Trump’s China visit: With the United States facing a growing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz amid its conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump is now weighing on diplomatic relations to help the US ease disruptions in the crucial oil shipping lane.
Trump signals visit delay to China
Trump suggested that he may delay his much-anticipated visit to China at the end of the month as he seeks to ramp up the pressure on Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war, PTI reported.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said China’s reliance on oil from the Middle East means it ought to help with a new coalition he is trying to put together to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait after Iran’s threats have throttled global flows of oil, the report added.
Trump said “we’d like to know” before the trip whether Beijing will help. “We may delay,” he said in the interview.
Washington and Beijing ties have been fraught
The uncertainty underscores just how much the US-Israeli strikes on Iran have reshaped global politics in the past two weeks. Calling off the face-to-face visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could have its own major economic consequences: Relations between Washington and Beijing have been fraught as both sides have threatened the other with steep tariffs over the past year, the PTI report said.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump’s new comments came as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Monday in Paris for a new round of trade talks that were meant to pave the way for Trump’s Beijing trip. The US and China have declared a truce that has prevented both sides from levying dueling tariffs, but the stakes remain high, the report added.
Amid soaring oil prices, Trump forced to consider new options
In the early days of the Iran conflict, Trump had said US navy vessels would escort oil tankers through the strait, and downplayed the threat posed by Iran. But as oil prices soared, he and his administration have been forced to consider new options — including the idea, broached this weekend, for other countries to join the push with their own warships. So far, none has yet formally heeded the call, the PTI report said.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a weekend in Florida that the US had spoken to “about seven” nations about offering military support. He wouldn’t say which ones, though, and demurred when he was asked directly about China — though he subsequently suggested that he’d made such an offer to Beijing, the report added.
“China’s an interesting case study,” he said, noting its reliance on Gulf oil. “So I said, Would you like to come in’ and we’ll find out. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.”
Iran war skyrockets oil prices
War in Iran has sent the price of oil skyrocketing, which has raised the price Americans pay at the pump, just as the midterm election season begins to heat up. China, though, has faced its own economic pressures and recently lowered its 2026 target for growth slightly to 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent, its slowest projected growth since 1991 — meaning prolonged disruptions in the strait could have long-term impacts for Beijing as well, the PTI report said.
US-China trade talks open in Paris
Representatives from Beijing and Washington began their economic and trade talks in Paris on Sunday, paving the way for US President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in about two weeks.
The delegations, led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, convened in the French capital in the morning, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported. The White House has said that Trump will travel to China from March 31 to April 2, though Beijing has not officially confirmed it.
Trump’s visit to China will be the first for a U.S. president since he went in his first term in 2017. It will come five months after the two leaders met in the South Korean city of Busan and agreed to a one-year truce in a trade war that temporarily saw tit-for-tat tariffs soar to triple digits before the two sides climbed down.
Still, trade remains a source of tensions. The commerce ministry hit back against the Trump administration’s new trade investigation into 16 trading partners, which included China. The investigation – which came after a Supreme Court ruling struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs that were imposed last year – could pave the way for new tariffs.
China said Monday, in response to the new investigation, that it had already made representations about their concerns to the U.S. in their ongoing negotiations. “It’s a mistake on top of a mistake, that severely harms the global supply chain’s safety and stability,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce.
Another issue that could be discussed is the Iran war, especially when global anxiety is soaring over oil prices and supplies. Trump said Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and others will send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe.”
(With inputs from AP, PTI)
