea.

Despite the unanimous support for tougher sanctions on Pyongyang, China’s Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, says sanctions are not the solution to North Korea. From The Voice of America:

Yang says China has always believed that sanctions are not the end goal of the Security Council’s actions or the fundamental way to resolve the issue. Yang was speaking at an annual press conference held on the sidelines of the country’s legislative meetings, or National People’s Congress.

The fresh sanctions include new measures to block bulk transfers of cash that are being used to support alleged illicit activities by the North, and further restricts ties to North Korea’s financial sector. They also call for a crackdown on suspicious cargo from the North, among other measures.

Some analysts believe that Beijing’s support of the new round of sanctions is a sign it is growing increasingly frustrated with the North. Others, however, are skeptical how far Beijing will go to implement them.

Yang’s press conference lasted about an hour and a half, and touched on a wide range of topics from China’s relations with Russia, Africa and Europe.

According to The New York Times, Yang has remarked that China will not forsake North Korea:

 China’s foreign minister said Saturday that Beijing would not abandon North Korea, reiterating China’s longstanding position that dialogue, not sanctions, is the best way to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear weapons.

The clearest sign of China’s exasperation with North Korea came Thursday at a side session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory group to the government that was open to the news media.

Delegates to the conference, according to a senior Communist Party official, Qiu Yuanping, talked about whether to “keep or dump” North Korea and debated whether China, as a major power, should “fight or talk” with the North.

The extent to which China will enforce the new United Nations sanctions remains unclear, an expert on the North Korean economy, Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, wrote in a blog post. There are plenty of loopholes for China to exploit if it wanted to, he noted.

Amid these calls for calm and restraint on North Korea, some analysts say that Beijing’s patience with Pyongyang is wearing thin. The Telegraph reports:

Zhang Liangui, a Korea expert at the Central Party School, which trains Communist cadres, said the protests in Pyongyang showed that North Korea is “mobilising its citizens for war” and that the situation was “hugely tense”.

He added that North Korea was pushing shut the gate to negotiation with any outside party, including China.

Li Kaisheng, a professor of International Relations at Xiangtan university said the UN resolution mainly focused on stopping “the luxurious life” of North Korea’s leaders.

“The mutual interest between China and North Korea has become non-existent, and China will not provide unconditional support to it, so any war will inevitably lead to the collapse of the North Korean regime,” he said.

While CDT previously reported on an increase in trade between China and North Korea in 2011, Reuters reports trade growth between the two countries has slowed sharply in 2012:

Trade between the two countries rose an annual 5.4 percent in 2012 to a total of $5.93 billion, compared with 62.4 percent growth in 2011, according to a report released on Thursday by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

North Korea does not release any economic statistics.

The trade body said the fall was due lower global prices for coal and steel– the of the two main resources China imports from North Korea – and due to weaker demand as China’s economy grew just 7.8 percent in 2012, its weakest level since 1999, the report said.

“North Korea’s economic reliance on China is expected to become heavier in the future, with the gap between bilateral trade with South Korea and China growing wider,” the association said.

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Rather, it’s surprising to see state media even acknowledging the coverage of the rumor, and thus implicitly the rumor itself. Perhaps most significant of all is North Korea’s decision to chastise Chinese media. Beijing isn’t just North Korea’s most important ally, its policies – watering down U.N, sanctions, limiting the flow of North Korean defectors, providing investment and hard currency – are crucial for the regime’s survival. You would think that North Korea’s propagandists would be extremely careful to avoid even the slightest sliver of daylight between the two countries.

Still, even if this incident is over, it might not be the last time that Chinese media and social media, where the rumor circulated long before appearing on Shenzhen TV, upsets North Korea. The recent scandal over censors restricting Southern Weekend, long relatively free for a Chinese paper, exposed the degree to which the Chinese increasingly consume and even expect news media that serves them. Social media’s reach and raucous freedom are expanding as well, all of which threatens to bring Chinese attitudes toward North Korea closer to the surface.

North Korea is still seen as an ally by many people in China, where students learn in school about the “Help Korea, Oppose America” war, Beijing-based journalist Helen Gao wrote in The Atlantic last year. But there is also a growing sense that Pyongyang’s backward policies are an embarrassment to and burden on China, according to Gao. Those sentiments, as well as the usual interest in juicy rumors about plastic surgery and the sort, could drive more Chinese public interest in stories like this one. And that could translate into Chinese media interest, or at least public pressure for it.

This all comes at a time when Beijing had been struggling a bit to keep Pyongyang close. In a post at Johns Hopkins’s Korea-focused blog 38 North, analyst Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt argues that the relationship is souring a bit. “Kim Jong Un is determined to set a course for greater political independence from Beijing,” she writes. “This has left China in a state that one insider has referred to as ‘desperate’ over its rocky relations with the country since Kim Jong Un came to power.” She says she’s found no evidence that Beijing is anything less than fully committed to its policy of maintaining regional stability and a reliably pro-Beijing regime in North Korea.

North Korea has responded by calling the rumors “sordid” and “hackwork” published by “rubbish media.” According to NKNews.Org, the rumor had circulated for months in South Korea, but it was not until the Shenzhen TV report that North Korea responded to the rumors:

What was particularly noteworthy was that the Chinese censors had specifically ordered their media to censor their country’s own state media report from Xinhua in a bid to prevent Chinese citizens from reading their own governments official propaganda, which had in this case been written for consumption by a foreign audience.

Regarding the report on Kim Jong Un’s plastic surgery, apparently Pyongyang communicated their grievances to Beijing and China’s ruling party instructed the official party media organ, Xinhua, to debunk the stories. As such, this Tuesday Xinhua issued a report that cited two of its correspondents in Pyongyang who denied the plastic surgery rumors.

