Trump Says China Will Get Better Trade Deal if It Solves ‘North Korean Problem’

By TECHIE2018APRIL 11, 2017

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WASHINGTON — President Trump, frustrated by China’s inaction on North Korea, opened the door on Tuesday to concessions on his trade agenda with Beijing in exchange for greater Chinese support in pressuring Pyongyang. In doing so, he lashed together two sharply different issues in an already complex relationship.

“I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!” Mr. Trump declared in a morning Twitter post. Minutes later, he warned: “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.”

Mr. Trump’s threat rattled nerves in South Korea, where the government reassured the public that the United States would not launch an attack without first consulting Seoul. But the American president’s suggestion of a grand bargain with Beijing crystallized his quandary in dealing with North Korea.

Only China, with its vast economic leverage over its reclusive neighbor, can realistically force a change in the behavior of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un. Yet despite its own rising frustration with Mr. Kim, the Chinese government has so far been unwilling to tighten the vise on him.

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up.

But Mr. Medeiros added: “Linking such distinct issues seldom works because each involves different actors and different interests in each system. Linkage can also be counterproductive by reinforcing China’s worst instincts.”

Administration officials said they hoped Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Xi would lead to further Chinese pressure on North Korea. Their meeting was punctuated by the missile strike on a Syrian airfield, which the officials said sent a message of resolve about Mr. Trump’s readiness to use force to defend American interests

“The last thing we want to see is a nuclear North Korea that threatens the coast of the United States, or, for that matter, any other country,” the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Tuesday. “We need stability in that region, and I think he has put them on notice.”

Mr. Trump ordered a Navy carrier strike group into the waters off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force that previous presidents have used, but which fanned regional fears that the United States would consider a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea.

AdvertisementPresident Xi Jinping of China did not offer Mr. Trump any public commitments on North Korea or trade when they held their first meeting last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Fla. Even in private conversations, officials said, the Chinese leader was noncommittal.

Mr. Trump has sought to link issues with China before. In December, he warned that if Beijing did not do more to curb North Korea, he would disavow the “One China” policy that has underpinned the diplomatic relationship between the United States and China for more than four decades.

When Mr. Xi then put off a phone conversation with the president, Mr. Trump was forced to call the Chinese leader in February to reaffirm the policy. Several former American officials said China was again unlikely to respond as Mr. Trump now wants.

“He’s clearly groping for leverage over China,” said Evan S. Medeiros, a former top China adviser to President Barack Obama who is now head of Asia research at Eurasia Gro