It makes sense that both these leaders would want to make official visits with President Lee since they will both be in Gyeongju for the APEC summit:
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both likely to pay state visits to South Korea during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering later this month, diplomatic sources said Thursday.
Seoul is in talks with Washington and Beijing over the arrangements for the highly anticipated trips by the two leaders and is fine-tuning details to host both with a state visit, the sources said.
A state visit is the highest form of diplomatic visit by a foreign head of state, during which the host country extends the utmost ceremonial protocol, including an elaborate official welcome with military honors and a state banquet.
If realized, their visits would take place in Gyeongju, the host city for APEC in southeastern South Korea, rather than Seoul, possibly in a simplified manner in terms of the protocol, considering the schedules coinciding with the multilateral gathering, the sources said.
You can read more at the link.
I seriously doubt that the North Korean troop dispatch to Russia was not cordinated with China in the first place. This phone calls seems more about optics of appearing to do something instead of actually expecting something to be done:
U.S. President Joe Biden called Saturday for China to use its clout to prevent an escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine through the dispatch of more North Korean troops, while raising concerns over the possibility of Pyongyang engaging in provocations, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan elaborated on the discussions that Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping had during their talks on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, amid mounting concerns about broad security implications of a military alignment between Moscow and Pyongyang.
“(Biden) also pointed out (to Xi) that the PRC does have influence and capacity and should use it to try to prevent a further escalation or further expansion of the conflict through the introduction of even more DPRK forces,” Sullivan told reporters in a press briefing.
You can read more at the link.
It will be interesting to see if Chinese President Emperor Xi Jin-ping actually visits Seoul or not because I am not sure what he and President Yoon would talk about. If Xi comes that means some kind of concession would need to be made by South Korea. What concession could Yoon give Xi for a visit?:
In this file photo, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) poses for a photo with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during their bilateral talks at a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 15, 2022, on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit. (Yonhap)
The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol will set out to arrange a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Korea, a senior government official said Sunday.
“As President Xi brought up a visit first to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, we will start discussing the matter with China in earnest through diplomatic channels,” the official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.
Chinese President Xi said Saturday he will seriously consider a visit to Seoul during his meeting with Prime Minister Han on the sidelines of the Asian Games, which is currently taking place in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Instead of calling him a dictator maybe President Biden should have just called him an Emperor instead because that is essentially what Xi Jinping has made himself into:
China called President Biden’s suggestion that its leader is a dictator “extremely absurd and irresponsible” on Wednesday in an angry response that threatened to undo recent efforts by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to calm tensions between the two superpowers.
Biden referred to Xi Jinping as a dictator while speaking Tuesday at a campaign event, where he said the Chinese leader had been embarrassed by the U.S. downing of a spy balloon because he was unaware it had gone off course.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said. “That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators: when they didn’t know what happened.”
Washington Post
You can read more at the link.
Chinese President Emperor Xi appears uninterested in helping South Korea reign in North Korea’s provocations which shows China has probably green lighted them to do them:
President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday showed subtle differences in their perceptions toward North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
Korea Times
During the first Seoul-Beijing summit held in nearly three years, President Yoon called for China to play an “active and constructive role” in reining in North Korea to stop its provocations amid its continued launches of various missiles, despite international condemnation.
In response, the Chinese leader urged South Korea to find its role and do as much as it can in order to get inter-Korean relations back on the right track.
According to South Korea’s presidential office, Yoon and Xi sat down for talks for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting was first of its kind since Dec. 23, 2019, when Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in and Xi met on the sidelines of a trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan in Beijing.
During the summit, Yoon voiced worries that North Korea is waging unprecedented provocations with its missile launches and being set for another nuclear test, and asked China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a neighboring country, to play an “active and constructive role.”
In response, Xi said that both South Korea and China have “common interests on the issues of the Korean Peninsula” and he hopes South Korea will do its part to improve inter-Korean relations actively.
You can read more at the link.
Its official, Xi has pretty much made himself an emperor for life in China:
President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, increased his dominance Sunday when he was named to another term as head of the ruling Communist Party in a break with tradition and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the struggling economy.
Xi, who took power in 2012, was awarded a third five-year term as general secretary, discarding a custom under which his predecessor left after 10 years. The 69-year-old leader is expected by some to try to stay in power for life.
The party also named a seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power, dominated by Xi allies after Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and an advocate of market-style reform and private enterprise, was dropped from the leadership Saturday. That was despite Li being a year younger than the party’s informal retirement age of 68.
“Power will be even more concentrated in the hands of Xi Jinping,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University. The new appointees are “all loyal to Xi,” he said. “There is no counterweight or checks and balances in the system at all.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
