China state media says Trump-Kim meeting vindicates Beijing diplomacy

The state-controlled news website Global Times is urging Chinese citizens to take the stunning news of a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in stride, saying there is no chance the U.S. will be able to “turn” Pyongyang away from its longtime patron.

“Chinese people should stay calm and remain poised,” the website said in an op-ed piece Friday, “and avoid the mentality that China is being marginalized.”

While the agenda of the Trump-Kim meeting, set to take place “by May,” remains highly unclear, the Global Times editorial argued that the “trend of the peninsula situation is in the direction that China has been pushing and this shows China’s efforts worked.”

China, the editorial said, has joined in increasingly tough U.S.-led sanctions against the Kim regime “while preventing the blocking of North Korea and other extreme situations that may cause military conflicts” — a balancing act that has allowed diplomatic efforts like the Kim-Trump meeting to proceed.

Mr. Trump did not consult Chinese President Xi Jinping on his plans until after he accepted Mr. Kim’s invitation, delivered to the White House personally by a delegation of top South Korean officials Thursday.

But the Global Times argued that the Trump administration lacked the support in the region to impose a solution on the Korean peninsula crisis that did not take China’s interests into account.

“It is unnecessary for China, a major power, to worry about North Korea’s ’turning to the U.S.,’ as there will be no one around China that will completely side with the U.S.,” the Global Times op-ed said. “… If the Kim-Trump meeting will contribute to denuclearization and peace that China desires the most, China has no reason to be unhappy about it.”

China, the news site said, can also serve as a backstop to shield North Korea from undue pressure in any deal to ease the military standoff with the Trump administration.

China can “help prevent North Korea from being deceived or squeezed by the U.S. once it begins to denuclearize.”

China’s Foreign Ministry has cautiously welcomed the planned U.S.-North Korean summit, saying Beijing has always supported “positive inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea interactions.”