party s foreign minister. it is insider insider stuff. the chinese have not said why they sent him to pyongyang. i think it s unmistakable it sends a signal president trump, we ll help you out. we ll see what happens. the chinese, sandra, are concerned on multiple fronts. they don t want a break with us. they ve always viewed north korea as a valuable ally. now north korea has slipped the leash and they re worried. but as china has enforced some of the u.n. mandated sanctions, russia has stepped in and the chinese don t want russia taking their place in north korea. so there are a lot of moving parts here. and the guy who is now the spoiler at this point is vladimir putin. sandra: the president on his way back from this historic trip commented on the relationship between united states and china. president trump: the relationship is always important. it doesn t mean it s necessarily close. it is really a relationship based on respect.
a success? what is your general answer to that question? my general answer is while we ve got some important commercial agreements, although the details are lacking and a serious effort on the president perhaps tactically to try to use flattery to get himself pushed along the line and some promises of future revelations on trade, most of what we see now is pretty devoid of what one would call important takeaways or important achievements. the president needs a little time here and nobody should crowd him. but at the same time there seems to be kind of more of this confusion. this on the one hand rock the man. on the other hand, maybe we ll meet some day. my own sense is increasing the pressure on pyongyang is important. but at the same time, secretary
especially human rights advocates they are looking to see how human rights comes up. there s always, listen, rodrigo duterte can be kind of a wild card. and so i think that you re going to have a lot of people watching to see if there s any unpredictable moments here where duterte might himself go off script. i want to ask you, you mentioned north korea. behind the scenes, do you think the administration thinks that they ve actually made progress with north korea, with president trump s visit i think when you look at the excuses that the president has been having with japan, with south korea, and with china in particular, i think that the administration feels like they re at least keeping the issue at the forefront here. you have, for example, china according to our reporting, essentially telling president trump, listen, these sanctions are going to take some time, give us a little bit of time. you have discussions with south korea and japan about keeping up pressure on pyongyang a
past today i hope i speak not only for our countries. but for all civilized nations when i say to the north do not underestimate us and do not try. well at the next stop on trump s marathon five country tour of asia is china the u.s. president and first lady departed south korea just a few hours ago they are expected to land in beijing soon trade in north korea are again at the form the focus of the trip observers expect trying to push chinese president xi jinping to up the pressure on pyongyang something they say he is reluctant to do china is north korea s main trading partner but it s repeatedly said the west has exaggerated its economic leverage over pyongyang. well let s bring in did abuse mathias bellinger who is standing by for us in beijing hi mathias north korea as we said a big topic here on the agenda how is your pain likely to respond to trump s strong
spoke to president xi to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation also discussed north korea and trade two very important subjects. and two subjects where despite the friendly rhetoric the two presidents don t see eye to eye. north korea is the major issue that s testing u.s. chinese relations and it will top the agenda of trump s visit china remains north korea s closest ally the u.s. has increased pressure on beijing to rein in pyongyang but china is reluctant to become directly involved in the escalating conflict. the us is china s biggest trading partner but it imports much more from china than it sells there and trump has threatened hefty tariffs on chinese goods. china s plans to build in the disputed waters of the south china sea have angered