The rumours of Kim Jong Un having a face lift have been fed by Pyongyang’s propaganda apparatus for months who have carefully crafted a meticulous written and pictorial narrative trying to evoke similarities between Kim Jong Un and his grandfather, including through his dress, haircut, gestures and public appearances.

Following the new censorship directive, Xinhua said that “there have been no news reports in North Korea about Kim Jong Un’s plastic surgery” and that there was “nothing suspicious” about Kim resembling his grandfather since they carry the same genes. While Kim tries to dress, walk and smile like his grandfather, together this just aims to give the impression that he “holds the people dear,” Xinhua reported.

This incident comes amid tensions between Beijing and Pyongyang due to North Korea’s satellite launch. China has called on the UN Security Council for prudence on North Korea, but tensions continue to mount as the UNSC, including China, passed a resolution calling for tightened sanctions against North Korea with a unanimous vote. The New York Times reports:

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has ordered his top military and party officials to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures” to retaliate against American-led United Nations sanctions on the country, the North’s official media reported Sunday.

“At the consultative meeting, Kim Jong-un expressed the firm resolution to take substantial and high-profile important state measures in view of the prevailing situation,” said the North’s Korean Central News Agency, or K.C.N.A. “He advanced specific tasks to the officials concerned.”

The K.C.N.A. dispatch, which was distributed on Sunday, was dated Saturday, indicating that the meeting in Pyongyang, the capital, took place then. That was the same day on which the North’s main party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said that the United Nations Security Council’s resolution last Tuesday calling for tightening sanctions against the North left it with “no other option” but a nuclear test.

The resolution was adopted unanimously — with the support of the North’s traditional protector, China — as punishment for its Dec. 12 rocket launching. The Security Council determined that the launching was a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missile technology and a violation of its earlier resolutions banning North Korea from conducting such tests.

Read more about the Directives From the Ministry of Truth, via CDT.

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“China maintains that the Security Council’s reaction should be prudent and moderate, and that it should work for the peace and stability of the (Korean) Peninsula and avoid the progressive escalation of tensions,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily press briefing on Monday.

Hong said China has repeatedly expressed its position on the satellite launches, stressing regret over the issue. “Based on such a stance, China has constructively participated in the recent UNSC negotiations,” Hong said in response to reports that the UNSC is likely to pass a resolution on North Korea’s satellite launch.

“China and the US have many differences in principles over dealing with the satellite launch. That’s why the UN negotiations have lasted for more than a month,” said Shi Yuanhua, a researcher on Korean studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University.

The US wanted to impose new sanctions against North Korea, while China wants to issue a statement to expand the existing UN sanctions, Reuters said.

While Chinese state media is calling for the UNSC to be prudent, diplomats at the UN say China and the US have reach a deal that would tighten sanctions on North Korea. The Voice of America reports:

The diplomats say the U.S. circulated a draft resolution to the 15-member U.N. Security Council. It could vote as early as Tuesday to punish North Korea for the launch.

They say the resolution would condemn the launch and expand existing sanctions. But it is not clear if it would add any new sanctions – a step that China, Pyongyang’s only major ally, has been reluctant to accept.

Washington has been pushing Beijing to accept strong measures following the rocket launch, which was widely condemned as a disguised missile test banned under U.N. Sanctions.

China, which has previously agreed to U.N. sanctions against North Korea, has said it wants the Security Council to take a “cautious” approach that will not further escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Aside from the UNSC resolution, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China does not support North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Yang made these remarks at a meeting with a delegation sent by South Korea’s President-elect, Park Geun-hye, from Yonhap News Agency:

According to Shim Yoon-joe, a member of the delegation, Yang praised Park’s so-called “Korean Peninsula trust process,” which states that if the North accepts denuclearization, large-scale international economic projects will be pursued in the communist country to help restore inter-Korean relations.

During the meeting, the delegation made clear that South Korea will not tolerate the North’s nuclear ambitions, but that they believe it is very important to build trust through dialogue with the communist nation.

Commenting on Beijing’s relations with Seoul, Yang said that China considers its relations with South Korea “very” important and that he expects bilateral ties to further grow under the new leaders in both countries, according to the delegation.

“I believe South Korea under Park’s leadership will achieve its growth targets of the new era,” Yang was quoted as saying during a meeting with the delegation. “South Korea is very important to China, and our strategic relations will develop into a new stage and take a big leap down the road.”

According to The Guardian, China may block Korean unification. The report was released by US senate Republican staff members that claimed Beijing would assert territorial claims over Pyongyang. This comes amid China’s claims over the South China Sea and Diaoyu islands:

The report was released last month with little fanfare, but North Korea watchers say it gives voice to an increasingly popular but still-sensitive sentiment: that China will ultimately try to prevent the South from absorbing the North, the long-assumed post-collapse scenario.

China might act with similar aggression in North Korea, the report argues, to “safeguard its own commercial assets, and to assert its right to preserve the northern part of the peninsula within China’s sphere of influence”.

The report was written primarily by Keith Luse, an east Asia specialist who worked as an aide for the recently defeated Republican senator Dick Lugar, who had been a member of the Senate committee on foreign relations with a long-standing interest in North Korea. The minority staff report, Luse said in an email, was written to inform committee members – including John Kerry, nominated by Barack Obama as the next secretary of state – “to not expect an East-West Germany repeat situation” regarding unification between the Koreas.

“Anybody who is a serious analyst can’t discount this as a plausible scenario,” said Victor Cha, the Korea chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, referring to the general argument of the report.

From a US perspective, Cha said, the greatest concern is how poorly prepared other countries are to deal with – and co-operate during – a crisis in North Korea. Beijing has no interest in planning with Washington and Seoul, thinking such talks too sensitive. And Seoul worries that such talks would cause tensions with Beijing to spike.

