CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

South Korea President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the United States was overshadowed by a scandal surrounding Park’s spokesman. While some believe the scandal distracted from Park’s agenda, Donald Kirk postulates that the trip helped cement ties between South Korea and the US, offering hope for future six-party talks with North Korea.

While tensions on the Korean Peninsula have slowly began to dissipate, Nathan Beuchamp-Mustafaga delves into the complex issue of how China uses North Korea as leverage in the U.S.-China relationship and provides policy responses for the United States.

The state of security in Northeast Asia will be counteractive to the state of Sino-US relations. Thus, increased cooperation in Northeast Asia will also provide a favorable opportunity and important platform to cultivate a new type of relations between China and the United States.

How China and the U.S. relationship benefits from the provocative behavior from North Korea remains to be seen. Yet in a meeting between John Kerry and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, an agreement was reached on finding a peaceful way to ensure a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

As tensions on the Korean Peninsula continue to heighten, Beijing has taken a harder stance against the actions of Pyongyang. Richard Weitz discusses common security interests between the United States and China in East Asia.

China appears to be fed up with North Korea’s belligerent attitude and reckless threats of nuclear war, but does this necessarily mean China will abandon it’s long-time ally? Zhu Feng examines the possibility of a radical policy shift by China and whether Kim Jong-un’s regime has gone too far with its latest saber rattling.