President Donald Trump, eager to stop rapid advances in North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, is signaling a break with decades of US policy as he looks to coax China into ramping up the pressure on North Korea.
Trump’s sweetening the pot, offering China better trade terms if the Asian powerhouse takes steps to put North Korea’s provocative behavior to rest. China accounts for 80% of North Korea’s foreign trade and has significant political leverage over North Korea.
“We have tremendous trade deficits with everybody, but the big one is with China. … And I told them, ‘You want to make a great deal?’ Solve the problem in North Korea. That’s worth having deficits. And that’s worth having not as good a trade deal as I would normally be able to make, ” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview last week, a day after he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone.
The interview was one of several in the last week in which Trump has suggested China could win US concessions on trade in exchange for action on North Korea. The stance is sparking concerns among former officials in successive Democratic and Republican administrations who say Trump appears to be abandoning a pillar of US efforts to urge China’s cooperation on North Korea.
But Trump’s diplomatic forays so far with Xi — whom Trump hosted at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this month — are bearing tentative signs of progress. China has turned away coal shipments and made more forceful statements in recent weeks in an attempt to cool the ratcheting of tensions in the region.
Still, former White House officials are raising eyebrows at Trump’s move and insisting there is a reason why successive Democrat and Republican administrations have kept the issues of trade and North Korea separate in diplomacy with China.
For decades, US officials have made clear to their Chinese counterparts that the US won’t barter economic or other foreign policy issues in exchange for support on the North Korean issue — sending the signal that the US position on the issue was in the interests of global stability. Abandoning that policy, according to officials from President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama’s administrations, risks sending a dangerous message to US allies and adversaries alike and sending the US tumbling down a slippery slope.
By keeping discussions focused squarely on North Korea and shared US and Chinese interests in preventing war on the Korean peninsula, US officials have also avoided getting dragged into making other concessions — like recognizing China’s territorial claims to Taiwan — in order to win China’s full support on North Korea.
