Did North Korean missile tests make China lose face?

Hu with Koreans: “Is it hot in here, or is it just me?”

Now that North Korea’s most recent round of missile tests has ended in a unanimous Security Council resolution, the rounds of second guessing have begun in earnest in the blogosphere and on the editorial pages.

As with virtually every international issue in East Asia, discussions have focused on how China’s perceived loss of face played into its response. Case in point is conservative author Austin Bay, who writes on his blog “the North Korean ballistic missile tantrum cost China a bit of face.” Yet reading the Chinese mainland press, this supposed loss of face was hard to discern. If the CCP did indeed feel embarrassed by their little ally’s intransigence, it wasn’t easy to see in the media.

Coverage in the rarely read but Party-connected People’s Daily is an excellent example. Early treatment of North Korea’s missile launch was limited — with the first mention of the launches relegated to the third page. Yet, if this initial hesitance indicated any sense of embarrassment on the part of the Chinese government, then it had fully recovered in a matter of days. By the 11th of July — five days after the launches—the People’s Daily had begun aggressively reporting the long history of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

The lead article in the People’s Daily on the 11th was dedicated to a telegram China’s leaders had sent to “extend their congratulations on the 45th anniversary of the friendly cooperation and mutual assistance pact.” The article did not mention the crisis but noted the telegram’s pledge to “unceasingly push forward the two country’s friendly cooperation.” Similar expressions of love between China and North Korea dominated the lead articles in the People’s Daily for the following two days.

Among the more popular publications, the sentiment was no different. Many analysts in the Chinese media saw the entire episode as a loss for the U.S. Among them was Zhou Yining who wrote in the respected China Business Post: “In the game of missile chess, the White house has lost its trump card as the division between the U.S. and its allies grows.”

China’s successful resistance to a more enforceable resolution was seen as something of a victory, especially in light of growing speculation in the press about a potential Japanese preemptive strike.

In the end, though Chairman Hu may well have blushed when “little brother” ignored China’s warnings and launched a handful of missiles into the ocean, he did a good job of hiding it. Indeed, while one would not expect the People’s Daily to come out admit to being embarrassed, neither would one expect that if there had been serious loss of face, Chinese papers would so loudly promote friendship with the perpetrator. China’s propaganda masters have enough of a track record brushing awkward relationships and events under the rug that if they had considered the tests a real loss of face, we would have read very little about it.