In his Twitter whine, Trump said Chinese inaction on North Korea would no longer be allowed to continue.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017
The US president has had an up and down relationship with China, accusing the country of manipulating its currency during the campaign (though not as president) and complaining of trade imbalances.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017
However, once in office Trump seemed to sweeten on the Asian economic powerhouse, and after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April at his Mar-a-Lago resort, said, "We have made tremendous progress in our relationship with China. We'll be making a lot of additional progress. The relationship developed by President Xi and myself I think is outstanding."
However, US arms sales to Taiwan have strained the relationship, as has the problem of North Korea. China remains the only significant ally of the Hermit Kingdom, and Trump has used both carrots and sticks to urge Beijing to rein in its southern neighbor.
But North Korea's testing program continues unabated, with major breakthroughs seemingly demonstrated in a July 4 test of what may be in intercontinental ballistic missile and a further test of what most assess as the same missile on Friday.
China, meanwhile, has said it is not responsible for the actions of Pyongyang and as nations like the US and others continue to impose unilateral sanctions, is pushing for dialogue and multilateral action to resolve the ongoing crisis.
On July 8 after the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Trump tweeted that he'd had a very productive meeting with Xi on trade and North Korea — but only three days before he'd been chastising Beijing for not working with the US.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2017
While the president seems not to care that his Twitter feed expresses contradictory moods, his penchant for using it more and more to express policy and other decisions means North Korea and China watchers may be looking for a great deal of meaning in 140 characters.
