Visit EllenTV. com12Days daily and enter Ellens 12 Days of Giveaways 2016 for your chance to win amazing prizes in the biggest giveaways ever Up to 11 ways to win. Cheap date night alert Score Buy 1 Get 1 Free movie tickets at Fandango this weekendHeres a win win solution for the U. S. and China on North Korea. LONDON Project Syndicate Most analysts agree that the least bad way to deal with North Koreas nuclear saber rattling is a continued combination of tight containment and aggressive diplomacy. Fewer, however, have recognized that the least bad military option the one implied by U. S. President Donald Trumps insistence that China take responsibility for its dangerous neighbor is a Chinese invasion, or regime change forced through Chinas threat to launch one. Watch Win Win Online Fandango' title='Watch Win Win Online Fandango' />This outcome, which would sharply shift East Asias strategic balance in Chinas favor, is not as unlikely as most people think. In fact, its very plausibility is one reason why it needs to be taken seriously, including by Chinese military planners. In Trumpian terms, this is a China First option that could help Make China Great Again. Any military intervention, Chinese or otherwise, would carry huge risks. But before dwelling on them, consider what a successful Chinese intervention would achieve. For starters, it would put North Korea right where the countrys post Korean War history suggests it belongs under a Chinese nuclear umbrella, benefiting from a credible security guarantee. A Chinese invasion, rather than an American one, would stand a better chance of avoiding Kims likely response. Mao Zedong used to say that his country and North Korea were as close as lips and teeth a fitting description, given Chinese troops role in averting an American victory in the Korean War. But while Japan and South Korea have remained close allies of the United States during the six decades since then, hosting U. S. bases and sheltering under U. S. nuclear protection, China and North Korea have drifted ever further apart. Watch Dr. Dolittle: Tail To The Chief Streaming. As a result, China has little control over its neighbor and purported ally, and probably scant knowledge of what is going on there. It could, it is true, tighten the existing siege on North Korea by cutting trade further and blocking energy supplies. Want to win a cool prize Below youll find a regularly updated list of both Sweepstakes Instant Win Games Lots of FreebieShark readers have won all. J. P. Tannen takes his three children for a vacation cruise. They usually live with their mother and stepfather, but now J. P. feels capable of taking them. But this might achieve little beyond pushing Kim Jong uns cloistered regime to look for support from its other neighbor, Russia. If, as is commonly assumed, North Korea wants some sort of credible security guarantee in exchange for curtailing its nuclear program, the only country capable of providing it is China. No American promise would remain credible beyond the term of the president who gave it, if even that long. RKxGdr0czlfrqeYB34F8E.jpg' alt='Watch Win Win Online Fandango' title='Watch Win Win Online Fandango' />Read How North Koreas nuclear test is rattling markets in five charts. So if China were to combine threats of invasion with a promise of security and nuclear protection, in exchange for cooperation and possible regime change, its chances of winning over large parts of the Korean Peoples Army would be high. Whereas a nuclear exchange with the U. S. would mean devastation, submission to China would promise survival, and presumably a degree of continued autonomy. For all except those closest to Kim, the choice would not be a difficult one. Chinas strategic gains from a successful military intervention would include not only control of what happens on the Korean Peninsula, where it presumably would be able to establish military bases, but also regional gratitude for having prevented a catastrophic war. No other action holds as much potential to make Chinese leadership within Asia seem both credible, and desirable, especially if the alternative is a reckless, poorly planned U. S. led war. What China needs, above all, is legitimacy, and intervention in North Korea would provide it. Successful use of hard power would bring China, to borrow the distinction coined by Harvards Joseph S. Nye, huge reserves of soft power. But now to the 6. Could it work We cant know the answer for sure, and any military intervention carries great risks. The Chinese armed forces are now well equipped, but lack comparable battlefield experience. Their inferior opponents have leaders who might be prepared to use nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, if they did not simply accept Chinese terms and surrender. Also Why Trumps latest North Korea threat may be a bluff. What we can say with near certainty is that a Chinese land and sea invasion, rather than an American one, would stand a better chance of avoiding Kims likely response an artillery attack on the South Korean capital, Seoul, which lies just a few dozen miles south of the demilitarized zone. Why would North Korea slaughter its southern brothers and sisters in retaliation for a Chinese invasion that came with a promise of continued security, if not autonomy Moreover, while the Kim regimes nuclear restraint could hardly be taken for granted, China would be a less likely target than the U. S. for North Korean missiles. Were a Chinese military option to be contemplated seriously, some intelligence and missile defense collaboration with the U. S. might be worth exploring. Given the risks, it would be hard for the U. S. to refuse. This scenario may well never happen. But it is so logical that the possibility of it should be taken seriously. It is, after all, Chinas best opportunity to achieve greater strategic parity with the U. S. in the region, while removing a source of instability that threatens them both. This article was published with the permission of Project Syndicate. Bill Emmott is a former editor in chief of The Economist and the author of The Fate of the West. See North Korea might finally have a nuclear deterrent.