HONG KONG -- "China should step up and defuse the situation," an American official in Washington said to me in December, referring to the North Korean nuclear issue. "That's what a great power would do -- exert its influence and defuse the problem."
For several months, American officials have been prodding China to use its influence to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. They are becoming increasingly impatient that the Chinese seem reluctant to do so, even though Chinese officials have repeatedly said that China wants a nonnuclear Korean Peninsula.
The problem is that Washington wants the Chinese to behave like Americans, to apply pressure, to twist arms, to threaten and to cajole. To China, however, this is to act like a hegemon, a charge Beijing levels regularly at the United States. It is not easy for China to emulate such behavior.