China may not be participating directly in the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but in some ways Beijing will be the invisible third party in the room.

 

Like many countries in the region, China will be watching the Trump-Kim summit closely for signs of the possible impact the meeting could have on its interests.

 

During the roller coaster run-up to the sit down, China has played a significant role. Analysts note Beijing’s participation in expansive international sanctions was a key factor in getting Kim to the negotiating table. Even though, Beijing has tapered off its enforcement in recent months.

“China was participating in an unprecedented sanctions regime, very close to embargo, without Chinese participation it would be much less likely that North Korea’s government would’ve agreed to talk,” said Andrei Lankov, director of the Korea Risk Group, a provider of risk analysis, news and information on North Korea.

 

Before Tuesday’s meeting, Xi Jinping met twice with Kim Jong Un. On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Kim flew to Singapore on an Air China passenger jet. It did not clarify whether Beijing footed the bill, but that it provided the plane at Pyongyang’s request.

As North Korea’s biggest trading partner and its closest international ally, the success or failure of the meeting could have lasting consequences for Beijing.

 

If it is a success, relations between the United States and North Korea could see improvement and what that might mean for Beijing is uncertain. If the meeting falls apart there are concerns about what that might mean for security on the peninsula.

 

Alexander Neill, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia said there must be a degree of nervousness in Beijing that Trump can make a deal on a whim in Singapore.

 

“The consequences of significant progress not being made and a rapid escalation in hostility, that’s always an option if this summit doesn’t work,” Neill said.

 

On the surface, Beijing has been a vocal supporter of the meetings and the “pivotal” role they see the talks playing in helping take steps toward ridding the peninsula or nuclear weapons. Beijing denies that it has other intentions.

“China has always played a positive and constructive role on North Korea’s nuclear issue. We have no ulterior motives on this,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said at a recent briefing.

 

But clearly there are results that Beijing does not want to see. Neill said the possibility of Washington and Pyongyang opening up embassies in their respective capitals and Washington getting a bolt hold in the north is something that is a concern for Beijing.

 

“The Chinese have wanted to own the relationship and are probably quite covetous over the idea of the United States running roughshod over the initiatives they have pursued such as a removal of U.S. forces or reduction in joint exercises between the ROK [South Korea] and the U.S.,” Neill said.

Lankov, who is also a professor of Korean history at Kookmin University in Seoul, said what China wants is the status quo: it doesn’t want war on the peninsula, revolution or unification where South Korea is the dominant player.

 

“China wants to have stability in the region, not because China is such a nice country, but because any conceivable change or separation in or around the Korean peninsula will damage China’s interests,” he said.

 

What Beijing also wants is recognition and to play a prominent in any efforts to denuclearize the peninsula. Beijing has paid particular attention to talk that South Korea and the United States could together with North Korea sign a peace agreement without China.

The Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice agreement in 1953. However, a peace treaty was never signed, leaving the two countries in a technical state of war. China was one of four representatives to sign the agreement and argues that it should be involved.

 

In an opinion piece in the Global Times on Sunday, Lu Chao, a North Korean professor said a peace treaty could not be signed without Beijing’s participation. He also warned that China needed to be “vigilant about possible subterfuge of South Korea and the U.S.”

 

“The two countries may try to confuse abolishing the 1953 armistice with the so-called declaration,” he added.

 

 
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The U.S. government’s completion, this week, of a sprawling de facto American embassy in Taipei signals a strong warming of relations between the two governments despite pressure from Beijing.

 

Officials from Washington on Tuesday will unveil the new structure built for its informal diplomatic mission, the American Institute in Taiwan. The 14,000-square-meter, $250 million compound on the northeastern edge of Taiwan’s capital will replace a smaller one that is located in the city center.

 

For years, the United States has been moving diplomatic missions around the world to comply with new security rules following two bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa 20 years ago. The U.S. Department of State is spending $21 billion to replace 201 of what officials of the U.S. government’s General Accountability Office say are not only unsafe but “dilapidated” diplomatic facilities.

