PUTTING CHINA AND NORTH KOREA ON NOTICE: As President Trump prepares for a week of intensive meetings with foreign leaders, he has issued a blunt ultimatum to China to step up and use its influence to bring North Korea to heel. “China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone,” Trump said in interview published in the Financial Times Sunday. Speaking ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, Trump said the U.S. will act if China doesn’t. “Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.” Pressed by the FT interviewer if he thinks he can “solve” it without China’s help, Trump said, “Totally.” That seemed to take the interviewer aback, and prompted the comment, “Mr President, you use a language which is more abrasive than many of your predecessors.” To which Trump replied “I would say. I hope so.” You can read the full transcript here.

On ABC, America’s U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley underscored the president’s strategy to turn up the heat on Xi when the two leaders meet at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate Thursday. Speaking on ABC, Haley said Trump will “no longer take the excuses from China that they’re concerned, too. They need to show us how concerned they are. They need to put pressure on North Korea. The only country that can stop North Korea is China.” And what if it doesn’t? “China has to cooperate,” Haley insisted. “This is now down to do we want to continue to see these ballistic missile attacks from North Korea or does China want to do something about it? And this is all about the fact that they need to have action. And we’re going to continue to put pressure on China to have action. That will be shown in multiple ways.”