The Washington Post reports that as North Korea celebrates a major anniversary this weekend, the presence — or absence — of Chinese President Xi Jinping could highlight just how much vitality has been restored to ties between Pyongyang and its most powerful backer after a prolonged chill. A visit by Xi to North Korea for the 70th anniversary of the North's founding on Sunday is expected — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made three trips to China since March this year and has invited Xi to reciprocate — but neither side has said whether Xi will attend. China could be keen to demonstrate the strong ties it has with Pyongyang to ensure it remains a key player in efforts to dismantle the North's nuclear program. But the celebrations come as President Donald Trump has blamed Beijing for the slow progress of denuclearization.

The Financial Times reports that Xi Jinping, China's president, has pledged $60bn for African development over the next three years while countering criticism that Beijing is trying to ensnare African governments in a debt trap. At the start of the three-day triennial Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in Beijing, Mr Xi said China would not finance "vanity projects" but would concentrate on commercially viable, sustainable and green investments. Speaking to representatives of 54 African countries — including several heads of state — in the Great Hall of the People, he said: "Only Chinese and African people have a say when judging if the co-operation is good or not between China and Africa. No one should malign it based on imagination or assumptions." Mr Xi was reacting to criticism that China had been engaging in "debt diplomacy" by loading countries up with debt so they became politically beholden to Beijing.

Reuters reports: "The longer Donald Trump stays in office, the higher the risk that anti-American forces will gain the upper hand in Germany and push it into the arms of Russia and China, veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger said in an interview. The chairman of the Munich Security Conference and former ambassador to Washington was speaking to Reuters days before the publication of his book "World in Danger", in which he urges Germans not to giving up on the United States because of Trump, while also pressing them to accept more global responsibility. "The longer Trump remains in office, the harder it will be to stand up to those in this country and elsewhere in Europe who have been arguing since the Vietnam war that we need to cut the cord with America the bully," Ischinger said. "It would become much harder for the German government to stay the course and defend this relationship," he said. "And the forces calling for a closer relationship with countries like Russia or China might be emboldened."