The Chinese Government is seeking to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil, focusing on natural gas, nuclear, and clean energy development. In , China ratified the Paris Agreement, a multilateral agreement to combat climate change, and committed to peak its carbon dioxide emissions between and The government's 13th Five-Year Plan, unveiled in March , emphasizes the need to increase innovation and boost domestic consumption to make the economy less dependent on government investment, exports, and heavy industry.
However, China has made more progress on subsidizing innovation than rebalancing the economy. In recent years, China has renewed its support for state-owned enterprises in sectors considered important to "economic security," explicitly looking to foster globally competitive industries. Chinese leaders also have undermined some market-oriented reforms by reaffirming the "dominant" role of the state in the economy, a stance that threatens to discourage private initiative and make the economy less efficient over time.
The slight acceleration in economic growth in —the first such uptick since —gives Beijing more latitude to pursue its economic reforms, focusing on financial sector deleveraging and its Supply-Side Structural Reform agenda, first announced in late North Korea, one of the world's most centrally directed and least open economies, faces chronic economic problems.
Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of decades of mismanagement, underinvestment, shortages of spare parts, and poor maintenance. Corruption and resource misallocation, including show projects, large-scale military spending, and development of its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, severely draws off resources needed for investment and civilian consumption.
Industrial and power outputs have stagnated for years at a fraction of pre levels. Frequent weather-related crop failures aggravated chronic food shortages caused by on-going systemic problems, including a lack of arable land, collective farming practices, poor soil quality, insufficient fertilization, and persistent shortages of tractors and fuel.
The mid s through mids were marked by severe famine and widespread starvation. Significant food aid was provided by the international community through Since that time, food assistance has declined significantly. In the last few years, domestic corn and rice production has improved, although domestic production does not fully satisfy demand. A large portion of the population continues to suffer from prolonged malnutrition and poor living conditions.
Since , the government has allowed semi-private markets to begin selling a wider range of goods, allowing North Koreans to partially make up for diminished public distribution system rations. It also implemented changes in the management process of communal farms in an effort to boost agricultural output.
In December , North Korea carried out a redenomination of its currency, capping the amount of North Korean won that could be exchanged for the new notes, and limiting the exchange to a one-week window.
A concurrent crackdown on markets and foreign currency use yielded severe shortages and inflation, forcing Pyongyang to ease the restrictions by February The North Korean Government continues to stress its goal of improving the overall standard of living, but has taken few steps to make that goal a reality for its populace.
In , the regime used two mass mobilizations — one totaling 70 days and another days — to spur the population to increase production and complete construction projects quickly. The regime released a five-year economic development strategy in May that outlined plans for promoting growth across sectors. GDP - real growth rate 6. The Korean War, the event that most consider the quintessence of Sino-North Korean solidarity, was the first major source of tension between North Korea and China.
Although the Chinese Peoples' Volunteers saved North Korea from certain defeat, the North Korean leadership balked at having in its midst a foreign military apparatus with control over field operations. In , however, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai traveled to Pyongyang to apologize for China's misdeeds. As Kim Il Sung's conversations with communist leaders decades later attest, propaganda aside, the alliance never fully recovered. During the s, the alliance moved from one of "subservience" to "defiance" as Chinese leaders grew frustrated with the North Koreans for never giving them the gratitude Mao had expected.
One primary example of this, despite Chinese efforts to create a "spill over effect," was the failure to carry out a North Korean Cultural Revolution. Eventually, North Korean defiance paid off. By , China backed down following the border clashes, apologized to North Korea, and actually came across as the weaker party. Since that time, as Schaefer explained, North Korea has actually gained leverage over China. Later, the North Koreans got the impression that the PRC had moved towards a rapprochement with the United States in order to gain Taiwan in exchange for not re-affirming its hegemony over the rest of East Asia.
Schaefer explained that during the s, Sino-DPRK relations "contracted" as North Korea became uneasy as to what China's economic reforms would bring.
