China pushed back Thursday against President Trump ’s allegation that Beijing is playing the spoiler role in North Korea to gain more leverage in bare…
China pushed back Thursday against President Trump ’s allegation that Beijing is playing the spoiler role in North Korea to gain more leverage in bare-knuckle trade talks with Washington.
In a barrage of tweets Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump reiterated a recent allegation that China is so frustrated by the trade negotiations that it’s pressuring North Korea not to cooperate with Washington ’s demand that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying bristled at the allegation during a press briefing in Beijing Thursday, telling reporters that “no one could be better at irresponsibly distorting facts that the U. S.”
“What logic is this?” Ms. Hua asked rhetorically. “It’s really beyond understanding for ordinary people.”
She went on to suggest U. S. officials — not Chinese or North Korean — are to blame for “setbacks and difficulties” occurring in the Trump administration’s pursuit of breakthrough nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.
Washington “should try to find out the reason in itself and reflect upon that, rather than flip-flop and shift blames on others,” Ms. Hua said. “The U. S. tries to shift blames in one way or another, but sorry, we won’t and cannot take the blames.”
Her comments were just the latest in a back-and-forth over the North Korea issue that’s been going on for years between U. S. and Chinese officials. The Trump administration, like the former Obama administration before it, has devoted significant energy to trying to convince China — North Korea ’s closest ally and biggest trading partner — to exert its influence in a way that helps Washington pressure Pyongyang to denuclearize.
