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China’s Global Times takes a dig at daughter Trump as the world watches Kim-Trump summit

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Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are meeting in Singapore today. As the big-stakes issues of denuclearisation and economy are brought to the table, the world is watching closely.

China’s Global Times took a dig while responding to Ivanka Trump’s tweet expressing her father’s achievement of holding a historical meeting with North Korea. The fashion designer had tweeted “Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those doing it- Chinese Proverb”

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 11, 2018

In response, the Chinese news organisation tweeted saying that none at their end had the knowledge of any such Chinese proverb. It added that not just them, but 20,000 Sina Weibo (a Chinese micro-blogging website and one of the largest social networking platforms of China) users could only guess and and no one was certain.

The historic meeting between Kim and Trump is underway

US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un met in Singapore Tuesday at 7.30 am (India local time) — the first-ever meeting between the incumbent leaders of the two countries.

The two leaders came forward to shake hands, after which they left for a private meeting accompanied only by interpreters. Emerging less than an hour later, the two leaders went into a second meeting, this time with their aides.

The possible outcomes

No one knows for sure what will come of the meeting, writes Jon Wolfsthal in Foreign Policy. But he does have certain predictions.

The best-case scenario, he writes, is that real talks begin and the goal of the Korean peninsula’s denuclearisation is achieved. The worst-case scenario is that Kim “pulls a fast one” and cuts a deal with Trump that will allow North Korea to possess nuclear weapons.

The “unicorn deal” would be that Kim agrees to immediately disarm either at the summit or shortly after. And finally, the “train-wreck” scenario would be that Trump veers off-script and makes the relationship worse.

The price of success

The talks between the US and North Korea are being carefully watched by other countries, because all possible outcomes will affect them greatly, writes The Economist

“Both South Korea and China have high hopes for the meeting. Japan is more suspicious. But the biggest loser, if a deal is struck, is likely to be totally obscured by the flashing cameras and swooning anchors: The American-led security architecture that has brought decades of stability to Asia,” it writes.

According to the report, critics have already pointed out that by agreeing so readily to meet Kim, Trump has lost all bargaining power built carefully over the decades. If Trump reaches a deal with Kim that doesn’t involve denuclearisation and is more economic-based, it leaves (the American allied) South Korea and Japan at risk of a nuclear attack.

China, on the other hand, stands to gain more positively from all possible outcomes of the summit. If talks fail, South Korea and Japan will most likely try to strike an alliance with China, which will then stand as the regional power. If talks succeed, the “headache” of a nuclear threat in China’s backyard will be taken care of, The Economist adds.

What the summit means for Kim Jong-un

For Kim, the summit is about cementing his power back home in North Korea, writes Anna Fifield in The Washington Post. “It will be the most important day to date of his expectation-defying reign,” she writes.

Both Trump and Kim, she writes, “have a penchant for making bold decisions and a love of the limelight. Yet both want this meeting to be more than just a photo op.”

Trump and the rest of the world stand a lot to gain by beginning a dialogue with the reclusive country, but for Kim, the summit brings a “jackpot”. The summit will be “a meeting with the head of the world’s No. 1 superpower that will legitimise Kim as a leader — an equal, even — in a way that eluded both his predecessors”.

The two need to discuss human rights

In The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof reminds readers that North Korea is one of the most totalitarian regimes today, which continues to oppress its people and deny them access to basic freedoms.

“Trump should make clear to Kim that what makes a nation ‘modern’ is not just McDonald’s franchises, but also an end to torture and a measure of freedom,” he writes.

It is still unclear what their agenda includes — the only known topic being denuclearisation. Trade and opening up of the North Korean economy are among likely topics of discussion.

US-North Korea gap too wide to be resolved in just one summit

The differences in the agendas of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un who met at Singapore today are too wide to be filled in just one meeting, wrote the South China Morning Post.

“The United States seeks the North’s dismantling of its nuclear weapons and missile programmes, destruction of fissile material and international inspections to ensure compliance.”

Although Pyongyang has promised denuclearisation, it will not so easily give up what it took so long to develop. Moreover, it apparently seeks an end to the US military alliance with South Korea that will rid the peninsula of all nuclear arms, said the editorial.

However, the meeting is expected to calm the situation for dialogues to begin between the two nations.

China may scrap all limits on number of children per family

“Recent news reports suggest that the Chinese Communist Party is considering abandoning one of its longest-running and most abusive practices: Its reproduction planning policy, commonly known as the one-child policy,” reports The Washington Post

China is currently experiencing the adverse impacts of four decades of the one-child policy, including an aging labour force and gender imbalances. In 2015, the government allowed families to have two children each, while the new guidelines may see all limits removed in the world’s most populous country.

The status of the G7 has been challenged

“The club of developed countries stands divided like never before because of US President Donald Trump’s brash recklessness and disregard for others’ interest,” Dong Yifan and Sun Chenghao write in China’s Global Times

Unlike previous summits, they write, the countries inadvertently made their differences public and abandoned their post of solidarity. The Trump administration, they write “continues to foment disputes in various areas such as global governance, trade and security, and has shirked its responsibility to the West and the global order”.

The role and status of G7 as a club of developed countries is likely to decline as a result, they add.

Qatar is taking the UAE to court

The government of Qatar is taking the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, reports Al Jazeera

“The move on Monday comes a year after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting ‘terrorism’,” the report adds.

Qatar has called the claim “baseless”, and accused the UAE of discriminating against Qataris and violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, of which both countries are signatories.

Spain to accept a ship full of migrants that Italy rejected

“Spain’s Prime Minister has said the country will take in a rescue ship stranded in the Mediterranean, to help avoid a humanitarian disaster,” BBC reported. PM Pedro Sanchez has pledged to give the people “safe harbour”.

The ship, Aquarius, is carrying 629 people on board and has been turned away by both Italy and Malta.

The migrants aboard the ship were picked up from inflatable boats off Libya’s coast in multiple rescue operations over the weekend. The 629 people reportedly include 123 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women.

Malta tweeted its gratitude to Spain, but Italy’s rejection of the ship has caused a rift in the EU that could cause an “international standoff”, the BBC reported.

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