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World
Iran's nuclear standoff and China's oil supply concerns dominate the upcoming Trump-Xi summit in Beijing this week.
Iran will cast a long shadow over the anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this week in Beijing, according to U.S. officials and analysts cited by the Wall Street Journal. Trump arrives prepared to press China for help in brokering a deal to end the conflict with Tehran, while Xi seeks a halt to hostilities that are disrupting Middle Eastern oil flows to China and dampening the purchasing power of nations that buy Chinese goods.
A resolution could bolster Xi's stature as a global statesman who stepped in at a moment the region teetered on the brink of serious military escalation, analysts and U.S. officials told the newspaper. Both leaders enter the high-stakes talks with their own calculations regarding Iran, though Beijing is clearly keen to see the current Iranian regime survive and recover later.
Trump threatened Friday to revive Operation Freedom, the U.S.-led effort to help ships safely navigate the Strait of Hormuz, adding this time the operation would include "other things" as well. Senior U.S. officials insist that the strait crisis and Tehran's refusal to make nuclear concessions will become "secondary matters" once Trump and Xi enter the Great Hall of the People for trade talks.
At a minimum, Trump will have to keep part of his attention fixed on a major conflict while participating in a vital multi-day summit on the other side of the world. Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing Wednesday evening and depart Friday local time, giving the two leaders two days of meetings and handshakes.
The discussions will largely focus on trade issues, particularly China's purchases of U.S. agricultural goods, energy products, and aerospace technologies like Boeing aircraft, according to a senior U.S. official. The two leaders will also discuss establishing a U.S.-China trade council to examine how to exchange goods not related to national security.
The U.S. does not expect China to propose a large investment package in American manufacturing, the official said. However, the two sides are likely to discuss creating a U.S.-China investment council through which future investment plans could be studied, provided it does not conflict with existing U.S. investment review bodies like the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
The tariffs Trump imposed on China, and Beijing's retaliatory restrictions on rare mineral exports last year, have shaken the world's most important bilateral relationship. Trump is expected to raise the issue of Chinese financial support for Iran and Russia, as well as the potential export of weapons to both countries, as he has in previous meetings, according to a senior U.S. official.
On Friday, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on four Chinese entities for "providing satellite imagery that enabled Iran to carry out military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East." Despite Xi's desire to resolve the Iran crisis, he and Trump disagree on how to end it. China hosted Iran's foreign minister last week, a move seen as timed to highlight Beijing-Tehran ties ahead of the U.S.-China summit.
Relations between Beijing and Tehran are not without problems either. U.S. officials say Iran recently targeted an oil tanker owned by a Chinese company in the Strait of Hormuz, sparking a fire on the vessel believed to be the "GV Innovation." Beijing expressed deep concern over the incident, while Trump administration officials used the event to criticize the Iranian regime.
Trump's difficulties in ending the war on his terms have driven him to seek Xi's support, but analysts believe the U.S. president should not expect too much from Beijing on Iran. China's strategy is to appear as a helpful party in the crisis while avoiding costly entanglement in the Middle East.
"It's hardly an ideal situation for an American president visiting China for the first time in a decade," said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator who served in Democratic and Republican administrations. "Trump comes without the leverage he could have had if not for the tariffs and the war that alienates a large part of the world, which gives Xi additional strengths."
