Now China demonstrates Bushs irrelevance

[anticlimates]

China slaps at U.S. on North Korea

 

By Joseph Kahn The New York Times

Monday, March 7, 2005

BEIJING Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing expressed doubt on Sunday that the United States had good intelligence about North Korea's nuclear program and said the onus for easing escalating tensions fell mainly on the United States and North Korea, not on China or other regional powers.

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Li's assessment of North Korea, made during an extended press conference during China's annual legislative meeting, amounted to a double slap at the United States. Washington has repeatedly sounded the alarm about Pyongyang's nuclear efforts and pressed China, North Korea's only significant ally, to more actively seek a solution.

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President George W. Bush sent a high-level envoy to Beijing last month to present fresh intelligence data that the Bush administration said showed that the North Korean nuclear program was more advanced than previously thought and that it had been selling nuclear materials around the world.

[snip]

China's reluctance to do more creates a dilemma for the Bush administration because Chinese support - or, at a minimum, acquiescence - is essential to any escalated international response, including United Nations sanctions, a trade embargo, or military action.

link here

George can't buy a favor anymore.

Although not COMPLETELY irrelevant, he has lost a lot of influence in the world. This is a new level of irrelevance not seen before.