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Trump-Xi Summit in limbo? US President makes China's help on Strait of Hormuz contingent to visit
Donald Trump threatened to delay his summit with Xi Jinping if China doesn’t help secure Strait of Hormuz, as the US-Israel war with Iran stifles oil supplies.
US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit China and meet his counterpart Xi Jinping at the end of this month, a Summit that now seems to be facing the heat of Washington’s war with Iran.
It is specifically the Strait of Hormuz issue that the Republican want to get out of, and he is using his China visit to pressure Beijing into helping him with that.
Trump threatened to delay his summit with Xi Jinping if Beijing doesn’t help secure the Strait of Hormuz, as the US-Israel war with Iran stifles oil supplies and unsettles ties between the world’s biggest economies.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the US President reiterated a demand for Beijing to help unblock the key waterway. One day earlier, the Republican leader appealed to China to join a team effort to send ships to the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said Sunday in the FT interview.
His trip to Beijing would be too late, Trump added, underscoring his growing urgency around efforts to counter Iran’s chokehold on the strait.
Washington has said Trump will visit China from March 31 to April 2, although Beijing has yet to confirm those dates in line with its usual practice.
China’s response
While China hasn’t made any official response to the request for help in the Strait of Hormuz, the state-run Global Times dismissed the idea as Trump’s attempt to spread the risk “of a war that Washington started and can’t finish.” The nationalist tabloid's commentary published on Sunday night explained why Beijing wouldn’t sign up to the proposal.
“Crowding a volatile waterway with warships from multiple nations doesn’t create security. It creates flashpoints. If any single vessel were struck, the consequences could rapidly spiral beyond anyone’s control,” it reads. This is “more a carefully structured transfer of risk.”
Will the Trump-Xi summit happen?
Chinese and US trade chiefs are convening in Paris to tee up the Trump-Xi summit, with talks set to resume on Monday. Trump administration officials have also said they are engaging with allies, including the UK, South Korea and Japan, to secure the strait, although so far most countries have expressed caution about deploying resources to an active war zone.
Beijing said on Monday it is in talks with Washington over a visit by US President Donald Trump expected this month.
"China and the United States are maintaining communication regarding President Trump's visit to China," Lin Jian, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, told a press conference, without addressing Trump's recent pressure on NATO allies and China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Chinese officials have so far condemned Trump’s war on Iran — a diplomatic friend of Beijing — and would be unlikely to send ships, in part because some carriers bound for China still appear to be getting through. While China is the biggest user of oil passing through the strait, it also has vast stockpiles to help manage any interruptions.
Trump has a history of making threats to call off deals in the final stages of negotiating, a move he’s used to gain leverage. The US leader made a similar threat weeks before a planned October meeting with Xi, which was to be accompanied by steep tariff hikes. That meeting ultimately went ahead and extended a trade war truce that’s kept tariffs down on both sides and secured the flow of critical minerals.
A delay to the summit could suit Beijing. China had previously proposed that Trump arrive at the end of April to allow more time for preparations, according to a person familiar with the matter. Such a postponement would allow for more discussion on security and diplomatic issues, including self-ruled Taiwan, which has so far not featured prominently on the planning agenda.
