Donald Trump’s administration is ratcheting up its rhetoric against North Korea.
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But more tellingly, China announced on February 18 its decision to stop all import of coal from North Korea to punish Pyongyang’s continuing tests of nuclear and missile devices. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said it saw no “certain link” between the missile launch and the summit, even as she called for restraint from all parties.
Trump suggested his predecessor, President Barack Obama, allowed North Korea to grow stronger.
This will be the first meeting between Xi and Trump since the U.S. billionaire’s inauguration as president. He said it may come up at the next bilateral meeting, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in July.
Abe also told Trump that Japan is paying attention to how China handles the issue of North Korea.
North Korea is pushing hard to upgrade its weapons systems to cope with what it calls US hostility.
That could have a chilling effect on global finance, even though diplomats say North Korea is increasingly alive to the risk and has steadily been funneling cash to Singapore and other jurisdictions outside China.
It remains to be seen what the Trump-Xi summit will mean for Chinese tourism.
Even if the US wins big concessions – other administrations have tried and failed – don’t expect the deficit with China to fall dramatically any time soon. Even if the WTO finds China guilty of manipulative or faulty trade practices, there are limits to how the US could actually punish the country. How will North Korea and China interpret Tillerson’s comments?
Looming over the visit will be North Korea’s nuclear provocations.
North Korea’s nuclear program is a genuinely serious threat to global security, one that’s gotten significantly worse as time has gone on. But if he’s bluffing, and Xi calls him on it, that might prove damaging in future negotiations with China or in building a united front against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
An op-ed piece in the Financial Times on Monday pointed out that Trump’s “firm words reflect the seriousness of the situation” and that “he must now back them with committed and sustained diplomacy”.
In the upcoming meeting, Xi and Trump are expected to seek consensus on economic and trade cooperation, among other topics.
“For many years, this issue was one of the brighter spots of the US-China relationship, and it helped to build dialogue”.
Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to China, said Latin American leaders were interested in finding alternatives but did not see China as an answer.
The remarks came in a telephone conversation earlier in the day with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to the reports which quoted Abe from a nationally televised press conference.
Late a year ago, China expanded artificial islands and seized an unmanned underwater drone belonging to the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea. Travelers from India, Japan, Brazil, and South Korea were less sensitive to the political climate but still showed a decreased likelihood of visiting the United States. But while it is willing to take relatively minor steps, like recently blocking North Korea’s coal exports, it’s not willing to cut off the country entirely, as it fears amassive outpouring of refugees across the Korean border into China in the event of an economic collapse. They added the joint decision to deploy the Thaad “is entirely a result of North Korea’s continued aggressive behavior”, urging Trump to discuss with Xi “how China can play a more productive role in efforts to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea”.
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This could in general terms be acceptable to Xi, whose primary concern is to get a successful summit showing that he can manage Trump, said Tsang. In other words, China needs to open its markets more and get rid of barriers to USA exports to make it easier for US companies to sell goods. “We have somebody that is not doing the right thing and that’s going to be my responsibility”, Trump said, referring to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