Read more about China’s relations with North Korea, via CDT.

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The launching, which North Korea said would take place between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22, is likely to prompt international condemnations and heighten tensions with Washington and its allies. Critics consider North Korea’s launching of a Unha-3 rocket a cover for testing technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles that could eventually be used to carry nuclear weapons.

Saturday’s announcement came at a delicate time in the region. South Korea is gearing up for a presidential election on Dec. 19, and Japan plans parliamentary elections on Dec. 16. In Washington, President Obama will begin his second term in January.

The North’s announcement also came a day after Mr. Kim met a delegation sent by China’s new leader, Xi Jinping. South Korean news media had speculated that one of the missions of the Chinese delegation might be to try to persuade Pyongyang to refrain from launching a rocket again, with satellite photos appearing to indicate launching preparations.

If so, North Korea’s apparent rejection would be particularly brazen, given that Mr. Xi has just been elevated. China is North Korea’s only real ally, and a source of much-needed aid and trade, but Pyongyang has ignored some of China’s requests in the past.

Pyongyang’s plans come amid recent tensions between North Korea and China due to failed business ventures and the detention of Chinese fisherman. China has expressed ‘concern’ over Pyongyang’s satellite, from AFP:

“China … expressed its concern about the satellite launch plan of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, saying it hopes relevant parties can act in a way that is more conducive to the stability of the Korean peninsula,” Xinhua news agency said.

“North Korea has the right to the peaceful use of outer space, but this right is limited by the relevant Security Council resolutions,” the agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying.

As in April, North Korea said the launch would be a purely “peaceful, scientific” mission aimed at placing a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite into orbit.

The launch, and in particular a successful launch, would likely draw sanctions, either from individual countries or concerned nations acting as a bloc, a move analysts say could trigger Pyongyang to step-up its nuclear programme.

According to Yonhap News, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, called for the maintaining of peace on the Korean peninsula:

“Peace and security must be maintained on the Korean Peninsula,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a group of South Korean reporters early last week when they called on him. “We are pleased to support anything leading to improvement in inter-Korean relations. In this context, we are concerned about any provocations hurting peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.”

Hong’s remarks were made just days before North Korea announced Saturday it would launch a rocket in mid-December to put a satellite into orbit.

Another senior Chinese official, asking anonymity, told South Korean reporters recently that North Korea has the right to develop technology for the peaceful use of space, but added that right should be used in accordance with international regulations.

Hong, however, fell short of categorizing the possibility of a North Korean rocket launch as a breach of U.N. resolutions, saying, “I do not want to respond to hypothetical questions.”

It has been a year since the death of Kim Jong-il and China’s swift backing of Kim Jong-Un. Reuters reports that the launch is to be an assertion of power by the young North Korean leader:

North Korea said it would carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father’s death, in a move that South Korea and the United States swiftly condemned as a provocation.

China, under new leadership, is North Korea’s only major political backer and has continually urged peace on the Korean peninsula, where the North and South remain technically at war after an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, ended the 1950-53 conflict.

“North Korea wants to tell China that it is an independent state by staging the rocket launch and it wants to see if the United States will drop its hostile policies,” said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Affairs at Seoul National University.

The failed April rocket launch took place to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung and the latest test will take place close to the December 17 date of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il.

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The Syrian government and rebel fighters should make every effort to maintain a ceasefire and work with Brahimi’s mediation efforts;
Both sides should appoint interlocutors who can negotiate a political transition and maintain governmental stability;
The international community should increase support for Brahimi’s efforts and other mediation initiatives, such as “relevant Security Council resolutions”;
The international community should increase humanitarian assistance to conflict regions in Syria.

The Washington Post reports on the international response to the proposal:

The U.N. has welcomed the effort, but there hasn’t been much international discussion of it. Observers have found it vague, and likely aimed at bolstering China’s reputation following criticism of its moves to join Russia in blocking U.N. resolutions aimed at ending Syria’s bloodshed, including calls for Syrian leader Bashar Assad to step down.

China’s proposal leaves open the possibility of Assad staying on in a power-sharing agreement, and does not significantly add to past peace plans that have failed.

“But then this statement isn’t so much about setting forward a concrete proposal for action as about the messaging that underpins it,” said Sarah Raine, a consulting fellow for Chinese foreign and security policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “It has become increasingly clear that Beijing is worried about the reputational damage its relative intransigence on Syria has been doing to other important relationships, in particular in the Middle East.”

The Council on Foreign Relations blog explains further why the impact of the proposal is likely to be limited:

The new plan seems to reflect China’s acceptance of the deteriorating situation in Syria and of the possibility of Assad’s downfall. By calling for a political transition, the new plan jettisons the traditional Chinese foreign policy terminology in favor of language more in line with current international opinion. It is a noticeable departure from China’s six-point peace plan released in March, which demanded the international community “respect the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria” and expressed its disapproval of Western attempts at regime change.

Despite these apparent changes in strategy, however, the plan simply reiterates old points and fails to provide a comprehensive path to peace. China continues to leave off the table the possibility of sanctions or other punitive measures as a way to convince the regime to stop the violence. Without them, the Syrian government has no reason to end the bloodshed: it has the upper hand both militarily and politically, and it has more sophisticated equipment and control of government institutions.

