North Korea missile test highlights limits of US President Donald Trump’s China strategy
Trump will find his trade or economic options to contain the North limited by the possibility of any retaliatory Chinese action if Beijing perceives any potential harm to its interests
US President Donald Trump is grappling with the limits of his strategy to rely on China to get North Korea to limit its nuclear and missile programmes following the reclusive state’s July 4 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The US president must now decide whether the test, coupled with the death last month of an American college student who had been imprisoned in North Korea, means giving up on collaboration and more directly confronting Beijing.
Those advocating a hard line within the administration are emboldened by the recent North Korean actions, and the White House is weighing a series of gestures that could antagonise Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government.
But Trump’s options are limited by practical and economic realities. The president must calibrate a response that would prompt Chinese pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without causing difficult repercussions for US interests.
Trump must also convince Beijing he is willing to follow through on his threats, particularly after Chinese authorities appeared to shrug off promises to solve the North Korean issue on his own, if necessary.