BEIJING: China said Monday the US should not link trade to discussions about North Korea’s nuclear program, after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of taking no action on Pyongyang despite profiting from business with America.
“We believe that the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are two issues that are in two completely different domains,” Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming told a press briefing, adding the issues “are not related, and should not be discussed together.”
“In general, China-US trade, including mutual investment, is mutually beneficial, and both China and the United States have gained great profits from bilateral trade and investment cooperations,” he said.
The comments came in response to a question about tweets from Trump Saturday warning that he would no longer allow China to “do nothing” on North Korea, after the hermit state launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Trump, who is at loggerheads with Beijing over how to handle Kim’s regime, has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.
In his critique, Trump linked trade woes with the Asian giant to policy on North Korea, after South Korea indicated it was speeding up the deployment of a US missile defense system (THAAD) that has infuriated China.
“I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk,” Trump wrote.
“We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!“
The president’s tweets coincided with a 10-hour bilateral mission that saw US B-1B bombers along with fighter jets from the South Korean and Japanese air forces practice intercept and formation drills.
It was followed Sunday by the successful test of a THAAD missile defense system in Alaska.
China, Pyongyang’s main economic and diplomatic ally, opposes any military intervention and calls for a resolution through dialogue.
It has also long argued that the THAAD deployment in South Korea will destabilize the region.
On trade, the United States has blamed the unbalanced relationship — marked by a trade deficit with China of $309 billion last year — on Beijing’s policies that impede access to their market.
China says Washington’s own rules restricting US high-tech exports are partially to blame.
dly/yan/eb
China tells Trump not to link trade to N. Korea
China tells Trump not to link trade to N. Korea
Bus with Chinese tourists crashes through ice on Russia’s Lake Baikal, killing 8
- One of the Chinese tourists managed to escape from the bus
- The bus plunged into a 3-meter (10-foot) -wide ice crevasse
MOSCOW: A tour bus carrying Chinese tourists plunged through the ice on Russia’s Lake Baikal, killing eight people, officials said.
One of the Chinese tourists managed to escape from the bus, which was crossing the frozen lake on Friday, Irkutsk regional Gov. Igor Kobzev wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday. He said the dead included seven Chinese tourists and the driver.
The bus plunged into a 3-meter (10-foot) -wide ice crevasse, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry reported. The lake is 18 meters (59 feet) deep at the site of the accident, it said. The ministry said rescuers used underwater cameras before embarking on a diving operation.
The regional prosecutor’s office said a criminal probe had been opened. The Irkutsk tourism office reported on Saturday that the bus tour had been run by an unregistered operator.
Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, is one of Russia’s key tourism attractions. Numbers of Chinese visitors to the country soared in recent years, after Moscow and Beijing introduced a mutual visa-free regime.