While the proposal is unlikely to change the global dynamics surrounding the situation in Syria, Ian Bremmer argues that the existence of the proposal itself is significant because it signifies a new attitude from China toward its role in conflicts outside its borders. From Reuters:

This is what happens in a G-Zero world — a world without any specific country or bloc of countries in charge. China has long been content to watch world events play out and then react, trusting that another country would step in to put volatile situations to rest. But that’s not happening with the Syrian conflict and its spillover into the broader Middle East. Americans feel that the issue doesn’t affect them enough to intervene. Europeans, as a Union, don’t seem to be particularly interested, even if some smaller countries are. And with those powers on the sidelines, suddenly the Chinese have a much bigger problem — a civil war that could metastasize into regional instability. The Chinese have far too much at stake in Iraq and Iran for that to happen: 11 percent of China’s oil imports come from Iran, and it is on track to be the chief importer of Iraqi oil by 2030.

And so China stepped in, offering a peace plan. The details — cease-fire, a committee that negotiates a political solution to the war, etc. — are not as important as the plan’s mere existence. It’s symptomatic of China’s new approach, one that Hu Jintao hinted at in one of his final addresses as Chinese president. He said China would “get more actively involved in international affairs, (and) play its due role of a major responsible country.” In the wake of downturns in the West, there is a new diplomatic structure emerging. China is determined to be one of its architects.

This doesn’t mean China necessarily knows what it’s doing. Diplomacy is new for the Chinese, who have really only interjected themselves in regional politics and through economic investment abroad. Intervening in other countries’ affairs is a tricky thing for a Chinese government that so resolutely believes sovereignty is supreme, even if human rights are being trampled. Beijing tries not to infringe on other countries’ sovereignty because it would not allow others to infringe on its own.

Read more about China and Syria via CDT. For another perspective on China’s relationship to the al-Assad regime, see Hexie Farm’s latest contribution to his CDT series.

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Weapons from China have surfaced in a string of U.N. investigations in war zones stretching from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Ivory Coast, Somalia and Sudan. China is by no means alone in supplying the arms that help fuel African conflicts, and there is no proof that China or its arms exporters have intentionally violated U.N. embargoes in any of those countries.

But China has stood apart from other major arms exporters, including Russia, for its assertive challenge to U.N. authority, routinely refusing to cooperate with U.N. arms experts and flexing its diplomatic muscle to protect its allies and curtail investigations that may shed light on its own secretive arms industry.

The stance highlights the tensions between China’s responsibilities as a global power and its interests in exploiting new markets. It has also raised questions about whether Chinese diplomats have a grip on the reach of the country’s influence in the arms industry beyond its borders.

Beijing has responded to the disclosures not by enforcing regulations at home but by using its clout within the Security Council to claw back the powers of independent U.N. arms investigators. Those efforts have helped undercut the independence of U.N. panels that track arms trading with Iran and North Korea.

In addition to fueling regional conflicts, Chinese weapons have also been recovered from elephant and rhinoceros poaching operations in southern Africa, according to a report by Saving Rhinos in 2010 (PDF).

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A senior aide to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has flown to China for talks on the crisis, officials say.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Bouthaina Shaaban would meet Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi later.

The ministry said it was part of its effort to implement the UN’s six-point peace plan. China has twice vetoed UN resolutions against the Assad regime.

She is expected to ask for more visas for foreign aid workers as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent struggles to distribute food.

While China is holding talks with Assad’s aide, they are also considering inviting opposition party leaders to visit. From AFP:

China was also considering inviting members of the Syrian opposition to visit soon, it said, but gave no details.

The statement repeated China’s calls for an immediate ceasefire and political dialogue to resolve the Syria crisis.

Beijing earlier this month expressed regret over former UN chief Kofi Annan’s resignation as international envoy for Syria and said it would continue to “work for a political resolution” to the conflict.

China’s foreign ministry commented on the visit and claimed China is taking an ‘actively balanced’ stance on the crisis, Reuters adds:

China has said it is simply trying to prevent more violence. Opposition sources say at least 18,000 people have been killed since rebels began fighting to oust Assad in March last year.

“To promote the political solution to the Syria problem, China has always actively balanced its work between the Syrian government and the opposition,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a brief statement on the ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

Qin reiterated China’s call for the “practical implementation” of Kofi Annan’s peace plan, which is now essentially dead, and for “an immediate ceasefire and for the violence to stop; for the effective protection of civilians and to defuse the crisis through political dialogue.”

“Receiving Shaaban in China is part of the above-mentioned work by the Chinese side,” Qin said. “Meanwhile, China is also considering inviting Syrian opposition groups in the near term to China.”

According to the Washington Post, China is stepping up the dialogue on Syria to deflect criticism:

China sought to defuse criticism of its policy on Syria’s violence, saying while hosting a government envoy Tuesday that opposition figures may also visit Beijing soon.

China and Russia have been sharply criticized by the United States and other Western countries for vetoing Security Council resolutions that might have opened the door to sanctions on Syria and ultimately force Assad from power.

China has strongly rejected criticism that it was hampering efforts to end the Syrian conflict.

Annan and U.S. officials have come to Beijing recently to seek China’s backing on the U.N.’s resolutions, or to at least abstain as it did in the Libyan case, but there have been no signs that China will change its stance.

Although China and Russia have both vetoed the UN’s resolution and cooperation continues between the two countries, analysts claim China is taking a more active role in resolving the Syrian conflict. From China Daily:

“Russia has never publicly invited the opposition in Syria. But China has invited both sides. This is the difference between China and Russia,” Shi Yinhong, also a professor at Renmin University of China told Reuters.

“Syria government is more vulnerable than before. The opposition has gained new-found support from the West, but they’re also fragile. China has a pressing need to talk to the two sides. The situation is nearing an end,” he added.

China’s mediation will yield positive influence over the situation, and push it to ease the tension, Zhang said, but it needs more time and efforts from all related parties to solve the issue.

Read more about China’s role in the Syrian Crisis, via CDT.

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The 11-2 vote, with two abstentions from South Africa and Pakistan, was the third double veto of a resolution addressing the Syria crisis, now in its 17th month, by Damascus’ most important allies.