 

But the boxy U.S. hillside compound in Taipei has excited officials in Taiwan because it follows what they see as encouraging moves by Washington recently that — as Taiwan officials see it — give them a shot of strength to resist unending pressure from China. Beijing claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory.

 

“The AIT’s completion of its new offices, this kind of major event indicates a sense of importance, whether it’s for government departments or for the public,” Taiwan foreign ministry spokesman Andrew Lee told a news conference week.

 

Tension with China

 

Taiwan looks to U.S. support to stand up to China, which has the world’s second largest economy and the third most powerful military.

Beijing has claimed sovereignty over the island since communists came to power on the mainland in 1948 and China considers it a renegade province. Meanwhile, polls in Taiwan show that most Taiwanese prefer autonomy. Beijing has turned up pressure since 2016, when President Tsai Ing-wen took office in Taiwan and rejected the idea that both sides fall under one flag.

 

Beijing goes to great lengths to prevent Taiwan from joining international organizations. It has paid four of Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies to switch allegiance since 2016, officials in Taipei say, leaving just 18 countries that recognize Taipei. It has also flown military planes just outside Taiwan’s air defense identification zone 12 times since 2015 and sailed an aircraft carrier around the island.

 

Series of pro-Taiwan decisions

 

Taiwan-U.S. ties have solidified since March, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act. The measure, which passed unanimously in the U.S. Congress and triggered a formal protest from Beijing, encourages high-level visits between Washington and Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. Marie Royce, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, is visiting Taiwan June 10-14 and will attend a ceremony marking completion of the Taipei compound.

 

In April, the U.S. government said it would give American defense contractors marketing licenses for submarine technology sought by Taiwan’s defense ministry.

 

Later in April, the State Department advocated participation for Taiwan in the World Health Organization’s annual assembly and other international organizations. Last month, the White House criticized China for asking that 44 international airlines avoid listing Taiwan as a “country” on their websites.

 

The new de facto embassy compound comes as a sign of U.S. concern for Taiwan as China tries to make Taiwan bend, ruling party legislator Lee Chun-yi said.

 

“At least what everyone can see clearly is that at present it’s China that’s changing the China-Taiwan status quo, and the U.S. State Department has said that clearly,” the lawmaker said. “The cause of the problem isn’t Taiwan. Taiwan is maintaining the status quo. So, I think [progress in U.S.-Taiwan ties] is a positive development.”

 

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Sunday the new building’s dedication set for Tuesday will mark “a milestone that reflects the importance of the U.S.-Taiwan partnership.”

 

No formal relations

 

The new de facto diplomatic mission does not formalize Taiwan-U.S. relations. Washington dropped official recognition of Taiwan in 1979 in favor of recognizing the larger, faster-growing communist China. The U.S. still calibrates much of its Taiwan policy with an eye toward avoiding a major upset of Beijing, analysts say.

 

“Construction of this facility has been working for many years, so I don’t think there are any additional messages that you can derive from this facility,” said Alex Chiang, international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei.

 

While Taiwan officials feel a boost for now, some worry it may not be for long and there is concern here the Trump Administration may be using Taiwan as a bargaining chip to get more from China on trade or North Korea.

Once Trump gets what he wants, some scholars argue, he will sideline ties with Taiwan.

 

Leaders of Taiwan’s ruling party “are worried the U.S. will suddenly drop everything,” said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor.

 

 
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Envoys from the United States and North Korea are holding talks to iron out any last-minute differences before Tuesday’s historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that veteran diplomat Sung Kim is leading the U.S. delegation in a working group meeting Monday at the city-state’s Ritz Carlton hotel. The North Korea side is being led by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.

Monday’s meeting is apparently aimed at narrowing the gap between the U.S. and North Korea over the demand for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

President Trump expressed confidence about his meeting upon his arrival in Singapore Sunday, telling reporters after stepping down from Air Force One that he his feeling “very good” about Tuesday’s summit.

Ahead of his arrival, Trump acknowledged he is heading into “unknown territory” for the meeting Tuesday.

In response to a question from VOA News just before heading to Asia from the Group of Seven summit in Canada, Trump said “I really feel confident” about the unprecedented encounter between a sitting American president and a member of the family dynasty which has maintained iron-fist control over one of the world’s most reclusive countries for three generations.

