Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Xi Jinping Will Make First Visit to North Korea Ahead of Meeting With Trump

Kim Jong-un, right, has visited China four times in the past 15 months, including this visit with President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January.Credit...Huang Jingwen/Xinhua, via Associated Press

BEIJING — President Xi Jinping of China plans to make his first state visit to North Korea this week, a surprise move that could rattle his relationship with President Trump, who has twice met the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and made his nuclear diplomacy with Mr. Kim a signature foreign policy project.

Mr. Kim has traveled to China four times in the past 15 months to confer with the Chinese president. But Mr. Xi, 66, who is one of the most traveled Chinese leaders, had been reluctant to reciprocate before now, depriving the 35-year-old Mr. Kim of the prestige of playing host to his most powerful neighbor.

By going to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, Mr. Xi is injecting himself into the middle of Mr. Trump’s negotiating efforts, which have languished since February when he and Mr. Kim failed to agree on a disarmament deal in Hanoi, Vietnam. Several analysts said they expected Mr. Xi to try to revive those talks during his two-day visit, on Thursday and Friday.

He could then deliver a plan for the next phase of the nuclear negotiations to Mr. Trump in Osaka, Japan, where he and the American president are expected to meet on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit meeting.

That would be a “beautiful present” to Mr. Trump, said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing, given the tensions between the United States and China over trade and the American actions against the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. It would also be a distraction from large demonstrations in Hong Kong, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Mr. Trump would raise with Mr. Xi when they meet.

But Mr. Xi’s move also risks sidelining Mr. Trump in the diplomatic undertaking that he views as one of his biggest potential legacies. And it suggests the Chinese leader is willing to strike out on his own, both in his own neighborhood and with leaders in Russia, India and other countries, as China’s broader relationship with the United States continues to fray.

“The Chinese have held off for months on Xi traveling to North Korea because it’s such a strong signal of China’s geopolitical orientation,” said Evan S. Medeiros, a former China adviser to President Barack Obama. “It signals that China has essentially given up on having a stable, mutually beneficial relationship with Trump.”

Even the meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi in Osaka is not yet nailed down. While American officials expect the two men to sit down, Chinese publications still refer to the meeting in hypothetical terms. Mr. Trump said recently that “it doesn’t matter” whether Mr. Xi meets him, since he will go ahead and impose tariffs on an additional $325 billion worth of Chinese exports if the two sides do not agree on a trade deal.

On Sunday, the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, said he did not expect a meeting between Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump to yield more on the trade negotiations than an agreement to keep talking.

The two leaders have both labored not to let tensions between their countries become personal. Mr. Xi recently referred to Mr. Trump as his “friend,” while Mr. Trump regularly proclaims his friendship with the Chinese leader, even as he notes that the two have sharply divergent interests.

But analysts say the cumulative impact of the American tariffs, and especially its campaign to squeeze Huawei, have made the broader relationship so toxic that whatever rapport there is between the two leaders is less important. Hard-liners in Beijing and Washington are both in the ascendancy, reducing the chances for breakthroughs at the leader level.

“The personal relationship and personal rapport can help you avoid certain problems,” said Stephen K. Bannon, a former chief strategist to Mr. Trump. “But it’s almost evolved beyond national leaders. The two government apparatuses are now engaged in a great-power struggle.”

Relations between China and North Korea are scarcely less tense. Mr. Xi’s visit would be the first by a Chinese leader in 14 years. After the North staged successful missile and nuclear tests, China voted at the United Nations in favor of tougher economic sanctions against the country, a position that has deeply rankled Mr. Kim.

The sudden arrival of Mr. Xi in North Korea would not necessarily mean any improvement in the brittle relationship between the neighbors, said Evans J.R. Revere, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I am certain that Beijing demanded a price from Pyongyang for the visit — no provocations,” such as missile tests, Mr. Revere said.

Mr. Xi, he said, would be a useful conduit for the North Koreans to convey “assurances” to Mr. Trump about the North’s intentions. But he played down the likelihood that Mr. Xi would act as an intermediary to restart negotiations with Mr. Trump.

“The North Koreans don’t need the Chinese to deliver messages to Trump about possible talks,” he said. “They have a direct channel.”

Still, China remains North Korea’s most important ally — one on which Pyongyang has long relied to intercede for it on the world stage. China has sometimes helped Mr. Kim by looking the other way when ships deliver oil to the North in violation of international sanctions.

The Communist Party’s International Department said Mr. Xi’s visit would “inject new momentum” into the relationship, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. Mr. Xi’s trip would come 70 years after the start of diplomatic relations between the North and China, CCTV said. A year later, in 1950, China began fighting alongside North Koreans against the United States in the Korean War.

Mr. Trump remains publicly committed to his diplomacy. He announced last week that he had received a letter in which Mr. Kim had offered a “reset” in relations after the failure in Hanoi. But he would offer no further details about the letter.

In South Korea, the president’s spokesman said the South had learned of preparations for Mr. Xi’s plan to visit North Korea in the past week. South Korea has been supportive of efforts to restart disarmament talks, and the visit by Mr. Xi should contribute to their resumption, said Ko Min-jung, the spokeswoman of the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

From Mr. Xi’s perspective, analysts said, persuading Mr. Trump that he is playing a constructive role with North Korea would be a timely reminder of China’s influence. It might even buy him some good will in the trade negotiations, which Mr. Trump has not hesitated in the past to link to North Korea.

“The prize, from Xi’s point of view, is that Trump will continue to think that way,” said Jeffrey A. Bader, a former China adviser to Mr. Obama.

Jane Perlez reported from Beijing, and Mark Landler from Washington. Choe Sang-hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: China’s President Plans First North Korea Visit Before Global Summit. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT