Sun Tzu, the renowned Chinese military strategist of the Spring and Autumn Period, wrote over two millennia ago that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Beijing, taking a page from his playbook, is apparently balancing North and South Korean aspirations as a means of diminishing American influence on the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese President Xi Jinping went out of his way to foster a warm, personal friendship with South Korea’s Park Geun-hye along the lines of the fabled Ronald Reagan-Margaret Thatcher partnership. Xi skillfully played the Japan card to ingratiate himself to a South Korean