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Xi Jinping to send right-hand man Li Zhanshu to North Korea
Xi Jinping to send right-hand man Li Zhanshu to North Korea
Top official will attend 70th anniversary event, China’s state broadcaster says
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 September, 2018, 7:16pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 September, 2018, 12:07am
President Xi Jinping will send his right-hand man to North Korea, China’s state broadcaster said on Tuesday, as nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have hit a snag.
State-run CCTV reported that Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People’s Congress and the third-ranking official in the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, will go to North Korea on Saturday.
He will attend the 70th anniversary event to mark North Korea’s founding on Sunday. Li will be travelling as a special representative of Xi, indicating that the president is not likely to attend the event himself as an earlier report suggested.
Li will be the highest level Chinese official to visit North Korea since Xi came to power in 2012. The last Politburo Standing Committee member to go to Pyongyang was Liu Yunshan, in 2015.
more
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2162756/xi-jinping-send-right-hand-man-li-zhanshu-north-korea
NBC News is reporting today, "China eases economic pressure on North Korea, undercutting the Trump admin" asserting that China is substantially violating sanctions at this point undermining the US maximum pressure campaign against North Korea.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/china-eases-economic-pressure-north-korea-undercutting-trump-admin-n906166
An analysis in 38North today by Yun Sun, The State of Play in Sino-DPRK Relations presents another view.
https://www.38north.org/2018/09/ysun090518/
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
The Channel A News Top Ten graphic above refers to Xi Jinping's final decision not to attend the 9.9 70th Anniversary celebration and military review in Pyongyang as had been widely anticipated. Instead he is sending Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People’s Congress. In the image, Trump is saying the stalemate in North Korea's denuclearization is China's fault. Xi is portrayed as sweating Trump's allegations, the "political burden," against his desire to demonstrate China's political relationship with North Korea.
