N. Korea looms over U. S. summit
In Florida, Trump meets Chinese leader Xi for the first time
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to his Florida estate Thursday, with the urgent threat of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and tensions over trade on the agenda for the first in- person meeting between the leaders.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were greeted by the president and first lady Melania Trump at the Mar- a- Lago estate before making their way to dinner. The White House said the location was selected to give the two days of discussions a more relaxed feel.
Xi was met at the Palm Beach International Airport by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his wife, along with Chinese ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai. Xi and Tillerson chatted for a few minutes before the Chinese leader entered his limousine for the ride to his hotel. He and the Chinese delegation are not staying at Mar- a- Lago.
At the resort, Trump appeared lighthearted as he greeted Xi, gesturing and pointing to journalists as they jockeyed to get photographs of the two leaders together for the first time.
Ahead of the dinner, Trump said he and Xi already had had a long discussion and had “developed a friendship,” and then joked, “I have gotten nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the summit, Trump said he thinks China will “want to be stepping up” in trying to deter North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
The White House said the Florida location was selected to give the two days of discussions a more relaxed feel. A number of Trump’s top advisers were in attendance, including his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son- in- law, Jared Kushner.
Outside the dining room where the two delegations gathered for a lavish dinner, Mar- a- Lago club members packed the patio for dinner.
While Trump would not say what he wants China to do specifically with regard to North Korea, he suggested there was a link between “terrible” trade agreements the U. S. has made with China and Pyongyang’s provocations. He says the two issues “really do mix.”
The president has said that if China doesn’t exert more pressure on North Korea, the U. S. will act alone.
Both as a candidate and president, Trump has taken an aggressive posture toward China, labeling Beijing a “tremendous problem” and arguing that lopsided trade deals with China shortchange U. S. businesses and workers. Last week, the president predicted in a tweet that his meeting with Xi would be “very difficult.”
The White House has downplayed expectations for a breakthrough on issues such as trade and tariffs, insisting that the 24- hour summit is mostly an introductory meeting for the two leaders. And within Trump’s administration, there are still divisions over how to approach China.
Ahead of the summit, Trump signed a pair of executive orders focused on reducing the U. S. trade deficit. The moves appeared to be a shot at China, which accounted for the vast bulk — $ 347 billion — of last year’s $ 502 billion trade deficit. Chinese exports to the U. S. totaled some $ 388.1 billion last year.
Anthony Ruggiero, an East Asia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said China may be more willing to accommodate Trump on trade and economic issues than on regional security issues, including North Korea. Xi is unlikely to want to rock the boat ahead of a Communist Party conclave later this year that will install new leadership.
U. S. OPTIONS
The urgency about North Korea was expected to be at the forefront of the leaders’ discussions. A senior White House official said this week that the “clock has now run out” on North Korea, though officials have not detailed what steps Trump is willing to take to halt North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Hours later, North Korea executed another ballisticmissile test that prompted a curt response from Tillerson, who said in a statement that the United States had spoken enough about North Korea and would have no further comment about its provocations.
“It’s an urgent and global threat, and we see the North Korean weapons programs as increasingly destabilizing, both for Northeast Asia and for the globe,” Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told reporters Wednesday.
Like his predecessors, Trump is pressing China to exert more economic pressure on North Korea, though there is no sign he will be any more successful than past American presidents. In an interview last week with the Financial Times, Trump said that if China doesn’t take a tougher stand, the U. S. is prepared to act alone.
Among the administration’s options, experts said, are sanctions on Chinese banks that do business with Pyongyang in a bid to restrict the flow of capital to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s regime.
“It’s certainly going to come up,” said a senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to preview the discussions. “Ninety percent of North Korea’s external trade is with China. Even though we heard that China’s political influence may have diminished with North Korea, certainly its economic leverage has not. It is considerable.”
Xi is also expected to seek assurances that Trump will not interfere in the territorial dispute over the South China Sea or question the one- China policy by reaching out to Taiwan’s leader again, as he did during the transition. The move infuriated Beijing, leading Trump to eventually reiterate his commitment to the decades- old policy.
Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Eleanor Wang said at a news conference that the government was in close contact with Washington and was assured the island’s interests would not be harmed.
“We are deeply concerned with the Trump- Xi meeting, prior to which we have been in full communication with the U. S. side to ensure that the interests of the Republic of China are not affected,” Wang was quoted as saying by the official Central News Agency. The Republic of China is the formal name of Taiwan’s government, which was transplanted to the island amid the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Wang referred to recent remarks by State Department and White House officials that they would hold to their assurances to Taiwan under a U. S. law that established strong unofficial relations after the severing of diplomatic ties in 1979.
Asked if Taiwan was up for negotiation, Thornton, the U. S. diplomat for East Asia, said Wednesday: “We have basically moved on from there.”
Along with providing political backing, the U. S. is also Taiwan’s main source of arms and military assistance to defend against China’s threats to use force to bring the island under its control.