Washington —
Several of Beijing’s leading trading partners are urging Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to pressure North Korea to stop or reverse its deployment of troops to Russia, where more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers have joined the front lines in the war against Ukraine.
The appeals at the past week’s twin summits in Brazil and Peru reflect the awkward position in which the Chinese leader finds himself as he attempts a delicate balancing act between Russia and the West.
At a joint press conference with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia on Thursday, Xi called for bringing together “more voices of peace” in Ukraine. He pushed for a six-point consensus on Ukraine first put forward by China and Brazil in May that stresses dialogue and negotiations leading to a political settlement.
Before his bilateral meeting in the Brazilian capital, Xi was told by world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, that Beijing needs to persuade North Korea to stop sending more troops to fight for Russia.
on Tuesday at the G20 that the deployment of North Korea troops to fight against Ukraine amounted to an escalation of the war.
South Korean last week at APEC to play a “constructive” role on North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia. as an opportunity to consolidate the West’s condemnation of Pyongyang-Moscow military ties.
U.S. President Joe Biden also told Xi at APEC that Beijing has influence and capacity to prevent the conflict in Ukraine from expanding through the presence of more North Korean troops, .
Biden pointed out China’s position calling for the de-escalation of the conflict and said the presence of North Korean troops runs counter to that stance.
China has been reluctant to call out North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for providing troops and munitions to help Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Tuesday that North Korea could deploy up to 100,000 soldiers, and the U.S. estimates that about 11,000 .
“Beijing currently finds itself in a tricky situation,” said Patricia Kim, a fellow at Brookings Institution where she leads the Global China Project.
“It is uncomfortable with North Korea’s growing military cooperation with Russia that has extended into the Ukrainian battlefield. Putin is now indebted to Kim, and this may embolden Pyongyang to engage in risky behavior at home that can have blowback effects on China,” she told VOA.
“At the same time, Beijing believes it cannot afford to alienate Pyongyang or Moscow, especially as the potential for a U.S.-China confrontation grows with [President-elect Donald Trump’s] return to office,” she said.
Despite the discomfort, it is unlikely that Xi will confront Moscow or Pyongyang about sending more North Korean troops, said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Glaser suggested that China is less concerned about the North Korean troops in Russia than about responses by the U.S., Japan and South Korea that could “negatively impact Chinese interests.”
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Wednesday that China’s position on both Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula remains “consistent,” and that Beijing has been “making efforts toward de-escalation of the situation” in Ukraine.
While being silent on North Korean troops, China is accused of providing dual-use goods that Russia needs to produce weapons. The that the attack drones that would have consequences.
China has been trying to support Russia’s war in Ukraine without angering the West out of concern over any economic backlash it could trigger — including trade restrictions and sanctions that could further cripple its struggling economy, analysts said.
“China is skilled at playing this role” of ambiguity, “given its history of nonalignment, while knowing its economy relies on good trade relations with the U.S. and the EU,” said Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks that included North Korea and China, from 2003 to 2006.
“China appears reluctant to use its limited leverage with North Korea due, in part, to the tension in the U.S.-China relations,” he said.
At the same time, DeTrani said, the Chinese president will not openly support Russia’s war for fear that would undermine his government’s credibility with the Global South, where Xi is trying “to prove that China’s system of governance is far superior to the liberal democracy in the U.S.”