US Secretary of State visits China to ease bilateral tensions
(Baonghean.vn) - According to analysts, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Beijing next week will be an opportunity to ease tensions between the two sides, which have escalated recently from trade to security, and North Korea will also be a priority issue for discussion.
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| US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo: Getty |
Pompeo will arrive in Beijing on October 8 after visiting Japan, North Korea and South Korea. The US Secretary of State’s visit to Beijing comes amid a deterioration in US-China relations, with both countries locked in a trade war and other disputes, including military activity in the South China Sea.
Zhao Tong, a nuclear policy researcher at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said persuading Beijing to comply with Washington's policy toward Pyongyang and efforts to ease bilateral tensions would be at the top of the agenda during the US Secretary of State's visit to China.
“Pompeo will brief his Chinese counterpart on the results of his visit to Pyongyang, and try to convince Beijing to keep its North Korea policy in line with that of the United States, as the gap between the two countries widens. Resolving the troubled US-China bilateral relationship will be another important mission... In this uncertain and skeptical time, it is extremely important to maintain open and effective high-level communication to avoid misjudging the wrong position,” the expert said.
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| US-China tensions have escalated in recent times, from trade to security. Photo: AP |
Meanwhile, Mr. Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, said that Mr. Pompeo will try to find common ground in trade disputes and other disputes.
“The reason why Secretary Pompeo is going to China is simple: US-China relations are at their lowest ebb, while diplomacy with North Korea is at a make-or-break moment. The US Secretary of State will be able to gauge China’s intentions when it is pushed to maximum pressure, and Beijing may use the North Korea issue as a bargaining chip,” Kazianis said.
Professor Zhang Bohui, Director of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies at Lingnan University (Hong Kong), commented that despite the hostility between the two powers, the US still needs China's support to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.
Meanwhile, expert Jin Chang-soo at the Sejong Institute (South Korea) shared the view that Secretary Pompeo's visit also aimed to create a "better image" of the US in the international arena./.