Xi's North Korea visit reflects Beijing's growing anxiety

Xi Jinping’s two-day state visit to North Korea ended with promises to deepen ties and expand cooperation, but the trip also exposed something less visible and more urgent in Beijing: anxiety over Kim Jong Un’s growing confidence. Xi called the summit a “new historical starting point,” yet the timing, coming while U.S.-North Korea negotiations remained stalled after the Singapore summit, suggested China was trying to steady a relationship that has become harder to manage.

North Korea watchers said Beijing was not simply staging diplomacy for effect. Bob Carlin, a former U.S. State Department official with more than 50 years of experience as a North Korea analyst, said Kim now has “swagger in his step” and argued that Pyongyang’s outlook has shifted away from trying to normalize relations with Washington. “They want to confront the U.S.,” Carlin said, a posture that leaves China in a difficult position if any clash on the Korean Peninsula threatens to pull Beijing into the fallout.

The unease runs deeper than the current nuclear standoff. China and North Korea have had strained relations since Xi took power in 2012, and the execution of Jang Song-thaek in December 2013 marked a major break in the relationship. Jang, Kim Jong Un’s uncle-by-marriage, had overseen economic cooperation projects and served as a key interlocutor for China, making his death a turning point that deepened mistrust between Beijing and Pyongyang. For China, North Korea remains both a strategic buffer and a liability.

Beijing still holds the strongest economic cards. China is North Korea’s most important economic partner and the source of most of its external trade, giving Xi leverage even as Kim becomes more unpredictable. That help matters to Pyongyang, but it also gives Beijing an interest in discouraging reckless moves that could destabilize the region or strengthen Washington’s hand. Xi’s visit showed both sides of that calculation: reassurance and containment, wrapped into one.

The broader significance extends beyond protocol. Xi’s June 2019 trip was the first state visit by a Chinese leader to North Korea in 14 years, and Kim had already gone to China multiple times in the months before it. At the time, the alliance was being reset as North Korea’s talks with the United States froze and China sought to keep influence over Kim before Russia emerged as a more prominent partner. For Washington, the message was clear: any strategy toward North Korea still runs through Beijing, even when Beijing and Pyongyang are not fully aligned.