Forbes comments: "Give the world's two superpowers credit for effort but don't expect a whole lot more. Since the presidents of China and the United States met for their first time in April, they've spoken the language of cooperation to hobble North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs spearheaded by the enigmatic leader Kim Jong-un. To appease China, which doesn't want the Kim regime to collapse and leave a power vacuum on its border, a senior U.S. admiral had saidthe United States wants to bring North Korea not to its 'knees,' just its 'senses.' China reportedly planned to cut the flow of petroleum to North Korea in a sanction-like gesture likely to win favor with Washington. But Trump shows signs of wanting more out of his cooperation with China, especially now as everyone's asking whether 22-year-old American student Otto Warmbier was intentionally hurt in North Korea before his release -- and death a week later. North Korea had detained him for a year on suspicion of stealing a propaganda poster. "(Trump) commented personally…that he continues to be very troubled by what happened to Otto Warmbier and would like to see China do more," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a briefing Friday."

The Associated Press reports: "China has pre-emptively hit back at the United States for speaking "irresponsibly" ahead of an expected Trump administration move to name China among the world's worst human trafficking offenders. Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Tuesday that China strongly opposes the U.S. using its domestic laws to attack another country's record, and maintained that the results of China's anti-human trafficking efforts are "obvious for everyone to see." The U.S. State Department was expected to unveil later Tuesday a 2017 human trafficking report that downgrades China to the lowest "Tier 3" category, which includes North Korea, Zimbabwe and Syria. The report is the first major U.S. reprimand of China's human rights record under the Trump administration, which has generally played down the promotion of rights in its foreign policy, including with China. Tier 3 countries can be penalized with sanctions or barred from participating in U.S. cultural exchange programs, although the U.S. president has the authority to waive sanctions."

The Washington Post reports: "The United States on Tuesday joined calls for the immediate release of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, urging China to set him free so he may receive the medical treatment of his choosing for what is believed to be late-stage liver cancer.Some worry it's already too late. In a tearful video message, his wife, Liu Xia, suggested that treatment was either no longer possible, or simply not on offer. 'Cannot perform surgery, cannot perform radiotherapy, cannot perform chemotherapy,' she said in the tearful, 10-second clip, which was posted by a friend. She did not elaborate. News of Liu's illness surprised close associates and distant supporters alike, raising questions about whether China withheld information about his health or denied him timely access to care. Hu Jia, a fellow activist, said that the family wanted Liu to be treated in Beijing, where hospitals are better, or abroad, but that Chinese authorities had other plans, possibly fearing unrest ahead of big political meetings scheduled for the fall."