Iran War Is Casting Shadow On China Summit --- As Trump prepares to meet with Xi, he is eager to move on from Mideast conflict

“WASHINGTON -- President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will have another nation looming over their summit as the heads of the world's two superpowers meet in Beijing this week: Iran.

 

The long-anticipated meeting has been delayed once because of the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran, which has led to the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.

 

Trump is eager to move on from the Middle East war that is sapping his domestic power and straining the global economy.

 

He will land in Beijing prepared to push China, which relies on Iran for low-cost oil in their transactional relationship, to help broker an agreement that ends the conflict, U.S. officials said.

 

Xi also wants the fighting to stop, as Middle East turmoil restricts China's oil supply and shrinks countries' ability to buy Chinese goods. Finding a resolution could expand Xi's stature as a global statesman who swooped in at the precipice of a possible military escalation, analysts and U.S. officials said.

 

Trump on Sunday said a multipage response Iran sent to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which didn't include commitments about Tehran's nuclear program, was unacceptable.

 

On Friday Trump had threatened to resume "Project Freedom," the U.S.-led operation to help ships navigate the strait safely.

 

Iran is proposing an end to the fighting and a gradual opening of the strait to commercial traffic as the U.S. lifts its blockade on Iranian ships and ports, people familiar with Tehran's response said.

 

Senior U.S. officials insist the crisis in the strait and Tehran's refusal to make nuclear concessions will prove an afterthought once Trump and Xi step into the Great Hall for trade talks. But both men head into the high-stakes summit aligned in seeking their own victories on Iran -- with the Chinese particularly eager to ensure the current Iranian regime remains intact so it can recover.

 

At a minimum, Trump will have to keep one eye on a major conflict during a vital engagement halfway around the world. The president is scheduled to land in Beijing Wednesday night and leave Friday local time -- giving the leaders two days of backslapping and handshaking. The schedule includes bilateral meetings, a tour of the Temple of Heaven, a state dinner Thursday night and tea between the two leaders on Friday before Trump departs, U.S. officials said.

 

"Trump will have to juggle briefings and updates on two different, multifaceted sets of policy issues at once, all while a bit jet-lagged," said Jacob Stokes, deputy director of the Center for a New American Security public-policy think tank's Indo-Pacific program. "Trump arguably faces a tight-wire act of simultaneous diplomacy and negotiation more complicated than any he's yet seen in either of his presidencies."

 

The discussions will focus largely on trade issues, namely Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural goods, energy products and aerospace technologies such as Boeing airplanes, a senior U.S. official said. The leaders will also discuss establishing a U.S.-China board of trade that would consider how the countries can trade in goods that aren't related to national security.

 

The U.S. doesn't anticipate China will propose a major investment package for manufacturing in the U.S., the official said. Even so, the sides are likely to discuss establishing a U.S.-China Board of Investment through which the two governments could consider investment plans in the future. Such an entity wouldn't interfere with existing U.S. investment screening entities, such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., the official added.

 

"President Trump will continue doing what he has done over the past year -- rebalancing the relationship with China and prioritizing reciprocity and fairness to restore American economic independence," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Sunday.

 

Trump's tariffs on China and Beijing's riposte of export restrictions on rare-earth minerals last year unsettled the world's most important bilateral relationship. Since then, Trump has sought to recalibrate U.S.-China ties, including during an in-person meeting in South Korea in October.

 

"President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks," Trump posted on Truth Social in April.

 

All isn't so rosy in the relationship.

 

China denied visas for some lower-level U.S. officials ahead of Trump's visit, a step Beijing rarely takes. The coming summit is taking place against a backdrop of tightening media access. U.S. journalists have faced increasing difficulties obtaining Chinese visas. Typically, administrations fight to bring whom they want as part of a broader U.S. delegation, even if the host country objects. But U.S. officials say those decisions lie solely with China and that the denials won't materially affect the meeting.

 

Trump is expected to bring up Beijing's financial support for Iran and Russia and potential weapons exports to both countries, as he has during other encounters, a senior U.S. official said. On Friday, the State Department imposed sanctions on four Chinese entities for "providing satellite imagery that enables Iran's military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East."

 

Despite Xi's hopes for resolving the Iran crisis, he and Trump don't see eye to eye on how it should end. China hosted Iran's foreign minister last week. The timing was widely seen as designed to highlight ties between Beijing and Tehran ahead of the U.S. summit.

 

"Xi will want to make sure the latest American regime change war in the Middle East is seen as a failure -- and naturally, Trump wants the opposite," Stokes, of the Center for a New American Security, said.

 

Beijing and Tehran have relationship problems, too.

 

U.S. officials say Iran recently struck a Chinese-owned oil tanker in the strait, setting fire to the ship believed to be the JV Innovation. Beijing expressed its concern over the situation while Trump administration officials used the moment to criticize the Iranian regime.

 

Trump's struggles to bring the war to a close on his terms have driven him to seek Xi's support. But the president, some analysts said, should expect little from Beijing on Iran because China's strategy is to appear useful in the conflict while avoiding a costly Middle East entanglement of its own.

 

"It's hardly an ideal position for a U.S. president visiting China for the first time in a decade," said Aaron David Miller, an American Middle East negotiator during Democratic and Republican administrations. "Trump comes without leverage he might have had now without tariffs and a war that's alienating much of the world, handing Xi more than a few points."” [1]

 

1. Iran War Is Casting Shadow On China Summit --- As Trump prepares to meet with Xi, he is eager to move on from Mideast conflict. Linskey, Annie; Ward, Alexander; Bade, Gavin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 11 May 2026: A1.