Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

A Chinese military exercise on the Yalu

Word arrives from across the wide Pacific that the Chinese military conducted a bridge placement exercise at a Yalu River crossing, a hand grenade’s throw from North Korea. This article speculates that this is a move that signals that the Chinese are worried about refugee flows should Lil Kim’s regime collapse. They’d need to bridge ...

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Flickr
Flickr

Word arrives from across the wide Pacific that the Chinese military conducted a bridge placement exercise at a Yalu River crossing, a hand grenade's throw from North Korea.

Word arrives from across the wide Pacific that the Chinese military conducted a bridge placement exercise at a Yalu River crossing, a hand grenade’s throw from North Korea.

This article speculates that this is a move that signals that the Chinese are worried about refugee flows should Lil Kim’s regime collapse. They’d need to bridge to insert troops to create a buffer zone along the border. And maybe also quietly collect those nukes (which is a mission I would support — better they have them than some nut in NoKo).

Speaking of NoKo, a friend asks how FP can rank it 21st on the list of most failing states. He thinks it should be much higher. I suspect he is correct.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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