China douses diplomatic fires in eventful year – but one still smoulders
China is papering over its diplomatic cracks in readiness for a key Communist Party congress but one problem refuses to be swept under the carpet
When US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson touched down in China last week, there was really only one burning question on Beijing’s diplomatic minds: what to do about North Korea’s “rocket man” Kim Jong-un.
With less than three weeks to go until the Communist Party’s national congress, all hands are on deck in the capital and throughout the country to ensure the gathering goes without a hitch. That means papering over potential conflicts abroad to ensure nothing detracts from the highly choreographed show at home.
To that end, Beijing has tamped down border tensions with India and mended fences with Singapore. It has hosted a grand summit for its Belt and Road Initiative in May, and another summit of emerging market economies in September.
But one big knot in diplomatic ties refuses to come loose: the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
Kim has showed that he is willing and able to upstage China at key moments, mostly recently detonating what North Korea said was a hydrogen bomb just as Chinese President Xi Jinping played host to the leaders of four other major emerging economies at a BRICS summit in Xiamen in early September.
The Kim question has grown to eclipse all others between the world’s two biggest economies, raising uncertainties that are compounded by the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump.