Leader of U.S.,China talk about N. Korea 'treat'
Trade issues also part of phone conversation.
Vexed by China’s BEIJING — response to North Korean nuclear belligerence, President Donald Trump angered
the Chinese in recent days with actions on Taiwan, trafficking, trade and their claims on South China Sea islands. But he and his Chinese coun- terpart still spoke on Monday about North Korea.
Trump made the phone call to President Xi Jinping of China, appealing for more help to restrain what he called the “growing threat” posed by North Korea, a White House spokesman said. Xi’s willing- ness to take the call appeared to suggest he was not ready to
escalate tension with the U.S. over the issue of the North.
The call came a day after a U.S. naval destroyer cruised near disputed territory
claimed by the Chinese in the South China Sea. The action taken by the warship, the USS Stethem, off Triton Island in
the Paracel Islands prompted a furious response from the Chinese government, which called it a “serious political and military provocation.”
Last week t he Trump administration imposed sanctions on a Chinese bank, accusing it of acting as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity. The White House also suggested it would act against imported Chinese steel. And Washington took additional steps seen as affronts to the Chinese government, calling China one of the worst human traffick- ing offenders and selling $1.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan,
which China regards as its territory.
The U.S. destroyer’s cruise near Triton Island appeared to be especially grating to China. It was only the sec-
ond time since Trump took office in January that a U.S. warship had ignored China’s
claims in the South China Sea. On May 24, another guided missile destroyer, the USS Dewey, traversed Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands.
“The Chinese side strongly urges the U.S. side to imme- diately stop such kind of provocative operations that violate China’s sovereignty and threaten China’s secu- rity,” Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday. “The Chinese side will continue to take all necessary means to defend national sovereignty and security.”
Trump’s phone call with Xi came less than a week before world leaders were set to converge in Germany for the Group of 20 summit meeting, which starts Friday. The North’s behavior
continues to dominate diplomatic talks, and analysts have warned of the possibility of another nuclear test.
Trump also spoke on Monday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan about North Korea. They highlighted “their unity with respect to increasing pressure on the
regime to change its danger- ous path,” the administra- tion said.
For months Trump based his North Korea strategy on
the hope that China, the North’s chief ally and trad- ing partner, could persuade it to abandon nuclear weapons.
But Trump acknowledged recently that those efforts had failed.
Trump also raised trade issues with Xi on the Monday phone call, the White House said, a sign that he may become more vocal on economic matters as he seeks
concessions from China on North Korea.
During the call, Xi said the relationship between the two countries had shown prog- ress but was also affected by “negative factors,” according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency. He urged the United States to handle Taiwan in accordance with the “One China” policy. Under that policy, which has been in place since 1972, the United States recognized a single Chinese government in Beijing and severed its diplomatic
ties with Taiwan. In response, Trump reiterated his pledge to uphold
the One China policy, Xinhua reported. Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said that given the recent actions by Trump, it was “a little bitodd” that Xi had agreed to the phone call.
Still, he said, the gesture seemed to indicate that China was seeking to maintain “stability and some momentum” with Trump and perhaps deter him from resorting to more extreme measures, such as a military response.
“The actions the administration has taken have upset the Chinese, no doubt about it,” Cheng said. “The conversations demonstrate that China is still willing to talk with Trump and work with the U.S. government to deal with North Korea’s nuclear issues.”
Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat, said Trump was misguided in thinking that the situation in North Korea could be resolved by putting pressure on China.
“The essence of the North Korea nuclear crisis is the adversarial relationship between the U.S. and North Korea,” said Ruan, who is executive vice president of
the China Institute of International Studies, a government think tank. “You can’t say China should be the one to solve the North Korea crisis.”
Increasingly, Trump is also looking to other Asian nations,
including Japan and South Korea, for help in resolving the crisis. Kyodo News of Japan reported that Abe had praised the Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions on Chinese entities accused of conducting illicit business with the North. The agency said that Trump and Abe agreed to hold trilateral talks on North Korea with South Korea’s newly elected president, Moon Jae-in, on the sidelines of the G-20 gathering in Hamburg.
Trump met Moon at the White House on Friday. Moon has urged dialogue with the North — an idea that Trump’s advisers have shown little interest in.
Amid the tensions, North Korea has stridently continued to defend its weapons program. On Monday, the North reiterated that its missiles “can hit any target in a speedy and accurate manner,” according to Yonhap, a South Korean news agency.