REPEAT: MNI ANALYSIS:China Public Growing Restless on N.Korea

Repeats Story Initially Transmitted at 04:06 GMT Sep 5/00:06 EST Sep 5

     BEIJING (MNI) - In China, where the ruling Communist Party heavily controls

both the media and cyberspace, there is never a clear boundary between public

opinion and propaganda.

     But it is clear that Chinese public opinion is increasingly unhappy with

the behavior of the North Korean regime.  

     Following the sixth nuclear test by North Korea on Sunday, citizens in the

country's northeast, which lies as close as 10 miles from the Punggye-ri Nuclear

Test Site, were rightly shaken and upset by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake and

potential radiation from the massive explosion. 

     The test was the biggest by North Korea to date, producing a force of more

than 100 kilotons, according to researchers at the University of Science and

Technology of China. That is five times bigger than the 21 kilotons of "yield"

from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II. Yet the immediate

response from the Chinese government and media was muted. Only Xinhua News

Agency carried a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning the

test, which was reprinted by other media. 

     "People were shaken and scared, some buildings even collapsed," according

to a resident of Yanbian, an autonomous prefecture in northeastern China that

borders North Korea. "Our land is destroyed like that; what kind of interest

motivates the government to sacrifice the lives of so many people in the

northeast and tolerate another country repeatedly conducting nuclear tests on

your border?!" said a user of Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.

     Chinese government authorities are currently assessing the impact from the

nuclear explosion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang told

reporters on Monday at a regular briefing. The site lies next to Changbai

Mountain, a dormant volcano that last erupted during the Qing Dynasty. There has

been speculation that repeated earthquakes there could have a dire impact.

     The Ministry of Environmental Protection invoked a "second-degree emergency

response" and has provided regular updates on the latest probes of pollutant

levels. China Central Television would only say that monitors located in

provinces around North Korea are "operating normally." Test results from several

collection sites didn't show radioactive material, the environmental ministry

said.

     The Chinese government appeared relatively sanguine about the Pyongyang

regime's latest provocation in spite of its statement of outrage. That suggests

the government hasn't decided on a real course of action beyond deferring to the

United Nations Security Council and lodging a "formal representation" to the

North Korean embassy in Beijing. 

     That did little to placate domestic critics, even though their channels of

expression are limited. "You won't even summon the DPRK ambassador?!" one Weibo

user fumed. 

     On WeChat, China's most popular mobile chat application, an article

circulated after the test speculated that the detonated device may have used

plutonium, a far "dirtier" material than the hydrogen claimed by North Korea.

That could render China's northeast region "lifeless" if radiation were to leak,

the article said. The article has since been deleted from WeChat, although it is

still searchable on the internet.

     While the Chinese government wrung its hands over the continued defiance of

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the public clearly wants to see more than

verbal condemnation by officials. Many blamed the escalating danger next door to

the government's years of tacitly condoning North Korean behavior, especially

that of Kim, whom netizens deride as "Kim the Third Fatso." 

     "Under the strong condemnation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a new

strong Northeast Asian nation emerged," a commentator wrote sarcastically in

reaction to one report by a government mouthpiece.

     The nuclear test could also generate Chinese public sympathy for South

Korea, with many social media users commenting that more installations of the

U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system in South Korea would be justified, in

contrast to the Chinese government's strong opposition to its deployment. That

could weaken the government's case for boycotting South Korean businesses in

retaliation. 

     "THAAD is installed hundreds of kilometers from us, while the nuclear test

site is right at our border; which one is the real menace here?" one Weibo user

commented. 

     There are signs that even official views are divided. On Monday, the

English-language edition of the Global Times, a normally nationalistic tabloid

paper owned by the People's Daily, attempted to downplay the incident in an

editorial and suggested that China should only respond with more sanctions if

evidence suggests its territories are contaminated. It should not cut off North

Korea's lifeline -- oil -- because that would pit China against the regime, it

said. 

     That view was not universally accepted even within the establishment. On

Tuesday, the Chinese version of the same newspaper published an opinion piece,

authored by Shan Renping, which split from the previous day's editorial. Shan

sharply criticized the camp in China that "stretched to downplay" the incident

and painted the actions of North Korea as not an affront to China, even though

the test was conducted on the day when President Xi Jinping was to step into the

international spotlight by hosting leaders of the BRICS nations. 

     "We at the Global Times urge China to strictly carry out sanctions decided

by the U.N. Security Council," which may include stopping oil shipments if

necessary, Shan wrote. That North Korea's tests haven't been found to have

contaminated China's soil doesn't mean they will always be safe, Shan warned.

Preventing North Korea from conducting new tests is a "sacred duty" and a basic

national security measure, Shan said. 

     Perhaps a wry comment by a Weibo user on Shan's article best captures the

twisted condition the Chinese government finds itself in: "No one else is trying

to downplay the risks from North Korea possessing nuclear weapons; it's your own

editor-in-chief, my dear."