Opinion | N Korea situation a tough test for China's new leaders

Given the tension over the Korean peninsula, one would have expected the meetings on Saturday between visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry and the top Chinese leaders to have focused on North Korea's escalating belligerence and its threat to the Pacific region, and to shed light on how two of the world's most important countries might co-operate to contain the crisis.

That appears not to have been the case, if one goes by mainland state media reports of the meetings. According to Chinese-language reports by Xinhua, neither President Xi Jinping nor Kerry even mentioned North Korea, as they were busy trumpeting the need to take a strategic and long-term view of Sino-US ties, increase the frequency of high-level visits and jointly tackle challenges.

Xinhua's English-language reports had Kerry mentioning North Korea in his opening remarks during a five-minute photo call with journalists, in which he told Xi "this is obviously a critical time with some very challenging issues - issues regarding the Korean Peninsula, the challenges of Iran and nuclear weapons, Syria and the Middle East, and the economies around the world are in need of a boost".

Premier Li Keqiang was a little more forthright, telling Kerry that troublemaking on the Korean issue would harm the interests of all parties involved, according to Xinhua. "To do that is no different from lifting a rock, only to drop it on one's own toes," Li was quoted as saying, using a Chinese proverb. There is little doubt that Li's remarks would be interpreted as a clear warning to North Korea, but they could also be subtly aimed at the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Only in meetings between Kerry and his Chinese counterparts, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and State Councillor Yang Jiechi , did the Chinese officials express serious concerns and reiterate the goals of having a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula and settling the issue though dialogue.

What do all these differences in communication mean? Kerry's China trip is clearly aimed at urging Beijing to lean harder on Pyongyang to back down from a confrontation with the US, as China is seen as the only country with enough economic and political leverage to influence North Korea. But the Chinese leaders' public statements have given little away as to whether Kerry has achieved his goal.

Over the past few months, Beijing has shifted its tone on North Korea by backing UN sanctions against it and allowing state media to carry articles sharply critical of Pyongyang.