China The Master Puppeteer?

Here is the Clift's Notes version of how I understand some things.

North Korea

A communist country that is seriously hurting. If your family is a member of the ruling party or if you are in the military, you are well taken care of. Otherwise, you are out of luck.

North Korea is attempting to build nuclear capability and has demonstrated its -- lack of? -- capabilities of firing long range missiles. North Korea's efforts are supported by China even though it would appear that China would not want to have another nuclear power in the region.

An axis of evil country.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is what it is. The fighting is flaring up again, which I'm sure Russia loves since the U.S. fought a proxy war against Russia in Afghanistan and Russia lost. Afghanistan's economy is supported by the illicit drug use of segments of the Europe and the U.S. population.

Israel

Supported by the U.S. and hated by everyone in the region.

Iran

Iran is alleged to be supporting some of the insurgency in Iraq. Meanwhile, it is asserting its right to be a country with nuclear capability. Iran gets some of it's military capabilities from China.

An "axis of evil" country.

Hezbollah

Israel states that Hezbollah is firing missiles at Israel that are from Iran which are from China.

Umm....
Is China the master puppeteer?