The key stumbling block was the West’s insistence that a new resolution be drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict, and threaten non-military sanctions against the Syrian regime if it didn’t withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas within 10 days.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the resolution should never have been put to a vote because the sponsors knew it had no chance of adoption.

“We simply cannot accept a document under Chapter 7, one which would open the path for the pressure of sanctions and further to external military involvement in Syrian domestic affairs,” he said.

The official Xinhua News Agency defended the Chinese government's position in an editorial on Friday:

The draft resolution proposed by Western countries is “seriously problematic”, with uneven content that is intended to put pressure on only one party in Syria, China's permanent representative to the UN Li Baodong said here Thursday after exercising veto over the draft resolution.

“Experience has proven that such practice would not help resolve the Syrian issue, but instead would only derail the issue from the track of political settlement,” Li said, adding “It will not only further aggravate the turmoil, but also result in spillover of the problem to other countries in the region, undermine regional peace and stability, and ultimately impair the interests of the people in Syria and the region at large.”

But China's decision – the third such veto on Syria – was strongly criticized by other Security Council members. From Bloomberg:

Western diplomats today attacked Russia for putting first its historic links and economic interests with Assad. Syria is an arms customer and hosts Russia’s only military base outside the former Soviet Union in the port of Tartus.

“The effect of their actions is to protect a brutal regime,” U.K. Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant told the council after the vote. “They have chosen to put their national interests ahead of the lives of millions of Syrians.”

Read more about China's role in the Syria crisis and in the United Nations Security Council via CDT. See live updates on the situation from The Guardian.

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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is heading to China amid a looming showdown at the U.N. Security Council over two competing resolutions on Syria.

Ban's trip will include talks with President Hu Jintao, and his arrival comes as the official People's Daily newspaper ran a commentary rejecting foreign intervention in the Syrian crisis.

Monday, Syria moved armored vehicles into the capital, Damascus, as opposition fighters battled Syrian government forces in what residents described as the fiercest fighting yet inside the capital. Activists said fighting had spread to several neighborhoods and in the center of the city.

According to the Associated Press, Ban's trip comes ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote to authorize actions or sanctions against Syria:

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon called for rapid, unified action by the Security Council on Syria as he arrived in Beijing on Tuesday as part of a diplomatic push to get Russia and China to back a tougher response to attacks by President Bashar Assad's regime.

Ban is to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday. There has been heightened urgency to global diplomatic efforts on Syria since it was reported last week that dozens were killed in a regime assault on the Syrian village of Tremseh. U.N. observers said the attack appeared to target army defectors and activists.

China has maintained that a diplomatic solution is the only way to end the crisis and resisted calls to pressure Assad to step down. The official People's Daily newspaper ran a commentary Tuesday strongly opposing force against Syria and calling for a political solution, a sign that China may again block the Western-backed resolution in the Security Council, where it is a veto-wielding member.

“I think Ban's message on the Syria problem will be very clear and quite urgent,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at People's University in Beijing. “He hopes this time that China will give support to calls for Assad to step down. Or at least not to oppose them.”

Aside from a meeting with Hu Jintao, Ban also chatted with microbloggers that follow the United Nations Sina Weibo account, China Daily USA adds:

Upon arriving at the hotel from the airport, the Secretary-General will start to interact with the followers of UN Weibo at 7:30 pm, 17 July local time. Mr. Ban will listen to the comments, suggestions and expectations of the followers on the work of the United Nations, and will answer relevant questions.

Started yesterday, Weibo users have submitted more than 2000 questions about the United Nations, the role of the Secretary-General or various global issues on the UN agenda such asSyria crisis, youth unemployment and human rights. People are encouraged to keep sending questions at the Weibo platform until the end of the conversation.

The 45-minute conversation will be conducted in English and simultaneously interpreted into Chinese. It will be hosted by Ms Yang Lan, one of China's most famous talk show hosts and is going to webcast live on Weibo which has over 350 million registered users. The event will be also recorded as one episode of Yang's signature show “Yang Lan One On One” and broadcasted across satellite and terrestrial television networks, covering over 879 million viewers throughout the greater China region.

As China hardened its position on the UN's resolutions for the conflict, Chinese state media has decried any intervention in Syria, from Reuters:

While China has yet to explicitly say how it will vote on Wednesday on the new resolution, comments in the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily suggest it will not be won over, with Beijing nervous about any suggestions of intervention.

“Foreign interference to bring about regime change to forcefully prevent a humanitarian disaster sounds like a fully just and responsible thing to do,” the newspaper said in a commentary.

“But is it not a humanitarian disaster that more than a decade after regime change that there are attacks and bombings which there are no way to stop?” it added, in an apparent allusion to Iraq.

“Several wars that have happened in this new century prove again and again that 'promoting democracy' and 'humanitarianism' are just a pretext for large foreign powers to seek private gain,” the People's Daily commentary said.

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Post tags: Ban Ki-Moon, diplomacy, Syria, UN, United Nations, UNSC
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The UN leader “called on China to use its influence to ensure the full and immediate implementation” of the peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and an international communique which China agreed on June 30 calling for a political transition in Syria, said the spokesman.

They discussed “the imperative need for the violence to stop at once” and the massacre in the village of Triemsa on Thursday in which at least 150 people died.

The Security Council has to pass a resolution by July 20 to renew the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS). Britain, the United States, France, Germany and Portugal want sanctions added to the resolution if Assad does not pull back his heavy weapons in line with Annan’s peace plan.

Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions which just hinted at sanctions.

