Introduction
China is a country located in the East Asia. It is well known for its ancient civilization. China is also the most populated country in the world adding to about 1.5 billion. It is the world’s fastest growing economy, largest exporter and second largest importer after United States (Scott & Furmanski, 2004, p.132). North Korea just like China is in East Asia. It is the highest militarized nation in the world and also the most isolated. For the last century China and North Korea have been very close allies. It all started during the 1950 war that divided the peninsula between the North and South Korea. China gave North Korea both political and economic support. North Korea is strongly dependent on China for food arms and fuel. It is also a close business associate.
How China benefits
Chinas economy is greatly boosted by the relationship between the two countries. From trade and other investments China has an annual two billion dollars per annum. There has also been a tremendous increase in the number of Chinese firms being put up in North Korea. The number of Chinese export to North Korea is also incredibly growing. This relation has led to a sound economic platform for the Chinese.
China also gains politically from North Korea by being guaranteed a buffer zone on the north eastern border. They are offloaded the burden of protecting their north eastern border from the South Koreans by North Koreans. This reduces their military concentration on that border thereby majoring on other more important issues.
North Korea’s gains
North Korea is highly dependent on China for food. About 70% of the food consumed in Korea is said to have originated from China. Also 80% of consumer goods used in China have their basis in China. Other than food stuff and consumable products North Korea imports 90% of its energy from China (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p.67). It is quite evident from the above information that North Korea is highly dependent on Chinese products. Residents of North Korea without China they cannot survive because most of their products are imported from the later. Apart from that there are over three hundred thousand North Koreans residing in China. Majority of this number are workers and support their country by sending home money to their needy families.
China also supports North Korea political wisely. Since China understands the Koreans political instability problems especially on matters pertaining to nuclear weapons in North Korea. China has severally blocked sanction made by the UN Security Council against North Korea. In addition China has held six party talks in China in a bid to settle security wrangles in North Korea. Chinas greatest worry is the increasing number of North Koreans migrating to China. The number of immigrants is alarming and China fears for its peace in case of North Korean are involved in a war. This may put China’s peace at stake.
Conclusion
Since time in memorial the Chinese and Koreans have had a lot in common. The two share social and political similarities. They also had closely related cultural ties (Scott & Furmanski, 2004, p.132). The relation between China and North Korea strengthened in the course of the cold war. To date the relation between China and North Korea is strengthened by the fact that China concentrates on expanding its economic growth while it leaves North Korea struggles to maintain peace and stability in the Korean peninsula. Contrary North Korea achieves economic support and growth from China by investing heavily in North Korea and providing North Koreans job opportunities in China.
Reference List
Roskin, M., & Berry, N. (2010). IR: The new world of international relations: 2010 edition (8th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Longman/Pearson Education.
Scott, G., Jones, R., & Furmanski, L. (2004). 21 debated issues in world politics: 2010 custom edition (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Pearson.