Well, this will not come as a surprise to CTH readers, but it affirms prior suspicion of Chairman Xi Jinping’s motives and intents in the pre-G20 trip to North Korea. There is also an aspect to this propaganda highlighting that Beijing actually had this narrative written prior to the outcome, I’ll explain below.

As predicted, China’s state media are proclaiming that Chairman Xi Jinping, playing the role of magnanimous panda, is responsible for the success and restart of the discussions between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea:

CHINA – […] Ten days before the Kim-Trump meeting, President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to North Korea, with one of the key aims being to show political support and help North Korea and the US to break the deadlock in their negotiations, Zheng said. Xi also met Trump in Osaka on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on Saturday, when they also discussed the peninsula issue. Xi has encouraged both Kim and Trump to push forward negotiations and reach an agreement eventually. Zheng said the third Kim-Trump meeting proves that China’s mediation and encouragement are effective, and at least the friendly atmosphere of the region has been rebuilt successfully. “Without China’s encouragement, Trump might not be so confident to propose such a meeting at the DMZ so soon, since he would not have been sure what Kim was thinking,” according to Zheng. (more)

The article is the typical propaganda from a currently hostile Beijing toward President Trump who they now openly see as an adversary and have dropped the panda mask.

So you might read that first part as boilerplate Beijing propaganda, which it is; however, in the latter part of the state-media presentation the footprints of the dragon plan becomes visible. Read (emphasis mine):

[…] Trump said talks with North Korea would resume, and the US team would be led by US special representative for North Korea Steve Biegun, CNN reported. This shows that after North Korea expressed anger over US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and demanded the US remove him from the nuclear talks after the unsuccessful Hanoi summit, the Trump administration has made a decision and given a positive response to North Korea, Zheng said. Hawkish diplomats like Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton are given a smaller role now since Trump has found these senior officials could make negotiations with North Korea very difficult, Diao noted. “If Trump gives special authorization to Biegun and allows him report to the Oval Office directly, he can minimize the negative impact from hawkish politicians like Pompeo. Fortunately, it seems like Biegun is an acceptable figure for North Korea,” Diao said. (read more)

Obviously Beijing is hoping readers don’t actually watch the video of Trump’s visit to the DMZ; especially the video from the DPRK propaganda piece, where Kim Jong-Un is warmly greeting Secretary Mike Pompeo, and especially where the two, Pompeo and Kim, are smiling and laughing together.

Two points indicated by this article:

#1) The outline of this Beijing script was actually written before the DPRK visit. Obviously they didn’t consider or expect the visible fallacy of the Pompeo interaction with Kim Jong-un. The visible facts don’t fit the Beijing script; and, more importantly….

#2) As we suspected and wrote earlier in the year, it was Beijing’s control agents who were opposed to Secretary Mike Pompeo as an emissary in the talks. China doesn’t want Pompeo in the picture. He is viewed as a risk to their interests.

Expanding on #2, it becomes even more clear that Beijing (Chairman Xi) is controlling all of the officials in/around Kim Jong-un. The Pompeo factor highlights: Yes, THIS IS INDEED a hostage rescue effort; and we are seeing just how severe the scale of control is. [Keep in mind, those reading this are very far ahead of anyone in understanding what this is all about.]

Chairman Xi Jinping not only controls North Korea as a proxy province, but this is even more evidence Xi controls everyone -at the highest levels of DPRK government- in/around Chairman Kim Jong-un. Can you imagine the scale of 24/7 stress this hostage is going through?

Slowly President Trump is changing the dynamic and actually removing the tentacles of Chinese control over North Korea. However, this is a stunningly complex dynamic to try and negotiate through.

Understanding the dynamic of a hostage rescue effort we certainly have respect and appreciation for the success President Trump has been able to achieve so far.