The world watches as Xi Jinping’s plane touches down on North Korean tarmac. This state visit, the first by a Chinese leader in 14 years, is a calculated move in the shadow of escalating tensions with the West. For families in the industrial North, where free trade deals have hollowed out factories, the question is not diplomatic posturing but the price of milk and bread.
A cosier China-DPRK axis could rattle global supply chains, pushing up costs on essentials. Xi’s embrace of Kim Jong Un is a message to Washington: Beijing holds the keys to stability on the Korean Peninsula. But for workers clinging to zero-hour contracts, this is a sideshow to the real drama: the cost of living crisis.
Every handshake, every photo op, has a price tag that lands on the kitchen table. The West must calculate its next move, but the calculation for ordinary Britons is already done. They are paying the price of geopolitical games.
