Xi Visits Pyongyang, Deepens China-North Korea Ties

Is this alliance smart geopolitics or just rogue states clinging together out of desperation?

Published 2 days ago

Xi Visits Pyongyang, Deepens China-North Korea Ties

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Above: A television screen in Seoul showing a news broadcast on June 8. Image credit: Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Left narrative

China and North Korea standing together against Western sanctions and military pressure is smart geopolitics. Beijing remains North Korea's economic lifeline, security guarantor and only treaty ally, making this partnership indispensable for regional stability. Xi's visit to Pyongyang signals that China intends to stay the dominant power in Northeast Asia, keeping U.S. troops from creeping any closer to its border.

Al Jazeera

Loong of the east on X

Right narrative

China, Russia and North Korea aren't a principled alliance — they're rogue states clinging together because sanctions and global isolation have left them no better option. North Korea functions as Beijing's expendable buffer state, a Potemkin proxy masking China's real agenda of economic and strategic dominance. The U.S., South Korea and Japan must deepen trilateral defense cooperation now to counter this axis before it further destabilizes the Indo-Pacific.

The Last Refuge on X Heritage Foundation