Aside from Ban’s call on China to stop the violence in Syria, the UN Secretary General plans to stop in China to discuss China-Africa cooperation, the Voice of America adds:

On Friday, U.N. envoy Kofi Annan blamed government forces and armed militiamen for what he called “atrocities” in Tremseh. Syrian state media blamed terrorists for the massacres.

Meanwhile, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights tells VOA at least 31 people were killed in anti-government-related violence across Syria on Saturday. Activists also say Syrian forces pounded the southern town of Khirbet Ghazaleh.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon departs Monday for China where he will meet with the country’s leaders and participate in a forum on China-Africa cooperation.

China and Russia’s veto of the UN Security Council resolution on the dispute has garnered criticism from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Despite China’s veto, Xinhua has reported that China condemns the recent violence in Syria:

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Saturday strongly condemned the recent attacks in the Syrian village of Tremseh in the province of Hama, which reportedly resulted in over 200 deaths.

Spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement that China strongly condemns the killing of innocent civilians. China hopes that a thorough investigation into the killings will be launched and those responsible for the abuses will be duly punished, he said.

“We once again urge Syrian parties concerned to take substantial measures to cease all acts of violence, protect civilians and fully implement Annan’s six-point proposal, the communique of the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Action Group on the Syrian issue and relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” he said in the statement.

According to CNN, Iran has offered to host the Syria talks:

Iran has offered to host talks between Syria’s government and opposition in Tehran, its foreign minister said Sunday.

“Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the Islamic Republic is prepared to facilitate talks between the Syrian government and opposition by hosting a meeting between the two sides in Tehran,” state-run Press TV reported.

Salehi told reporters Iran will invite dissidents “in a bid to prepare and facilitate the ground for talks between the Syrian dissidents and government,” according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Salehi emphasized that Iran supports the six-point plan proposed by Kofi Annan, the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria.

China’s need for Iranian oil seems to be fueling Iran’s offer to host the Syrian talks, from The New York Review of Books:

So the Great Powers are facing off in the most volatile region on earth, in a contest that is already destabilizing the domestic politics of Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. It will go on like this for some time. Neither Russia nor the US wants to fuel the escalation that would bring the Syrian civil war to an end, lest this risk a direct confrontation between the two of them. The Russians and Americans are also restrained by their second and equally dangerous standoff over neighboring Iran. Russia helped build Iran’s nuclear program, China needs Iranian oil and both are willing to support Iran’s defense of the region’s Shias, including Syria’s Alawites, especially when the US and the Saudis are lined up behind the Sunnis.

But while Russia and the US want to keep the confrontation below boiling point, their proxies—Iran and Syria on one side, and Israel, Saudi Arabia on the other—will seek to drag them in deeper. And it’s not clear that either Washington or Moscow will be able to contain that pressure.

The Syrian conflict has laid bare how little the West understands Russia and China’s new approach to the world. Kofi Annan’s plan for Syria was based on the assumption that Russia’s real interest was in demonstrating to the US that it was the indispensable ally in the creation of a post-Assad transition. Annan’s attempt to secure Chinese support for his plan made a similar assumption.

What makes Syria a hinge-moment is that Russia and China are proving that they have no strategic interest in transitions beyond dictatorship, not just in Syria but anywhere else. Both Russia and China see Syria not through the prism of international peace and security or human rights, but through the logic of their own despotism. For Putin, Syria is Chechnya; for China it is Tibet. They understand Assad perfectly. He is doing what they have done many times and they want the world to understand that they will support any dictator facing similar challenges.

Read more about China and Syria relations, via CDT.

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Post tags: Ban Ki-Moon, Iran, Iran relations, oil, Syria, UNSC
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Reports are unclear as to whether the culprits were Syrian military units or pro-government militias, the Shabeeha, as they are called in Syria. The United Nations has also been careful not to point a finger at any side. But the U.N. stand is a result of Russian and Chinese support for the Syrian government, which compelled the Security Council to draft a diluted statement acceptable for all members of the council. But the kind of weapons, the systematic mode of operation and countless testimonies all point to Bashar al- Assad’s regime, which is upping the ante in its war against the opposition forces and civilians suspected of being their supporters.

The civil war is asymmetric for another reason. First, although the Syrian government has been put under extreme international pressure, it still receives unconditional logistical support from Iran and Hezbollah. Its diplomatic support from Russia and China — some reports also indicate that Russia sends arm shipments to the Syrian army — provides assistance for al-Assad’s regime to carry on with its onslaught.

The opposition, on the other hand, does not have the same unconditional international backing. Although Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have committed to support the opposition by arming its forces, their support is not yet a match to the kind of assistance provided by al-Assad’s allies.

The U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, who is in Damascus, was also careful not to put the blame on any side, again reflecting the political dynamics in the United Nations between supporters and opponents of al-Assad. Annan believes that his six-point plan is still the only workable road map to stop the violence.

Although numerous western nations, such as US, France, and Britain, have expelled Syrian diplomats to put pressure on Syria, China has restated it’s opposition to military intervention in the region. AFP reports:

“China opposes military intervention in Syria and opposes regime change by force,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters in Beijing.

Liu added that China urged all parties to implement UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s ceasefire proposal in Syria and to seek to end the bloody crisis through negotiations.

With Russian and Chinese support, the UN Security Council on Sunday strongly condemned the Syrian government for using artillery in a massacre in the central town of Houla in which at least 108 people were killed.

But Russia, which along with China has vetoed two UN Security Council resolutions highly critical of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, on Wednesday said it was “premature” for the council to consider new action.

Aside from their joint position on Syria, Chinese ambassador to Russia, Li Hui, has claimed that the two countries would enjoy ‘broader prospects.’ From Xinhua:

Further development of China-Russia relations is in the interests of the two peoples and of the times, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui said in two articles published ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to China.

The two giant neighbors would enjoy broader prospects in their relations, the ambassador said.

