China, US kick off inaugural diplomatic, security dialogue

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Xi's visit in April to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's club in Palm Beach, Florida, underlined the importance China places on relations with the United States, and officials hoped the initial cordiality between the two leaders would establish the sort of nonconfrontational partnership that Beijing prefers.

Beijing's foreign ministry said in an online statement published Thursday that senior Chinese officials reached a consensus on key issues during the high-level security dialogue in Washington, where U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in attendance.

Trump, who frequently denounced China on the campaign trail, has turned to Beijing to help pressure its ally North Korea, prompting concern among Asian partners that the U.S. might go easy on disputes in the South China Sea, where Taiwan also has claims.

Tillerson says the US and China agree that their companies should not do business with any North Korean companies that are subject to United Nations sanctions.

The top USA diplomat did confirm the two sides called for the "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula".

Trump's White House made halting the nuclear threat its number one foreign policy priority, putting aside concerns over China's trade imbalance with the United States to seek Beijing's help in facing down Kim. "At least I know China tried!"

Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of worldwide relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said that Xi's government had learned not to take Trump's Twitter messages at face value.

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"While the U.S. might not yet have come to terms with China's rise, and despite the fact that China and the United States have not had much cooperation on security issues in the past, it has now become so acute that they must find ways to manage their divergent strategic, security and economic interests", he said.

Wednesday's talks came amid rising calls for tougher sanctions on the North after American college student Otto Warmbier died just days after he was released from North Korea in a coma following 17 months of detention for taking down a political propaganda sign from a hotel.

American concern is growing over North Korea's acceleration toward having a nuclear missile that can strike the US mainland.

Trump has been counting on China to use its economic leverage with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as American concern grows over the North's acceleration toward having a nuclear missile that can strike the US mainland.

The latest escalation in tensions between North Korea and the USA follows the death of college student Otto Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after he was accused of attempting to steal a propaganda poster in Pyongyang. He was held for almost a year-and-a-half in North Korea before being sent home in a coma last week.

On Tuesday the president called what happened to Warmbier "a disgrace".

Washington has one threat it can use with Beijing: The possibility of "secondary" sanctions that go after Chinese companies doing business in North Korea.

Trump's tweet about China took some advisers by surprise. He said the Pentagon would maintain lines of communication with the Chinese military to head off any escalation in the South China Sea - but keep this separate from the diplomatic effort on North Korea.

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