CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- If one focuses on the totality of the Chinese world, there have been several positive signs recently. With international media attention generally fragmented, it perhaps would be worthwhile to try to compile a synthesis of what we have witnessed lately.
From China proper, we have heard the good news of Beijing's initiative to effectively demonstrate its paramount influence with the Pyongyang regime. The latter's erratic behavior and dangerous brinkmanship have proven too much even for Beijing to digest. So the multilateral format on North Korea has been put in place.
This is a good start, although caution is still the main consideration when one deals with leaderships as divorced from the normal standards of behavior as the one in Pyongyang. Nevertheless, Beijing undoubtedly deserves appreciation for its willingness and determination to contribute to peace and stability in one of the hottest areas of the world that, historically, happens to be in China's orbit of influence.