Trump added that he believes Kim, half the age of the American president, “wants to do something great for his people.” But Trump cautioned that Kim “won’t have that opportunity again” if the talks do not go well — describing this opportunity for diplomacy with the United States as a “one-time shot.”

Trump and others in his government have said advancement has been made on obtaining a commitment from Kim to give up all his nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Progress could lead to a peace treaty and formally end a state of war on the Korean peninsula, which has persisted for nearly 70 years. 

A quick read

Whether such a deal can be done, Trump declared on Saturday, is something he will know almost from the moment they meet.

“I think within the first minute – my touch, my feel, that’s what I do,” the president said, touting his deal-making experience as a businessman.

If that feeling is not positive, Trump predicted: “I don’t want to waste my time. I don’t want to waste his time.”

Trump spoke to a group of White House reporters in Charlevoix in the Canadian province of Quebec after cutting short his appearance at the G-7 leaders’ gathering.

Trump acknowledged the difficulty of gleaning much information concerning Kim, who has scant experience on the international stage and about whom foreign intelligence agencies have struggled to gather much beyond basic biographical data. 

“This is a leader who is really an unknown personality,” Trump said. Despite that, “we’re going in with a very positive spirit” and “I think very well prepared.”

Kim arrived in Singapore mid-afternoon Sunday, amid much speculation about the outcome of Tuesday’s talks.

Trump pushed back on criticism that giving the North Korean leader a meeting with an American president is a major concession with nothing of value in return. He noted the goodwill gesture of Pyongyang recently releasing “three hostages” – Americans who had been imprisoned in the country – and that was enough for him to proceed with the summit.

“It’s never been done before,” Trump said of a U.S.-North Korean leaders’ meeting. “Obviously what has been done before hasn’t worked.”

Risk of failure

U.S. officials traveling with the president – as well as analysts — have acknowledged the risk that even the smallest of perceived slights by either side could prompt one of the leaders to instantly call it all off.

Trump has had recent discussions with South Korean Moon Jae-in, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping — who all have vested interests in the outcome — about matters he plans to raise. 

Asked by VOA News if he will bring up North Korea’s egregious human rights record – including its system of gulags for civilians deemed enemies of the state – and the unresolved fate of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents over the decades, Trump replied, “We’re going to bring everything up.”

The president is accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — who has visited Pyongyang twice to prepare for the summit — and National Security Advisor John Bolton, a hardliner on dealing with North Korea. 
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A Colorado wildfire nearly doubled in size from Saturday to Sunday, prompting hundreds more evacuations as dry and windy conditions were expected to persist, officials said.

The so-called 416 Fire in southwest Colorado had burned nearly 17,000 acres by Sunday morning, an area larger than Manhattan. The fire located north of Durango was 10 percent contained, the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team said.

The fire had burned about 9,000 acres by early Saturday, according to an aerial survey.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued Sunday for approximately 675 residences, bringing the total number of homes under evacuation to almost 2,000, said La Plata County, Colorado, spokeswoman Megan Graham.

Law enforcement officials are going door to door and residents have been warned to leave via calls to their phones, text message and emails, Graham said.

Low humidity and high winds have left firefighters bracing for the fire to spread.

Images on social media showed large plumes of smoke disseminating above mountains against a backdrop of blue sky.

A blaze known as the Burro fire prompted U.S. Forest Service officials on Saturday to close part of the Colorado trail in the San Juan National Forest.

In addition, an air quality health advisory was extended Sunday due to unhealthy levels of smoke, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

In 2017, a near-record 10 million acres (4 million hectares) were burned in U.S. wildfires, the National Interagency Coordination Center said.

The same agency issued a June forecast for “above-normal significant large fire potential” in Southern California and the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, because of a deepening drought and ample fuel for wildfires.
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A key White House adviser assailed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday, contending that he “stabbed us in the back” and undermined U.S. President Donald Trump after he left the G-7 economic summit to head to Singapore for nuclear weapons talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow blamed the Canadian leader for saying at a news conference that new U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel were “insulting,” prompting Trump to direct U.S. officials to rebuff its allies and refuse to sign the traditional end-of-summit communique in Quebec.