According to Li, Putin’s state visit to China on June 5-7 is of great significance to the development of China-Russia relations and of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the next decade.

During the visit, Chinese and Russian leaders will exchange views on bilateral ties as well as global and regional issues of common concerns, Li said, adding the two sides are also expected to sign a joint communique and a number of agreements on cooperation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed similar sentiments by saying the two neighboring countries’ cooperation has reached an ‘unprecedented high’. China Daily Adds:

 Relations between Russia and China have reached unprecedented high levels,Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says in an interview ahead of President Vladimir Putin’supcoming visit to China.

“Russia and China have common core interests. They hold similar stances on the ongoingprofound changes in the world and similar approaches to new challenges,” Lavrov said.

“Russia and China support building a multi-polar world, establishing a more just and democraticglobal political and economic system, and enhancing the UN’s central role in coordinating andresolving hot international issues,” he said.

Russia-China cooperation on the international arena has ”facilitated global peace and stability,”he said.

Read more on China’s relations with Russia, via CDT.

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China, a permanent veto-wielding council member and North Korea’s protector on the 15-nation panel, backed the council’s “presidential statement,” which was adopted unanimously ….

The statement does not result in an immediate expansion of the North Korea sanctions regime. Rather it instructs the U.N. sanctions committee to expand its existing sanctions blacklist within 15 days and to review that list annually.

The committee, which includes all 15 council members and works on the basis of consensus, will have to take a separate decision on expanding the U.N. blacklist. China will therefore have an opportunity to thwart any push for adding new names to the North Korea sanctions list if it chooses to do so.

China’s support for the statement contrasts with earlier warnings appearing in the Global Times, that a confrontational approach could easily inflame an already volatile situation.

Following the satellite launch, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China hopes that all relevant parties can remain calm and demonstrate restraint, maintain contact over the situation on the Korean Peninsula and make efforts to maintain stability and peace in the region ….

Yang also called on the parties to restore dialogues, promote mutual understanding and facilitate the resumption of the Six-Party Talks ….

“The Cold War mentality will inevitably lead to an arms race on the Peninsula and prompt Pyongyang to resort to counter-deterrence measures against Washington and Seoul,” Qu [Xing, director of the China Institute of International Studies] said, adding that sanctions would not help change the North but instead push the tense situation into a vicious circle ….

Liu Ming, director of the Center for Korea Studies under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that whether the North would carry out a third nuclear test would be decided by the next steps taken by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

“If the three parties hold a tough position at the UN Security Council, it would only push Pyongyang into a corner,” Liu said.

Such caution reflects China’s deep interest in keeping North Korea from boiling over, bringing a flood of refugees across the border and American troops right up to it. The equation was unsettled by Friday’s unsuccessful launch, however. Pyongyang has tried to compensate for past failures with alternative demonstrations of power, the prospect of which on this occasion was enough to push China into line with the rest of the UNSC.

A pair of Global Times op-eds published in the wake of the UN statement illustrates the new balance: “Strong words don’t mean a break with North Korea“, but ”Pyongyang must remember to heed China’s advice“:

… China’s support of the UN presidential statement will neither irritate North Korea, nor come as a surprise due to the existence of a bilateral communication channel between the two countries. I believe China has given notice to North Korea about the condemnation before its release. It also allows North Korea more time to respond and rethink its plan for the new nuclear test, if there is one.

And North Korea must have a clear observation and understanding of the different standpoints of China and other countries, although this statement was unanimously accepted. In the three-day debate in the UN, China and Russia have both had lengthy negotiations with the US and its allies.

It isn’t hard to see that the UN has not added any new names of individuals and firms to the sanction list. And the Security Council has chosen to release a presidential statement instead of a resolution ….

China has taken a clear attitude in condemning Pyongyang. Some analysts take it as a result of North Korea neglecting China’s discouragement on its satellite launch. This is also the first time that China has openly taken a tough attitude toward Pyongyang since the new leadership came into power.

It is necessary for China to take this stance. As a young leader, Jim Jong-un is still developing his knowledge about China. China’s role in ensuring Pyongyang’s stable power transition is positive. But China does not need to pacify the junior Kim. China supports the stability on the Korean Peninsula and the stability of the North. But Pyongyang is not the only thing on China’s diplomatic agenda. It has widespread stakes to consider. If Pyongyang also cherishes the bilateral relationship, it should commit itself to expanding shared interests, not expanding conflicts.

In addition to backing the statement, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reports that China has also stopped its longstanding policy of deporting refugees back to North Korea. From AFP:

The Yomiuri Shimbun quoted two Chinese officials as saying the long-standing policy of swiftly returning any North Korean who made it across the border and into China — despite the punishment they face — had been put on hold.

“If refugees are sent back, that’s the end of their lives. We can’t ignore it,” one official in Liaoning province, which borders North Korea, told the paper, adding that deportations had been halted.

Another official said the move was because Pyongyang had not consulted its patron about the botched launch of a rocket which the hermit state said was carrying a satellite, but which the West condemned as a banned missile test.

See also netizen reactions to the launch at chinaSMACK and Tea Leaf Nation, and Evan Osnos’ Letter from China on North Korea’s “Wrong Stuff”.

Melissa M. Chan contributed to this post.

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In a sign of how important China sees the ongoing crisis in Syria, one of the country’s top leaders, Premier Wen Jiabao, met with Kofi Annan Tuesday in Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters his government welcomes international efforts to resolve the Syria issue peacefully.

He says China wants to work with the international community to play a constructive and active role for what he called the proper peaceful resolution of the Syria situation. He adds that China supports special envoy Annan’s “good offices” to resolve the situation, but he stopped short of saying whether Beijing fully supports his Syrian peace plan.