Ultimately, North Korea chose not to follow China's example and abandon its autarkic economic model. The North Korean political elite saw economic reforms as a source of political instability and social unrest, especially in the wake of the events of Indeed, the North Korean leadership felt vindicated by the Tiananmen Square incident.
At the bottom of the crater lies a lake, 13 kilometres square and metres deep, the Chongji 4. The region in which the volcano is situated is regarded as the cradle of the Manchu people.
The squabble over Mount Paektu resurfaced under King Kojong , from the Korean Yi dynasty, but the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula put an end to any possibility of compromise. The territory claimed by Pyongyang concerns 33 square kilometres around the Paektusan summit. Pyongyang needed the help of both countries: owing its existence to the former and its survival to the latter.
In order to punish the North Korean regime for its lack of support, China is thought to have demanded that the square kilometres around Paektusan be conceded to it as compensation for the economic and military aid provided by Peking during the Korean War 53 6.
China abandoned its claim in November in order to improve relations with Pyongyang 7. Between March and March , various military skirmishes took place in the Paektusan region between the North Korean and Chinese armed forces.
These were consequences of the tensions caused by the Cultural Revolution and the savage criticisms made of Kim Il-Sung by the Red Guards. During these years of unrest, Peking closed its border with its neighbour. After Mangyongdae, the village in which Kim was born, the volcano is without doubt the most venerated place in the DPRK. One of the best-known photographs of the former leader shows him at the summit of Paektusan contemplating Lake Chongji.
This is proof of the North Korean desire to affirm its pre-eminence over this territory. In actual fact, the present North Korean leader was born in the military camp of Vyatsk, near the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far-East, where his father was an officer in the Red Army. The goal of this manipulation is clear: to situate the birth of the communist dictator on Korean soil and in a symbolic place that is representative of the consciousness of the Korean people 8.
China has a final argument to justify its control over Paektusan, which is that while the volcano may be sacred for Koreans, it is also sacred for Manchus Hiding behind the defence of the interests of Manchus, Peking rules out any negotiations that could lead to territorial loss in the area. However, they have refused to situate the demarcation line in the middle of the rivers, adopting the principle of joint ownership, management and use of the two waterways.
Ownership of the islands has been determined by the nationality of their population, but the problem has not been resolved at all for the uninhabited islands, a sort of shared responsibility seeming to apply in their case. Pidan Chouduandao in Chinese , located at the mouth of the Yalu, was, however, an exception. The island was originally inhabited by mainly Chinese, and while North Korea had control over it, Peking officially regarded it as an integral part of its own territory. The North Koreans then wished to make a gift of it to China in gratitude for its help in In the event, this did not happen, and, in , the Chinese authorities had to evacuate the approximately fifty families who were still living there Peking is showing tolerance towards the North Korean claims, yet without giving in to Pyongyang.
Management of the river ports has also been a factor of dispute. Finally, in October , both countries reached an agreement on the border ports and their joint management In point of fact, friction over the control of the banks of the Yalu and Tumen explain the great number of agreements and protocols signed by Peking and Pyongyang: for example, the agreement on the management of the railway line running along the Yalu, on navigation and the electricity produced by both rivers, the floating of timber downstream, the common management of the Unbong hydroelectric plant, etc.
In spite of Chinese claims, Shindo has for a long time belonged to Korea, and under Japanese occupation was a production centre for raw materials for textiles, as the place is covered in reeds. History tells us that the outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula in helped deter Mao Zedong from invading Taiwan, which he had been preparing to do since the year before. Only a few days after the North Korean military invasion of the south, then president Harry Truman deployed ships to Taipei to protect the Nationalist Government in exile.
When the North Koreans were pushed back to the Chinese border in October , Mao had no choice but to shift from offensive war preparations against Taiwan to resisting America and protecting the homeland. Beijing would prefer to take control of Taiwan without military conflict.
A sudden collapse of the North Korean regime or conflict on the peninsula may make this cross-strait problem more complicated. In other words, is China ready to risk having a South Korea-dominated unified peninsula?
At the minimum, China would demand a neutral Korea. Hence, a divided Peninsula still remains optimal for Chinese interests at the moment.
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