“We leave and then he pulls this sophomoric political stunt for domestic consideration,” Kudlow told CNN.  “You just don’t behave that way.  It’s a betrayal.”

Kudlow said Trump had negotiated the communique in “good faith,” and had called at the summit for “no tariffs, free trade.”  But Kudlow said that after Trump left the gathering hours early to head to Singapore, “He gets up in a plane and then… Trudeau stabs him.”  He said Trump “is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around.”

Kudlow added, “You can’t put Trump in a position of being weak going into the meeting with Kim,” where Trump is hopeful of negotiating the dismantling of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.  

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News, “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door… that’s what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference.”

Navarro added, “To my friends in Canada, that was one of the worst political miscalculations of the Canadian leader in modern Canadian history. All Justin Trudeau had to do was take the win.”

Trudeau did not respond to the U.S. attacks, instead declaring the summit a success.

“The historic and important agreement we all reached” at the summit “will help make our economies stronger & people more prosperous, protect our democracies, safeguard our environment and protect women & girls’ rights around the world. That’s what matters,” Trudeau said.

Kudlow defended Trump’s suggestion that Russia be allowed to rejoin the G-7 group of seven of the world’s most advanced economies, although none of the other six leaders showed any support for the idea.  Russia was booted from the G-8 in 2014 after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and threw its support to pro-Russian insurgents fighting Kyiv’s troops in eastern Ukraine.

“Perhaps we should go back to the G-8,” Kudlow said. “Russia is a player on the world stage.”

As Trump was airborne, he instructed U.S. officials to not sign the communique issued by all seven leaders attending the gathering.

“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers, and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Trump said on Twitter.

“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!” Trump tweeted.

French President Emmanuel Macron assailed Trump’s stance, saying, “International cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks.” He called Trump’s withdrawal from signing the communique a display of “incoherence and inconsistency.”

“Germany stands by the jointly agreed communique,” Germany spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

Trudeau closed the annual G-7 Summit in Canada Saturday by refusing to budge on positions that place him at odds with Trump, particularly the new steel and aluminum tariffs that have drawn the ire of Canada and the European Union.

He said in closing remarks that Canada will proceed with retaliatory measures on U.S. goods as early as July 1.

“I highlighted directly to the president that Canadians did not take it lightly that the United States has moved forward with significant tariffs,” Trudeau said following the summit. “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we will also not be pushed around.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May echoed Trudeau, pledging to retaliate for tariffs on EU goods. “The loss of trade through tariffs undermines competition, reduces productivity, removes the incentive to innovate and ultimately makes everyone poorer,” she said. “And in response, the EU will impose countermeasures.”

Trudeau and May also bucked Trump on another high-profile issue: Russia. Trump is trying to have Russia rejoin the group after being pushed out in 2014 over Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Trudeau said he is “not remotely interested” in having Russia rejoin the group, which comprises the world’s seven of the world’s most advanced economies.

May added, “We have agreed to stand ready to take further restrictive measures against Russia if necessary.”

Before leaving the summit early for his meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump said Saturday there must be “fair and reciprocal” trade between the U.S. and other countries.

“The United States has been taken advantage of for decades and decades, and we can’t do that anymore,” Trump told reporters. He said many “unfair foreign trading practices” are getting “straightened out, slowly, but surely.”

WATCH: President Trump on Trade

He blamed past U.S. leaders for the current global trade landscape and congratulated other world leaders for “so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for countries and so bad for the United States.”

Trump said talks this weekend with G-7 leaders convinced him they are “committed to a much more fair trade situation for the United States.”

Earlier, Trump described the U.S.-Canadian relationship as very good, stating “we’re actually working on cutting tariffs and making it all very fair for both countries. And we’ve made a lot of progress today. We’ll see how it all works out.”

After a sit-down meeting with Macron, Trump said the French leader been “very helpful” in efforts to address trade deficits with the European Union.

