Bloomberg quotes Naughton, Shirk in article
China Backing Kim Jong Il Means Party Ties Still Drive Policy
06/12/2010
Michael Forsythe,
Bloomberg
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- One reason why Chinese leaders wouldn’t join Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in denouncing North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship when they met in Beijing last month may be found in an obscure agency housed a 10-minute walk from their meeting place.
The ruling Communist Party’s International Department oversees ties with Leader Kim Jong Il’s Korean Worker’s Party and shares with the Foreign Ministry responsibility for relations with Kim’s regime in the north. The party-to-party comradeship predates the founding of both states and was cemented on the battlefield in the Korean War.
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Barry Naughton is Sokwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at IR/PS and an authority on the Chinese economy, with an emphasis on issues relating to industry, trade, finance, and China's transition to a market economy.
Susan Shirk is director of the University of California system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Ho Miu Lam professor of China and Pacific Relations at IR/PS. Shirk first traveled to China in 1971 and has been doing research there ever since.
