China’s Leaning Towards North Korea, a Possible Trade-Off for Taiwan

Since the early 1950s, mainland China and the US have continued to compete for control of the western Pacific region. Washington maintains a strategic alliance with Seoul and Tokyo and enjoys close relations with Taipei. Conversely, China retains its claim over Taiwan as part of its territory. It enjoys leverage over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) thus, there are prospects of its being used as a bargaining tool with the US to trade-off for Taiwan. The study concludes that Pyongyang's nuclear capability has given it enough leverage over Beijing and Washington. Although DPRK and Taiwan are trying to retain their sovereign positions, in reality, they would be unable to survive without the intimate support from China and the US respectively. The study concludes that despite the claim that 'America is back', in the near term, the status quo in the western Pacific may prevail but in the long term, the situation might change in China's favour. The study suggests that to realize economic prosperity/sustainable peace in the region, China and the US will have to give up their hostile approach by signing a 'new social contract'. The study has been conducted from the prism of neorealism/ neoliberalism theory.