President Donald Trump’s plan to have China deal with North Korea’s nuclear program so the United States won’t have to isn’t going very well.
On Tuesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said as much.
“Recently, certain people, talking about the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, have been exaggerating and giving prominence to the so-called ‘China responsibility theory,’”
said Geng Shuang, a foreign ministry spokesman, alluding to the United States. “I think this either shows lack of a full, correct knowledge of the issue, or there are ulterior motives for it, trying to shift responsibility.”
The comments just one week after North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching the United States. The demonstration was a clear sign that U.S. efforts to discourage the country’s nuclear ambitions are failing — efforts that have, in large part, centered on forcing the Chinese government to tackle the problem.
China’s refusal to crack down on North Korea isn’t surprising, especially given Trump’s erratic foreign policy.
On the campaign trail, Trump accused China of taking U.S. jobs and manipulating currency,
threatened a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods, and said that China had created global warming in order to thwart U.S. manufacturing.
