Pentagon officials tell us China's government failed utterly to come
through on private pledges to the Bush administration to halt North
Korea's missile tests.
Worse, some officials say, it is likely Beijing deceived the United
States about its efforts to dissuade North Korea from the apparent
tests and that China may have tacitly backed the seven missile launches
earlier this week.
"This demonstrates how impotent the Chinese are and the incredibly
low level of influence they have over their North Korean brethren," one
official told us.