The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

of the United States deployed in the ROK. Even if not
an effort to reunify the peninsula but a stabilizing and
policing mission, Beijing would fear the intent was reunification.
Indeed it would be difficult for the ROK
government to explain that its forces had undertaken
the intervention to help put the DPRK together again. 25
Given what is a most probable concern in Beijing, PLA
intervention beyond restoring and sustaining order
could be seen as countering a ROK and U.S. presence.
Despite what could well become a perilous situation,
Rear Admiral Yang Yi was reflecting Beijing’s
risk-averse view on how to most effectively respond
to the delicate situation Pyongyang has created when
he recommended that all the countries involved in
the current crisis remain calm and avoid any actions
that might worsen the situation. Political and diplomatic
means are declared the only way to resolve the
dilemma created. Moreover, the DPRK’s sovereignty
must be respected, as must Pyongyang’s security concerns.
When Pyongyang has returned to the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),
the DPRK’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy
must be assured. 26 Put another way, Beijing’s view
seems to be that more forceful responses to Pyongyang’s
actions will make an extremely volatile situation
even worse. Such an assessment was evident during
General Liang’s visit to the DPRK in November
2009. Despite earlier harsh words by senior and retired
PLA officers, China Daily reported the Defense Minister’s
speech at the welcoming banquet as including
“No force on Earth can break the unity of the armies
and peoples of the two countries, and it will last forever.”
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