As if on cue, Kim Jong Un returned to Beijing on Tuesday in an illustration of how U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against China could spiral into a broader conflict between the world's two largest economies.
The North Korean leader was expected to spend two days in China — his third such visit since March — presumably to confer with Xi about the results of his summit with Trump last week in Singapore. His presence in the Chinese capital shows how Xi's leverage in the trade dispute with Trump extends far beyond soybean imports and Boeing Co. jet contracts.
Besides being the United States' largest trading partner, China is arguably the most important player in Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign to force Kim to give up his nuclear arsenal. After an April 2017 meeting at the president's Mar-a-Lago home, Xi supported successive rounds of United Nations sanctions and clamped down on border trade with North Korea.