China's favorite distraction/evil doer was it again yesterday... seems sinking a ship was not enough to get the U.S. administration knocking on China's door for help... me thinks yesterday's activities might do it.
Anybody who thinks that North Korea woke up one morning and decided to shell the South's territory or sink its naval ships just for the heck of it just ain't applying themselves... here's the deal... China wants something from the U.S. or wants to influence the U.S... China gets N.K. to agitate... S.K.'s goes to its protector... protector goes to China... China has a much better shot of altering whatever American policy they find offensive with the U.S. knocking on its door asking for help.
As I have said before... a nuclear event ANYWHERE in the world would sterilize the industrialized nation's financial system overnight. China's government has a far better shot of surviving that then any of the West's governments....
So what does China want?
It would seem to me that they do NOT want the U.S. unilaterally devaluing the US$... and, irrespective of their own monetary moves of late, they CERTAINLY do not want to tip their own economy over into a recession... China has the perfect vehicle in N.K. to continue to tweak policy in D.C... provided that they do not overplay their hand.