Trump Puts China In A Bind With Strikes During President’s Visit

59 Tomahawk missiles fired at Shayrat airfield in Syria in Trump’s biggest foreign policy decision. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the two sides agreed to speed up trade talks to help close a lopsided imbalance in China’s favor, a common campaign-trail complaint of Trump’s.

The Secretary of State said the U.S was hopeful that China would “find ways to exercise influence over North Korea’s actions to dismantle their nuclear weapons and their missile technology programs”.

Sources briefed on Xi’s plans promised a package of Chinese investments aimed at creating more than 700,000 American jobs – the same number China’s regional rival Japan pledged to Trump during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Mar-a-Lago visit in February.

“If either are attacked, the Americans are meant to react on their behalf, even though Trump is more isolationist”, he said.

Some $347 billion of the $502 billion trade deficit recorded by the U.S. previous year was with China.

If Xi was miffed to be upstaged again, he did not show it Friday, prior to his departure.

In Florida with the president, meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: “We will be announcing additional sanctions on Syria as part of our ongoing effort to stop this type of activity and emphasize how significant we view this”.

“[Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken”, Tillerson said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “And I believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away”. China has the capability to further expand its influence across Asia and beyond without the need for collaboration from the U.S., but Mr Xi chose to take a friendly approach to his USA counterpart, says Dr Charl.

He noted the historic responsibility of both countries – the world’s largest economies and emerging military rivals – to work toward peace and stability. “Because if you’re an adversary of the United States and you don’t worry about what Trump may do on any given day then you’re insane”.

What was billed as a showdown between the leaders of the United States and China over trade and North Korea ended with little sign of confrontation or concrete progress in resolving their differences.

Trump aides who participated in the talks described a productive first meeting between the leaders, saying they exhibited “positive” chemistry.

The two leaders also agreed that their first meeting, held at the seaside Mar-a-Lago resort in the US state of Florida, was “positive and fruitful”.

Thursday night’s strikes – some 60 cruise missiles fired from two ships in the Mediterranean – were the culmination of a rapid, three-day transformation for Trump, who has long opposed deeper US involvement in Syria’s civil war. Trump could be seen chatting and gesturing to Xi, who did the same. “It is in this vital, national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons”, Mr. Trump said in an address on Thursday night. -China dialogue by putting the two presidents at the head of the forum.

Taking action against North Korea has been a sticking point in USA talks with the Chinese. “That’s the first time I’ve heard them say that in a bilateral context”, he said. He said the two issues “really do mix”.

Despite Tillerson’s assessment, China hasn’t signaled any change in its approach to Pyongyang in the wake of the landmark summit. It is an important and meaningful development in the U.S. In an editorial, the paper said Trump launched the strike “to establish his authority as the US president”. It was the first direct USA assault on the Russian-backed government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war.

Along with its rapidly advancing nuclear and long-range missile capabilities, North Korea has its artillery and short-range missiles trained on Seoul, the capital of USA ally South Korea.

There seems to have been no progress, however, in their discussions on North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, which Trump and his aides had said would be a top agenda item.

Wang Dong, associate professor of worldwide studies at China’s elite Peking University, said the move may have had the added bonus in Trump’s eyes of sending North Korea a message over its nuclear program, but that China was unlikely to be fazed.

South Korea’s acting president warned on Tuesday of “greater provocations” by North Korea as tension on the Korean peninsula rises over concern the North may conduct a test of its military hardware in coming days. Beijing is building and fortifying islands in pursuit of expansive territorial claims in the strategic waterway.