China Winner of Trump-Kim Summit, But Wary

Date: 13 June 2018 - 21:51

News ID: ۵۳۹۵۹

BEIJING (Dispatches) -- The outcome of the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was good news for China.
China won big at the summit after Trump made surprising pledges to suspend war games with South Korea and eventually pull U.S. troops from there. Beijing dislikes the U.S. military presence in South Korea and Japan and has urged Washington to suspend the drills that Pyongyang claims are rehearsals for invasion, in return for the North's halting of nuclear activities.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Wednesday that Trump's drills suspension announcement was "another proof that China's proposal is legitimate, is reasonable (and) it addresses the concerns of the two sides."
China wants to see a reduction in foreign military forces in Northeast Asia and for the gap between Washington and its allies and partners to widen, said Ryan Hass, who directed China policy for the U.S. National Security Council during the former President Barack Obama administration. "Beijing is now on track to achieve these objectives at little cost."
But Beijing will be mindful after Trump showered Kim with praises, calling him a "very talented man," and made security concessions in return for very little.
Analysts say they expected that Kim would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping fairly quickly after the summit and that Xi would remind his North Korean counterpart about China's willingness to help the North develop its economy.
Despite recent tensions between the communist neighbors, Xi has met Kim twice since April, most recently hosting a banquet for him and strolling with the young leader along a beach and through lush gardens at a coastal Chinese city last month.
That meeting in Dalian was seen as an effort by China to ensure that Beijing's voice was heard when Kim later met with Trump. In the on-again, off-again run-up to the summit, Trump at one point blamed Kim's trip to China for creating an unwelcome "change in attitude" by the North Korean leader. China moved quickly to urge both sides not to cancel the meeting.
Such maneuvers highlight the delicate balance China has to strike between encouraging Pyongyang and Washington to engage on ending the North's nuclear program and pushing Pyongyang too far into Trump's embrace.
China would be wary if the suspension of military exercises led to some kind of larger rapprochement between the U.S. and North Korea. China, which fought the U.S. on behalf of the North in the 1950-53 Korean War, wants a stable, independent North Korea as a buffer with South Korea and the thousands of U.S. troops stationed there. Beijing is also hoping to convince Seoul to remove a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system that China sees as a threat to its security.