Beijing and Washington talk up leaders\u2019 second meeting but diplomatic observers say it failed to bridge any of their huge divides<\/b>
\nUS President Donald Trump maintained his rapport with his Chinese counterpart at their \u00adsecond face-to-face meeting on the weekend, despite glaring \u00addifferences on how to keep North Korea on a leash, analysts said.
Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, \u00adGermany, Trump and President Xi Jinping tried hard to avoid a showdown by papering over \u00adbilateral tensions from a raft of geopolitical challenges, from Pyongyang\u2019s provocations to \u00adTaiwan and maritime disputes.
Both governments spoke highly of the two leaders\u2019 second encounter on Saturday, which at less than an hour was much shorter than their first meeting in Florida in April or Trump\u2019s two-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day before.
Trump described Xi as \u201ca friend\u201d and tweeted on his way back to Washington early Sunday morning about his \u201cexcellent meeting\u201d with the Chinese leader on trade and North Korea.
Trump calls North Korea \u2018a problem and a menace\u2019
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said both leaders agreed to maintain healthy and stable \u00adbilateral ties, \u201cdeepen mutually beneficial cooperation and \u00adproperly manage their differences and sensitive issues\u201d.
Analysts said that despite the symbolic significance of the meeting, it failed to yield real solutions to risks from their divergent and often conflicting interests.
Huang Jing, from the National University of Singapore, said the embattled Trump seemed eager to score some diplomatic points at the G20 summit. \u201cTrump has yet to be able to work out an effective strategy to confront and \u00adcontain China and that\u2019s why he took such a conciliatory tone when he met Xi, \u201d Huang said.
China and North Korea: What now if Xi-Trump bromance is over?
Trump has made little effort to conceal his growing frustration over Beijing\u2019s perceived unwillingness to get tougher on Pyongyang, which Trump described in his meeting with Xi as \u201cthe very substantial problem\u201d.
Senior US officials have threatened to use trade and other \u00admeasures to ratchet up the pressure on China and, on the eve of the summit, Trump joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in urging Beijing to step up efforts on North Korea.
\u201cSince the full spectrum of \u00adactions available to Trump ranges from getting Xi to deliver on his implicit promise over North Korea [in Florida in April] to using force to take out North Korea\u2019s nuclear capabilities, and the US is not ready for the latter, Trump falls back on the easiest option, \u201d Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China institute in London, said.
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Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a US think tank, said Trump would want to see China on his side, especially with Russia appearing to be in the North Korean camp. Luft also said Trump was aware that it might not be wise to stake US-China relations on North Korea.
Analysts also warned Beijing must get ready for Trump\u2019s more confrontational approach in dealing with China. \u201cThe summit may have gone well, but have we actually seen any substantial results? Top leaders in Beijing should give up any \u00adillusions about Trump, \u201d Huang said.
With Trump in power, Pyongyang playing up, it\u2019s time for the US and China to act on North Korea
Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia with the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said that any understanding between the leaders may not hold for long as Trump was losing patience and appeared willing to use trade and other levers to influence China.
Additional reporting by Catherine Wong<\/p>\n

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