Xi Jinping adopts fatherly tone towards errant Kim Jong Un
China portrays visit as return of prodigal son, but relationship remains tense
March 28, 2018 10:14 am by Charles Clover in Beijing
When pictures emerged of Chinese president Xi Jinping meeting visiting North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing, the dynamic resembled that of a father chastising an errant son.
CCTV, China’s official broadcaster, on Wednesday showed footage of Mr Xi, 64, lecturing Mr Kim, 36, with the latter — in a demonstration of Confucian filiality — taking notes. When it was Mr Kim’s turn to speak, Mr Xi gazed impassively, like a schoolmaster, at the portly dictator.
The two-day meeting, which began on Monday after Mr Kim’s armoured train pulled into Beijing under heavy guard, was a diplomatic coup for China, which portrayed the visit as the prodigal son returning to the fold.
But the reality of the relationship remains distrust and even animosity that has been the norm for the past quarter-century between the two former allies. The paranoia surrounding the visit was hinted at by heavy secrecy. For two days Mr Kim’s motorcade had clogged traffic around China’s capital, but the visit was only officially announced after Mr Kim’s train had returned to North Korean soil.
The formerly fraternal relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years. China has backed multiple UN sanctions against Pyongyang, while Mr Kim wasted no opportunity to provoke China, purging officials seen as too close to Beijing and timing weapons tests to disrupt Chinese summits and holidays.
But the Beijing visit portrayed a new relationship between obedient Mr Kim and stern, benevolent Mr Xi. The Chinese president obliquely chastised Kim, frequently to the wise “elder generations” of Chinese and North Korean leaders who had the good sense to maintain cordial relations.
“The elder generations of leaders of the two countries trusted and supported each other, and wrote a fine story in the history of international relations,” Mr Xi said, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. Mr Xi said nothing about the younger generations.
Xinhua also quoted Mr Kim saying he was “committed to de-nuclearisation” and noted the first acknowledgment by Mr Kim of a planned meeting with US president Donald Trump later this year. But questions have been raised about Mr Kim’s commitment to disarming amid reports that North Korea may be in the process of bringing a new nuclear power reactor online at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, according to the New York Times.
Experts say the visit to Beijing — Mr Kim’s first trip abroad as ruler — is driven more by short-term politics rather than long-term loyalties, in the run-up to a round of diplomacy that could transform the Korean peninsula. Both leaders had found the courage to meet only after Mr Trump this month surprised the world by agreeing to negotiate directly with Mr Kim.
“The visit between Kim and Xi is a rather stunning about-face for a relationship that had been overtly frosty in recent years,” said Lindsey Ford, former US assistant secretary of state for Asia.
“It demonstrates the degree to which both leaders felt a need to seize the tactical initiative and stack the deck as much as possible heading into meetings with President Moon and President Trump.”
China still regards North Korea curiously, akin to a time capsule of a Maoist past it has long since left behind. Pyongyang, on the other hand, sees China as a betrayer of the founding ideals of the socialist revolutions in both countries in the late-1940s.
China lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on North Korea’s side in the Korean war from 1950 to 1953, and both have technically been allies since a 1961 mutual defence treaty. But relations have been frosty for 25 years since China recognised South Korea — seen as a betrayal in Pyongyang — and exacerbated by pressure over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
“China and North Korea still fundamentally distrust and even hate each other,” said one diplomat from a neighbouring country.
China’s primary motivation for the meeting was to re-insert itself in the dialogue between Mr Kim and Mr Trump. Long having championed the idea of direct US-North Korea talks, China found itself an outsider when those talks appeared on the horizon.
North Korea is also likely using China for a more Machiavellian strategy of playing it off against Washington.
Mr Kim “first reached out to the US, got a positive response and made China feel marginalised. Then he reached out to China, making the US wonder what they are discussing in Beijing,” said Yun Sun, a specialist in Chinese foreign policy at the Stimson Center in Washington. “It’s typical manipulation, where North Korea creates itself as a pivotal player.”
“But as long as US and China desire to gain strategic advantage by excluding the other, North Korea will be successful,” she said.
Additional reporting by Emily Feng and Sherry Fei Ju
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