Questions? Please contact Joel Brinkley at jbrinkstanford.edu Joel Brinkley Foreign Matters Over the last several years, China has given North Korean government officials jewels and precious stones worth $4 million, perfume and cosmetics worth $4.7 million, furs valued at $3.8 million as well as alcohol and tobacco products worth $44 million, all in direct violation of a 2006 United Nations Security Council sanction that China voted to approve. The world is trying to determine how to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors . But all will be for naught as long as China continues serving as North Korea's enabler. Along with those luxury goods, China also provides nearly all of North Korea's fuel and more food than anyone else -- $2 billion in declared aid each year and far more provided under the table. U.N. resolution 1718 'prohibits the provision of large-scale arms, nuclear technology' as well as 'luxury goods,' which the regime uses to enrich itself and secure loyalty from its minions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spent much of the last 10 days urging a reluctant China to condemn the naval attack. But that's a hollow exercise. China did criticize North Korea after its first nuclear-weapons test, in 2006 . What did that accomplish? China shipped 20 percent more caviar to Kim Jong il the next year, and North Korea tested another nuclear weapon in 2009 . Under China's protective umbrella, North Korea has deployed nuclear weapons, test-fired ballistic missiles, sold advanced weaponry to other renegade states, counterfeited millions if not billions in foreign currency, laundered cash for drug traffickers and now carried out a major, unprovoked military attack. None of that seems to bother Beijing. Wen Jiabao , the Chinese premier , said China would pursue its own inquiry of the naval attack. I can understand why he would not want to play into Washington's agenda. But again, whatever Wen does finally say, it won't matter. We can legitimately ask why China holds up a regime that allows its economy to remain in such 'dire straits' that 'a considerable share of the population is on the edge of starvation,' as a Congressional Research Service report puts it. Meantime, China feeds the political and military elite cigarettes, jewels, perfume and yachts. Government and NGO reports from the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan detail China's luxury-good exports and show that they actually increased by 40 percent in the year after the first nuclear-weapon test. The congressional report says most of the luxury items 'come into North Korea largely cost-free.' If anyone is to blame for North Korea's renegade behavior and the misery of its people, it is China. UNICEF reports that almost half of North Korea's children are so malnourished that they grow up stunted, both physically and mentally. The problem is irreversible and so prevalent that the military had to lower its height requirement for new troops, to meet its recruiting goals. The average height for a 17-year-old boy now is 5 feet. During the 1990s, as many as 2 million people starved to death. Now, World Food Program data show that the number of malnourished adults has grown by one-third over the last decade. And yet China blithely sends along steaks, oysters and lead-crystal glassware for Kim and his cronies. China's motives are clear enough. Its leaders know that if they back away from North Korea, reduce or eliminate aid, the regime will quickly collapse. Almost everyone in the world would welcome that except China. The Chinese worry about millions of refugees pouring over the border, about a new government in Pyongyang dominated by South Korea and its ally, the United States. But that does not have to be. Renegade governments like North Korea's threaten most everyone. It's in the entire world's interest to assure China that it does not have to fear a collapse of the Kim Jong il regime. Shouldn't South Korea and the United States, the two most important players here, work out an agreement with Beijing? Make China aware of the immediate benefits. If North Korea were a friendly, peaceful nation, the United States could reduce its military presence in the region to something China ardently wants. Under an agreement, China could administer the country for an interim period. The U.N. Security Council, where China holds a veto, would work out a long-term solution. No, the end result might not be a unified, democratic Korea. But the state would finally be stable and calm, its people at last given enough to eat. That would be a relief for most everyone on Earth. Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times. 