Mr Trump will travel to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping in a bid to force his Chinese counterpart to urge North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to stop testing missiles, especially nuclear.
However, Beijing, the North’s sole ally, is unlikely to offer backing to the war in the Korean peninsula which the US President has threatened.
China sees itself as a sensible, responsible bridge between the increasingly hysterical United States, Japan and South Korea as the allies attempt to halt North Korea’s nuclear expansion.
Sean King, senior vice president of US political consultancy Park Strategies, told Forbes: “Unless Beijing’s strategic calculus has changed, I can’t imagine Xi doing anything meaningful on North Korea.”
The United Nations (UN) unanimously voted to impose its strongest ever set of sanctions on North Korea a week after the hermit kingdom carried out its six and largest nuclear test on September 15.
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One of the sanctions’ six major goals was to cap North Korea’s oil imports, however it was a watered-down version of an initial draft from the US which called for a full oil embargo.
China, which is North Korea’s main oil supplier, had expressed skepticism about the draft, along with Russia, which prompted the alteration so China would not veto it.
Whether China is actually imposing the sanctions is yet to be known, and just today the UN slapped a global port ban on four vessels found carrying coal, seafood and iron ore to North Korea, in violation of the UN sanctions.
Three out of four of the ships were sailing from or to China, and have links to China and North Korea.
Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul, said: “The Chinese side will take credit for its more robust actions on North Korea and claim to be fully implementing UN Security Council resolutions.
“Both sides will tout US-China cooperation, but Chinese officials may suggest that Beijing has done its part, and now Washington and Seoul should reduce tensions and pursue talks with Pyongyang.
“President Xi himself is likely to caution President Trump on the dangers of military escalation, arguing that the Kim regime tends to respond to increased pressure with greater belligerence.”
Mr Xi recognises China is in a delicate balancing act between North Korea and the rest of the world and will not want to tip the balance by siding with Mr Trump too much.
North Korean officials have set up a committee to investigate the damage sanctions have had on the already impoverished country’s economy and the population’s “well-being”.
They wanted to gain global sympathy by revealing the suffering of children, women and elderly people, analysts said.
This is despite North Korean poverty being caused by the Kim regime, while the despot leader drinks French red wine and gobbles Swiss cheese – a particular addiction which has caused severe gout episodes.
Officials said the sanctions were causing “colossal” damage, but remained adamant they would not stop the country’s nuclear programme.
A North Korean sanctions committee spokesman said: “The sanctions are a brutal criminal act that indiscriminately infringes upon the right to existence of the peaceful civilians.
“The colossal amount of damage caused by these sanctions to the development of our state and the people’s livelihood is beyond anyone’s calculation.”