how china responds to the trump administrations tough stance on north korea creditjung yeonjeagence francepresse getty imagesmarch 17 2017beijing secretary of state rex w tillerson signaled on friday that the trump administration was prepared to scrap nearly a decade of united states policy toward north korea in favor of a more aggressive effort to eliminate the countrys nuclear weapons program whether that means preemptive action which he warned was on the table will depend a great deal on how china respondsnorth korea relies on chinese trade and aid to keep its economy afloat and china has long been unwilling to withdraw that support up to 40 percent of the norths foreign currency essential for buying goods abroad comes from a network of about 600 chinese companies according to a recent study by sayari analytics a washington financial intelligence firmmr tillerson went to china on saturday a day after saying in seoul south korea that the united states would not negotiate with north korea on freezing its nuclear and missile programs his interactions with his hosts in beijing and whether he takes a hard line with china over its support for north korea will be closely watched as will be chinas responsea sign of the administrations stance came on friday as president trump criticized both north korea and the chinese government north korea is behaving very badly he said on twitter they have been playing the united states for years china has done little to helpthe chinese leadership is likely to bristle at such criticism but it may be reviewing its options given the collision course that north korea and the united states seem to be onlast month beijing showed a new willingness to punish its longtime ally when it suspended imports of north korean coal saying it had reached the annual limit allowed under united nations sanctions customs figures later showed that china had in fact imported only about 30 percent of the quota for 2017yang xiyu a veteran chinese diplomat involved with north korea said mr tillerson may be able to persuade chinese leaders to do more when he meets with them in beijing this weekend particularly against chinese companies that do business with the northmr yang cited as a potential model the case that united states officials built last year against a chinese executive accused of selling north korea a chemical that can be used in nuclearenrichment centrifuges while beijing was not happy about the case it eventually accepted it it wasnt easy but it was the right way to push the issue to a solution he saidwhen the united states filed criminal charges against the businesswoman ma xiaohong the owner of the dandong hongxiang industrial development company other chinese companies conducting similar transactions were apparently left untouchedbut mr yang who was a top negotiator for china during sixnation talks with north korea from 2003 to 2009 suggested that those companies may now be vulnerableif the united states continues to present evidence of illegal activities that contravene chinas