Macron responded that he had a “very direct and open discussion” with Trump and “there is a critical path that is a way to progress all together.”

Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said Canada will not change its mind about the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs which she termed “illegal.”

Trump imposed the tariffs on the grounds that weak domestic industries could affect U.S. national security.

Wayne Lee, Steve Herman, Marissa Melton, Fern Robinson contributed to this report.

 
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It was a calmer summit, but drew far less Western media attention than the fractious G7 gathering in Canada, which ended in disarray in an escalating dispute over trade and tariffs.

Half a world away at a carefully choreographed annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Qingdao, China, there were no death-grip handshakes, personal jibes or Twitter skirmishes between the leaders of Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

And Russian and Chinese officials, as well as their state-run media outlets, Sunday sought to stress the contrast of unity in the Chinese port city of Qingdao with the division and ill-temper in Quebec as a tale of two summits.

During a Sunday, news conference in Qingdao, Russian leader Vladimir Putin offered an oblique commentary on the G7’s disarray, noting the combined purchasing power of the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is greater than that of the G7.

And Putin didn’t hesitate to note growing friction between the U.S. and Europe. It is a theme he has pressed repeatedly in recent weeks, notably during a recent trip to Austria, revealing a growing confidence in trying to drive a wedge between Washington and its Western allies, according to Ivan Kurilla, a history professor at the European University at St. Petersburg.

In Qingdao, the Russian President highlighted the possibility of the U.S. imposing tariffs on foreign-manufactured cars, something the Trump administration has threatened to do. “This might really hurt the economic interests of many countries, first of all, of course, of the European ones,” Putin said.

His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping also referenced the disputes at the G7 meeting over President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, warning against “selfish, short-sighted” policies and extolling free-trade.

He failed to note, though, China’s own tariffs on imports and mounting criticism by Western states of what they see as protectionist trading practices.

Founded in 2001, the SCO was created as a forum to resolve border and security issues, but experts say that increasingly in recent years Moscow and Beijing have used it as platform to counter American and Western influence in Central Asia.

This year, saw India and Pakistan join as full members, which Chinese and Russian leaders saying their entry marks a new chapter for the SCO.

Chinese and Russian leaders deny they are using the bloc as a tool of geo-strategic rivalry with the West.

On Sunday a Communist Party newspaper, The Global Times, contrasted the SCO with NATO and the G7, saying that the American-led multilateral organizations want to “consolidate the global economic order that is favorable to the Western world. The SCO “is not a tool for geopolitical games, seeking hegemony or engaging in international confrontation,” the paper editorialized.

Nonetheless, it crowed: “[The] G-7, the rich countries’ club which is supposed to better promote development of Western economies, is now all dog-eat-dog.” And in the past Russian leaders have pointed to the SCO as important in trying to build a “multipolar world order.”

More subtle than their media outlets, the bloc’s leaders in Qingdao maintained the counterpoint with the G-7 at their two-day meeting, singing each other’s praises. Xi Jingping announced Putin is his “best, most intimate friend” and noted the SCO is a “model for international win-win cooperation” that “will benefit not only its eight members, but also the world at large.”

“Unquestionably there is a shared belief, or vision, held by all SCO members that the age of American domination, and of West-dominated global institutions, is coming to an end and that new global institutions should be developed with a much stronger Asian influence [and possibly African and Latin American as well], at least in parallel with the Western order, and in some areas in defiant competition,” says David Howell, a former British foreign minister and now chairman of the House of Lords international relations committee.

But for all of the talk of a new era of cooperation between SCO members, some analysts see the Beijing and Moscow-led organization as more of a propaganda platform used to paper over sharp differences between its members and one whose aims remain to be defined.

Russia and China “differ over the organization’s exact purpose and scope,” argues Alexander Cooley, a political scientist at New York’s Columbia University.

In a commentary on the eve of the Qingdao meeting, he noted, “Many of the organization’s high-profile initiatives continue to be aspirational and unfilled — especially in the area of economic and energy cooperation — while the organization’s strong norm of consensus effectively means that the body is rarely used to ‘problem-solve’ or host contentious debates among its members.”
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