Beijing: Donald Trump showered Chinese leader Xi Jinping with praise during talks in Beijing on Thursday, but prodded his host to work fast to help resolve the North Korean nucl-ear crisis, warning “time is quickly running out”.
Speaking on the second day of a trip to Beijing marked by pomp and pageantry, the US president also decried China's “one-sided and unfair” trade surplus with the US, but told Xi “I don’t blame China”, as the two countries signed more than $250 billion in business deals.
Xi hosted Trump at the imposing Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square, for the main event of the US president’s five-nation tour of Asia.
While the two leaders exchanged pleasantries in keeping with their professed friendship — with Trump calling Xi a “very special man” — the former property magnate made clear that he exp-ected China to do more to rein in North Korea.
“We must act fast. And hopefully China will act faster and more effectively on this problem than anyone,” Trump said.
“China can fix this problem easily and I am calling on China and your great president to hopefully work on it very hard,” the US leader said.
“I know one thing about your president: If he works on it hard, it will happen. There’s no doubt about it,” he said.
The US administration thinks China’s economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyong-yang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.
Xi said the two countries reiterated their “firm commitment” to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and the implementation of UN resolutions.
