Matt Schiavenza

What is China’s role in the horrifying story of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two US journalists who have been sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp for illegally entering North Korean territory?

The journalists insist they were on the Chinese side of the border, something that shouldn’t really be a matter of dispute; the border is clearly demarcated by the Tumen River. If their account is true, then North Korean agents kidnapped them in a foreign country, raising questions of why China was unwilling or unable to protect individuals on its side of the border from foreign kidnapping.

How would China react, for instance, if North Korean agents were to capture Chinese citizens operating in Chinese territory? I doubt Beijing would take it well. Likewise, I imagine China would try to avoid a diplomatic mess by allowing citizens of third countries to be removed due to the paranoid whims of the Kim regime.

Most of the accounts I’ve read take the journalists at their word, believing their claim to have remained firmly on the Chinese side of the border. The North Koreans have been known for this sort of treachery before, after all, kidnapping both Japanese and South Korean nationals at various times over the past sixty years. Yet I have yet to see conclusive proof that Lee and Ling were indeed in China, and believe it to be entirely possible that the two, perhaps accidentally, were trespassing in North Korean territory.

If this latter case is true, then China’s role in the affair isn’t relevant. I suspect we won’t find out; as outraged the US is over this ridiculous incarceration, there’s little they can do to free the two journalists at this point. But the case does illustrate the balancing act China finds itself committed to over its relationship with the world’s most isolated regime.