As Trump Bets on China’s Help on North Korea, Aides Ask: Is It Worth It?<br />ean problem, they will." On May 29, after another missile test, Mr. Trump wrote: "North Korea has shown great disrespect for their neighbor, China, by shooting off yet another missile … but China is trying hard!" In the last month, traders said Chinese exports to North Korea were being inspected more thoroughly.<br />that China is very much the economic lifeline to North Korea so, while nothing is easy, if they want to solve the North Kor<br />To raise the pressure on China, administration officials said the United States was considering sanctions on a range of Chinese individuals and banks<br />that do business with North Korea — a step that could aggravate tensions with China and sour Mr. Trump’s fledgling relationship with Mr. Xi.<br />State Rex said that We cannot allow China to use its economic power to buy its way out of other problems, whether<br />it’s militarizing islands in the South China Sea or failure to put appropriate pressure on North Korea,<br />It is not clear that even these steps would prod China to radically alter its approach to North Korea, which is driven less by concern<br />over its nuclear ambitions than a dread of what a collapsed North would mean for China, with which it shares an 880-mile-long border.<br />The Chinese are among those most interested in a meeting between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, officials said, in part because<br />that would put the onus for a solution on Washington, not Beijing.<br />Mr. Trump’s gamble was based on his calculation that Mr. Xi, the Chinese president, could<br />put heavy pressure on North Korea to curb its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
