The 2024 US presidential election has concluded, and the negative impact of Trump's victory on global politics is spreading. While the impact of this on Sino-US relations remains to be seen, from the Russia-Ukraine battlefield to the Korean Peninsula, Trump's victory has opened a Pandora's box, and the geopolitics of East Asia and the Western Pacific are facing tremendous changes.
Over the past few days, when Chinese and American leaders exchanged views in Lima, the capital of Peru, China rarely made the bold statement that it "will not allow war or chaos on the Korean Peninsula," once again acting as the sovereign of North Korea. This completely disregards China's declining influence on North Korea and its huge responsibility and strategic failure in the dangerous situation on the Korean Peninsula today.
The latest nuclear threat is hard to ignore
Almost simultaneously, Kim Jong-un clearly signaled wartime preparations at a meeting of battalion and company commanders of the People's Army in Pyongyang, threatening South Korea and the United States with the imminent threat of nuclear war. This was certainly not Kim Jong-un's first nuclear blackmail attempt, and while previous such threats were often dismissed, this latest one was difficult to ignore, posing a serious challenge to peace in East Asia.
