Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.
The highlights this week: Chinese President Xi Jinping travels to North Korea, the U.S. military expands its list of blacklisted Chinese companies, and financial regulators move to close foreign stock-trading loopholes.
Xi Jinping Meets Kim Jong Un
On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a two-day visit to North Korea, where leader Kim Jong Un greeted him with fanfare. It was Xi’s first visit to the country since 2019, and as Deng Yuwen wrote in Foreign Policy last month, his main priority lies with preventing North Korea from drifting too far into Russia’s orbit. So far, readouts from the event have consisted only of boilerplate announcements about increased cooperation and sustained friendship.
Since 1961, North Korea has been China’s only formal treaty ally, bound by a mutual defense pact forged in the aftermath of the Korean War, when Chinese intervention helped save the Kim regime. Yet Chinese-North Korean relations were strained for decades.
