A few days after breaking the ice (without break the bank) with US President Donald Trump in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping is turning to more permanent allies.
Xi welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing on Tuesday for a warm and cordial visit. The two leaders attended a photo exhibition about China and Russia “eternal friendship” and give the verb joint statement in which they promised to “strengthen cooperation” on everything from nuclear energy to conserving tigers, pandas, and monkeys. They also reviewed Trump’s proposal Golden Palace missile defense system, calling it a “clear threat to strategic stability,” and blasted his “irresponsible policy” in allowing the US-Russia nuclear deal known as A NEW BEGINNING expire.
A few days after breaking the ice (without break the bank) with US President Donald Trump in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping is turning to more permanent allies.
Xi welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing on Tuesday for a warm and cordial visit. The two leaders attended a photo exhibition about China and Russia “eternal friendship” and give the verb joint statement in which they promised to “strengthen cooperation” on everything from nuclear energy to conserving tigers, pandas, and monkeys. They also reviewed Trump’s proposal Golden Palace missile defense system, calling it a “clear threat to strategic stability,” and blasted his “irresponsible policy” in allowing the US-Russia nuclear deal known as A NEW BEGINNING expire.
But as deep as the engagement was, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Xi he noted that it was Putin’s 25th official visit to China, emphasizing the close cooperation that the two countries have established.
However, Xi may be following up Putin’s visit with a rare and important diplomatic engagement. Many report indications are that he may be preparing to visit North Korea in the coming days—perhaps as early as next week. China has not officially announced the visit, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
If confirmed, Xi’s visit to North Korea would be only the second as a Chinese leader and the first in seven years. The two countries have had a close cooperation for several decades. China is involved in almost all of North Korea’s trade, and North Korea is the only country in the world with which China has a mutual defense treaty.
But North Korea’s growing rapprochement with Russia—especially its military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine—has alienated China to some extent. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Putin signed a mutual defense agreement in 2024.
“There is an argument that Xi is very unhappy with this strong, growing relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang, and the risk of losing influence over North Korea, which China wants to ensure is still relevant,” said Andrew Yeo, senior fellow and Chair of the SK-Korea Foundation in Korean Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“China is also concerned about instability, and if Russian weapons and technology reach North Korea—which likes to march to its own dance—that could be disruptive,” he added. “That’s what China fears the most, and so China wants to make sure that North Korea remains part of its orbit.”
China’s efforts to lift the cycle have gained momentum in the past year, with Xi welcoming Kim (with Putin) in a military parade in Beijing last September. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also traveled to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang last month, the meeting Kim stressed the need for the two countries to “strengthen communication and coordination in major international and regional issues.”
Putin is not Xi’s only guest interested in North Korea diplomacy. Since his return to power, Trump has repeatedly hinted that he would like to reshape it historic meeting 2019 with Kim. The American leader said at several points last year that “love to meet” the leader of North Korea, and he told reporters last week that he had discussed North Korea and Xi in Beijing (although he refused to disclose details of the discussions).
But North Korea is bolder and more assertive than it was during Trump’s first term, when Kim met the US president three times. This belief is due to the help from Russia but also to billions of dollars in cryptocurrency it has caught through cyber theft that allows it to better deal with international sanctions. That could also play into the Pyongyang-Beijing dynamic, said Mira Rapp-Hooper, former director for East Asia and Oceania at the Biden administration’s National Security Council.
“North Korea has been more confident and less restrictive over the past two years than at any time in recent decades,” Rapp-Hooper said. “We’ve seen very little desperation from North Korea in recent years. What I think Pyongyang would hope to do is to re-establish relations with China on a firmer footing—where North Korea is no longer seen as a junior ally or a deputy sheriff, but as part of a China-Russia partnership in something closer to equality.”
China’s ambitions, on the other hand, are much broader and global in nature. Xi’s diplomatic streak is aimed at sending a signal about China’s position in the world and its rise in international affairs (even play hard ball and US military visits to Beijing).
“The big story here is about China asserting its leadership in the world, and we need to be careful to focus very narrowly on each of these interactions,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, who served as a US official and diplomat in Asia through the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, as well as the National Security Council and the State Department.
Kritenbrink, who is now a partner at The Asia Group, a geopolitical consulting firm in Washington, said that sentiment was evident during his visit to Beijing in March and was reinforced by Trump’s and Putin’s summits in quick succession. “The confidence of the Chinese is very high – the belief that many international trends are breaking China’s way, that China’s time has come and China should seize the opportunity,” he said. “Although many of these changes are unstable and turbulent, I still felt like the message from the Chinese leadership publicly and privately is that China has the answers to all these challenges and China will be the basis for answering all these challenges.”
And while Xi’s potential visit to Pyongyang would largely aim to strengthen bilateral ties and rein in Russia, it is also part of a broader continuum of China portraying itself as an indispensable global player.
“Beijing has become the center of attraction for international diplomacy in the first half of 2026,” said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. “Beijing has shown itself to be a predictable actor working to maintain the international order,” he added. “China is leaning on its preferred difference with the United States to accumulate diplomatic capital on the world stage.”
