North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un ’s latest visit to Beijing last week cannot obscure the fact that China, once the primary conduit between Washington…
North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un ’s latest visit to Beijing last week cannot obscure the fact that China, once the primary conduit between Washington and Pyongyang, is at risk of being largely left on the outside. The White House has eroded China ’s leverage by establishing a direct telephone link — a virtual hotline — to Mr. Kim.
In fact, President Donald Trump, by directly engaging Pyongyang over a nuclear and peace deal, has effectively cut out the middleman, China .
Beijing, which values North Korea as a strategic buffer against the U. S. military presence in South Korea, has reason to be suspicious of Mr. Kim ’s overtures to America and the Trump administration’s direct dealings with Pyongyang. At the center of Mr. Trump ’s North Korea diplomacy is an effort to marginalize China ’s regional role.
North Korea is China ’s only formal military ally. A 1961 “friendship treaty” obligates China and North Korea to aid each other if attacked. But as bilateral relations soured since Mr. Kim assumed power in late 2011, Chinese analysts criticized the pact as outdated.
Today, Beijing fears being sidelined in its own strategic backyard. It is apprehensive that, just as it turned against the Soviet Union after the Nixon-Kissinger “opening” in the early 1970s, its estranged ally, North Korea, could similarly switch allegiances. Mr. Kim, however, seems more interested in achieving a limited goal — rebalancing his foreign policy by mending fences with the U. S. so as to lessen North Korea ’s economic and security reliance on its millennial rival, China .
The path to North Korea ’s denuclearization promises to be long and difficult. However, the Trump administration, by bypassing Beijing and establishing direct links with Pyongyang, has heightened China ’s worries.
Mr. Trump ’s critics, however, have claimed that his epochal summit with Mr. Kim was a diplomatic windfall for China. They have also accused Mr. Trump of making major concessions in exchange for securing vague commitments with no clear timelines. The only concession Mr. Trump made — suspension of U.
