US foreign policies – in a flux and risky

Nice to meet you: Tillerson shakes hands with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. – AP

IN the course of a few days last week, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson varied American policy on North Korea and China three times.

First, during his debut visit to East Asia, he threatened in Seoul that all options, including military, were being considered by the US against North Korea for its belligerent nuclear weapons development programme, and intimated that China was not doing enough to warn Pyongyang.