US President Donald Trump hailed "tremendous progress" in relations with China, during a second day of talks with President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort yesterday.
The tweets came on the heels of what Trump initially projected would be a "very difficult" summit with Xi at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday and Friday, particularly around trade issues and North Korea's nuclear program.
The Republican president, who took office on Jan 20, tweeted last week that the United States could no longer tolerate massive trade deficits and job losses and that his meeting with Xi Jinping "will be a very hard one".
Xinhua, China's official news agency, said Xi had invited Trump to make a state visit to China in 2017 and that the USA president had "accepted the invitation with pleasure, and hoped to make the trip at an early date".
With growing signs that Pyongyang may be preparing a sixth nuclear test, a USA aircraft carrier strike force near Singapore was diverted north toward the Korean peninsula, President Trump spoke to leaders in Tokyo and Seoul, and senior administration officials made pointed note of the "full range of options" available to counter threats to the United States or its allies.
The missile strike on Syria overshadowed meetings that USA and Chinese officials described as big-picture conversations on trade as well as North Korea, which stopped short of producing specific agreements. The U.S. -China relationship appears stable for the moment, no small feat after Trump regularly attacked Beijing on the campaign trail.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with they wives, first lady Melania Trump and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan depart after posing for photographers before dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Palm Beach, Fla.
"For President Xi to see this unfold shoulder-to-shoulder is a rare opportunity to get - if you think of poker players - some very interesting tells", Mr. Park said.
Thus it is not altogether surprising that Trump was able to say that China would be "stepping up" its activities to help curb Pyongyang's programme. "We recently have had in-depth and lengthy communications to this end and arrived at many common understandings, the most important being deepening our friendship and building a kind of trust in keeping with the Sino-U.S. working relationship and friendship". "But in order for that to happen, North Korea's posture has to change before there's any basis for dialogue or discussions", he said.
Pence Stares Down North Korean Troops
The American vice president is on a 10-day trip to Asia that has been dominated by the North Korea issue. "It's a major danger". But confrontation and conflict will not resolve the problem, and may worsen it as North Korea is nuclear and unpredictable.
However, according to CNN, Syria was likely a secondary issue of concern for the Chinese delegation, which hoped for the meeting to go well following Trump's aggressive rhetoric on U.S.
Steel: The New York Times reported last week that Trump plans to soon sign an executive order targeting countries, notably China, that sell steel in the US market at below cost prices.
Although Beijing has condemned the missile tests, it has hesitated to take serious action against Pyongyang, fearing that the country's collapse would generate a flood of refugees across its borders and leave the U.S. military on its doorstep. This is because China puts its own interests above those of the United States, something that Mr. Trump, as an America Firster, surely should understand. Of course, China's success in maintaining the relationship doesn't spell a USA defeat.
The U.S. Navy's Third Fleet, in turn, publicly announced that the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and a strike force that includes two missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser were being diverted north from scheduled port calls in Australia to "maintain readiness and presence in the western Pacific".
Pyongyang considers Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's government as an ally, experts, however, caution that Kim Jong-Un has the capability to counter any military provocation.
Xi said his first meeting with Trump bears unique significance to the development of China-U.S. ties. Within Trump's administration, divisions remain over how to approach China. "I think that the Chinese will be expressing some anger privately to the United States".
Kim's government has conducted five underground nuclear tests, two of them in 2016, and is working to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that ultimately could deliver a warhead to US territory. -China relationship. I believe that, with the passage of time, we will make efforts to create prosperity for both countries and their people and to uphold global peace and stability. As Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acknowledged, this may be ambitious, but it is an important symbol of what he called the "growing rapport" between the two countries.
JOHN YANG: U.S. officials say Mr. Trump has accepted an invitation to visit China in the future.
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