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North Korea a top priority, says New US ambassador to China

Terry Branstad, the United State's new ambassador to China, has said that stopping the threat posed by North Korea will be a top priority, along with resolving the U.S.-China trade imbalance, via a video message to the Chinese people released on Monday, June 26.

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Terry Branstad, the United State's new ambassador to China, has said that stopping the threat posed by North Korea will be a top priority, along with resolving the U.S.-China trade imbalance, via a video message to the Chinese people released on Monday, June 26.

"Resolving the bilateral trade imbalance, stopping the North Korea threat, and expanding people-to-people ties will be my top priorities," Branstad said in the video message, which was released on a popular Chinese video-streaming platform.

Branstad was confirmed as President Donald Trump's new ambassador to China on May 24, but his arrival date has yet to be announced. The former Iowa governor has been described by Beijing as an "old friend" of China.

Trump has placed high hopes on China and its president, Xi Jinping, exerting greater influence on North Korea, although he said last week that the Chinese efforts to rein in the reclusive North's nuclear and missile programmes had failed.

China's foreign ministry regularly says that while it is pushing for greater dialogue to reduce tensions, Beijing is also doing all that it can with regard to North Korea by implementing United Nations Security Council sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, during his meeting with top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Washington last week, said that he had pressed China to ramp up economic and political pressure on North Korea.

"We face many of the same challenges. A strong U.S.-China relationship can contribute to solutions," Branstad said in the video, without giving details about how he hoped to work with China.

Branstad also recounted his three decades of engagement with China, from his first visit there in 1984 to hosting Xi, then a county-level Communist Party leader, in Iowa in 1985, and then again in 2012 when Xi was the Vice President.

Trump pledged to take a tough stance on Chinese trade practises deemed unfair to the United States during his campaign, but his rhetoric softened after a friendlier-than-expected meeting with Xi in Florida in April.

Shortly after their meeting, Trump said he had told Xi that China would get a better trade deal if it worked to rein in the North. China is neighbouring North Korea's lone major ally.

U.S. Treasury figures show that the United States ran a trade deficit of $347 billion with China last year.

 

 

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