McCain calls on China to grow up

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - US Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said the time had come for China to justify its superpower aspirations and "step up" over issues like the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"It's time for China to step up in the world and assume their responsibilities," McCain told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

"So far, some of us ... have been very disappointed in their lack of maturity," he added.

McCain, considered a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said allowing Pyonyang to develop nuclear weapons would likely lead to regional proliferation.

"How can the Japanese not rearm if the North Koreans continue with this?" he said. "It's in China's interest to restrain North Korea and so far there has been very little, if any, assistance in that area on the part of China."

Six-nation talks on the nuclear issue -- involving the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas -- resumed in December after a gap of more than one year, during which Pyongyang tested its first atom bomb.

The last session made no visible progress, with North Korea sticking to its demands that the United States end sanctions against a Macau-based bank accused of laundering money for the impoverished communist regime.

Chief US envoy Christopher Hill voiced optimism after rare one-to-one talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Berlin last week.

But McCain insisted that Beijing, which carries the most influence with the leadership in Pyongyang, needed to bring more pressure to bear.

"If China is going to be a superpower ... it has to act like a superpower," the senator said.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070127/pl_afp/davosusnkoreachina [link]