This is in keeping with the president’s pledge after taking office to put “America first” in many policies, including trade and foreign affairs.
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President Trump’s retrenchment of US global leadership on issues such as free trade, climate change and multilateral alliances has opened the door for an unlikely rival to assert itself – China.
The summit is likely to focus on North Korea and US-China bilateral security and trade issues, on which Washington expects Beijing to take more concrete action, he added.
USA defense officials warned last month that North Korea is on the brink of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could target the United States. “If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone”. That would cost China a substantial $1 billion a year or so compared with buying from North Korea – but that’s a price more than worth paying to rein in Pyongyang, which would be posed with the choice between an indefinite strangling of its economy and a curbing of its nuclear ambitions.
Pitting America’s coal against North Korea’s would require some serious commitments by both Xi and Trump.
“The United States is not a country directly involved in the South China Sea”, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in January. China has its own difficulties with Pyongyang.
A military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula could lead to a nightmare scenario in which nuclear weapons are used, or even to a larger clash between nuclear-armed global powers.
At the same time, China’s leaders need to ask themselves how much longer they intend to provide unconditional support to the North Korean regime – which is completely dependent on Chinese supplies – rather than putting pressure on it to cease its provocations. But analysts warn that attempts to persuade American firms to make their goods somewhere other than China could backfire, and there’s no guarantee they’ll bring factories back to the US. During the campaign, Trump denounced China’s maritime expansionism.
According to Pew, just over a third of Americans see China as a military threat and 58 percent would support going to war to defend USA allies like Japan or South Korea.
Still, Chinese officials are mindful of the pitfalls if Trump veers off-script.
Recalling Trump’s election-era grievances about how the America’s allies spend less than defense than Washington while running large trade surpluses with the United States, the pundit emphasized that this won’t change for so long as the United States remains steadfastly committed to its imperial project.
Haley described the US-China summit as “very, very important” to address the crisis over North Korea and that China had a key role to play to force Pyongyang to change course. And he followed it up by calling Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in December 2015, the first such instance since 1979. The only country that can stop North Korea is China.
Trump later agreed in a phone call with Xi to honor the long-standing policy and has also written to him since seeking “constructive ties”.
The question, however, is what Trump means by “help”.
Trump’s unpredictability might prompt Xi to adopt a more cautious approach on cross-strait issues, which could be advantageous for Taipei, he added.
Last week, Trump tweeted that his upcoming meeting with Xi would be “a very hard one”.
In an interview with the Financial Times Friday, Trump was exceedingly vague about his goals for talks with Xi, avoiding any details about what may be on the agenda for the meeting, even when pressed about issues like trade and North Korea.
President Donald Trump’s first choice for secretary of defense says the USA may only have one option for dealing with North Korea – a large-scale military strike.
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When we try to make sure that our kids can breathe clean air, we can’t forget that China and the USA are number one and two in the world in carbon dioxide emissions. Obama met Xi at the Sunnylands resort in the California desert.