Annan came to Beijing from Moscow, where he received the Russian government’s full support for his latest plan, which calls for an immediate U.N.-supervised cease-fire and dialogue between Assad and his critics aimed at political reform.

China has vetoed the UNSC resolution twice because they believe that the violence needs to be resolved through talks. China would not be attending the “Friends of the Syrian People” conference. The Washington Post adds:

The conference in Istanbul comes as Turkey edges closer to setting up a buffer zone in Syria to protect civilians. Turkish officials have long been hesitant about the idea, but now say a surge of refugees from Syria might compel Turkey, preferably with international backing, to establish a buffer zone on Syrian soil to guarantee the security of its own southern border as well as the welfare of civilians fleeing violence.

Chinese analysts said Beijing was unlikely to support the buffer zone proposal, especially if the possibility of Western military action against Syria is not ruled out.

“China will not accept that proposal. But it will not openly oppose it either,” said Wang Lian, a Middle East expert at the School of International Studies at Peking University,

Wu Bingbing, an expert on Arabian issues at Peking University, agreed China would not back a buffer zone, saying it infringed on Syria’s sovereignty.

See also China defends Syria veto via CDT.

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The rift with China over Syria was thrown into sharp relief Saturday as Beijing mocked an international conference aimed at protecting the Syrian people against a brutal crackdown and accused the United States and Europe of “hiding a dagger behind a smile.”

“In other words, while they appear to be acting out of humanitarian concern, they are actually harboring hegemonistic ambitions,” said the editorial carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

The surprisingly harsh rhetoric dashed hopes that Beijing might be softening in its opposition to international action against the Syrian regime. China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown.

China and Russia were also conspicuously absent at an international conference called Friends of Syria, which is aiming to end the increasingly lethal crackdown by the Bashar Assad regime. On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lashed out at China and Russia, calling their vetoes “despicable.”

Beijing responded quickly to Clinton’s condemnation of the vetoes in the form of a People’s Daily editorial. Reuters reports:

“The United States’ motive in parading as a ‘protector’ of the Arab peoples is not difficult to imagine. The problem is, what moral basis does it have for this patronizing and egotistical super-arrogance and self-confidence?,” said a commentary in the paper that cited the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

“Even now, violence continues unabated in Iraq, and ordinary people enjoy no security. This alone is enough for us to draw a huge question mark over the sincerity and efficacy of U.S. policy,” it said.

The Chinese and Western governments were also at odds over Sunday’s referendum in Syria on a new draft constitution, which Clinton called a “cynical ploy.” In response, the official Global Times also jumped into the fray with an editorial criticizing Western countries’ actions on Syria:

The West is wrong to reject any reform undertaken by Syria and demand President Bashar al-Assad step down in order to end the crisis. This will bring about a civil war and lead to more deaths. What the West wants from Syria is not democracy but the overthrow of the regime so as to eliminate Iran’s influence over Syria.

China should stand by Russia and support the vote.

In a globalized world, it’s difficult for a regime to be unaffected by outside influences.

[...] China’s veto this time is just like water that has been poured. Many of the world’s strategic changes originate with China. Now it’s time for China to face them seriously.

Read more about China and Syria via CDT.

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The Arab League chief said on Monday that Russia and China had lost diplomatic credit in the Arab world by vetoing a U.N. resolution on Syria and may have sent a message to Damascus that it had a free hand to crack down on protests.

But Nabil Elaraby said he would continue working with Moscow and Beijing and other U.N. Security Council members to end the violence that spiked on Monday with the bombardment of the Syrian city of Homs, which activists said killed 50 people.

Elaraby told Reuters the veto had been a “reality check” for Syria’s opposition groups, who have so far refused the League’s call to engage with President Bashar al-Assad’s government, showing them that it was not Arabs blocking tougher action on Damascus but rather world powers who were not united.

And from BBC:

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said China and Russia will be “held responsible” for violence in Syria after vetoing a UN resolution condemning government repression.

He said the countries were making a “great mistake” which would damage their standing in the Middle East.

The document was rejected hours after activists accused troops of killing at least 55 people in the city of Homs.

Human Rights Watch also issued a statement against the veto:

“After weeks of Russian diplomatic games-playing and in the middle of a bloodbath in Homs, vetoes by Moscow and Beijing are simply incendiary,” said Philippe Bolopion, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “Vetoes by Russia and China are not only a slap in the face of the Arab League, they are also a betrayal of the Syrian people.”

The death toll had more than doubled since Russia and China vetoed a previous Syria resolution on October 4, according to United Nations figures.

Chinese bloggers are also speaking out according to MSNBC:

“The Syrian people are being slaughtered. But China cast an opposing vote in the Security Council,” said ArshavinThe23, who is based in the central Chinese province of Hunan, on his weibo — Chinese microblogs similar to Twitter.

“I just want to say, dictator supported dictator,” added Qiao Baibai on the popular Sina microblog service.

The U.S. has pulled their ambassador out of Syria since the U.N. vote. And Al Jazeera asks, “Has Syria been given a licence to kill?”:

Amid this widespread criticism and condemnation, China has defended their decision to veto. From Reuters:

China said its blocking, along with Russia, of the U.N. resolution which would have backed an Arab plan urging Assad to quit, did not amount to supporting the Syrian leader. Activists accused his forces of bombarding part of the city of Homs before the U.N. vote in the worst bloodshed of the 11-month uprising.

“On the issue of Syria, China is not playing favourites and nor is it deliberately opposing anyone, but rather is upholding an objective and fair stance and a responsible position,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters in Beijing.

Western powers that initiated the U.N. Security Council vote on their draft resolution were culpable for not going far enough in seeking compromise, said Liu.

Read more about China’s role in the U.N. Security Council via CDT.

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