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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi leave after a press conference at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing

After calling on China to play a bigger role in the North Korean nuclear issue during his visit to Japan and South Korea, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson toned down his strident rhetoric considerably during his visit to China on Mar. 18 and 19. In South Korea, he sharply criticized China’s retaliatory measures against South Korea in regard to the THAAD missile defense system, but in China he barely touched the subject.

When Tillerson met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Mar. 19 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, he focused on the US and China working together to develop their relationship. Tillerson said that the US wanted to avoid clashes and conflict, to develop its relations with China based on a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation and to make a joint response to the challenges facing the international community.

Xi responded that the two countries’ shared interests were much greater than their disagreements and that China-US relations had to be viewed from a long-term strategic perspective. The Chinese president went on to say that the two countries should strengthen their communication and cooperation on issues facing the region while stabilizing bilateral relations by respecting each other’s core interests and major concerns.

China has previously stated that the deployment of THAAD on the Korean Peninsula infringes on one of China’s core interests. There was reportedly no mention of the issue of North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons during the meeting. In addition to this, Tillerson adopted a conciliatory stance, saying that Trump, “looks forward to enhancing that understanding, and the opportunity for a visit in the future.”

Tillerson also strained to highlight common interests rather than differences with China during the press conference held after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Mar. 18. He said that the US and China share the view that tensions on the Korean Peninsula are very high and that the situation has reached quite a dangerous level.

“We share a common view and a sense that tensions on the peninsula are quite high right now and that things have reached a rather dangerous level, and we’ve committed ourselves to doing everything we can to prevent any type of conflict from breaking out,” Tillerson said.

This is clearly different from Tillerson’s remarks during his joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Mar. 17 in which he urged China to put more sanctions and pressure on North Korea. In South Korea, Tillerson firmly stated that this was not the time for dialogue with North Korea; in China, he left open the possibility of dialogue.

In fact, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi appeared to be rebutting the remarks that Tillerson had made in Japan and South Korea. Wang said that problems must be resolved using peaceful and diplomatic means regardless of the situation, which was a tactful contradiction of Tillerson’s reference to military action against North Korea the previous day. While Wang repeated China’s current position on the THAAD issue, Tillerson made no remark at all on the subject, despite the fact that in South Korea he had urged China to refrain from retaliatory measures against THAAD.

Tillerson’s appears to have been watching his words in China because the US does not want US President Donald Trump‘s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which is scheduled to take place early next month, to be spoiled by issues on the Korean Peninsula.

It’s also significant that Tillerson said on two occasions, during a press conference and an interview, that the US was looking for a way to coexist with China over the next 50 years. This remark suggests that the US and China are in a transitional period in their spheres of influence are in flux and that the US could acknowledge some degree of China’s influence over Asia.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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