President Donald Trump has delayed a trip to China this month as he pressures Beijing and NATO allies to send warships to help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz, throwing into question a long-planned effort to reset relations between the world’s two largest economies.
The U.S. campaign in Iran, now in its third week, has unsettled global energy markets and injected a note of uncertainty into Washington’s broader foreign policy agenda, as Trump called on allies and rivals alike to help reopen the strait — a vital artery for global oil and gas supplies — in an apparent acknowledgment that the task cannot be managed by the U.S. military alone.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he had sent a request to China that the summit be delayed by “a month or so,” citing the war.
“I’m looking forward to being with them. We have a very good relationship … but because of the war, I want to be here,” he said. He added that China “should be thanking” the United States for its efforts in Iran and said he was surprised it was not “eager” to help.
One Chinese official familiar with the preparations earlier told The Washington Post that a delay was likely and that a new date had not been set. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomacy surrounding the summit.
Beijing — unlike the White House — had not publicly confirmed the March 31-April 2 visit, a common practice in Chinese diplomatic planning given the potential for last-minute changes.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he was urging about seven countries to send warships to escort vessels through the strait.
At the time, Trump did not clarify which countries he had requested support from, but he said in a Truth Social post on Saturday that he hoped “China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others” would send ships to the region.
Beijing appeared to dismiss that entreaty on Monday. “China’s position is very clear: We once again call on all parties to immediately cease military operations, avoid further escalation of tensions, and prevent regional instability from having a greater impact on global economic development,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference in Beijing.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a key figure in negotiations before the China trip, on Monday morning denied a connection between the Iran operation and Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, saying that any potential delay would be due to “logistics.”
“If the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president demanded that China police the Strait of Hormuz,” Bessent told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan.
Analysts say Bessent’s reframing could be intended to dial down pressure on the potential Beijing talks. The treasury secretary — alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer — has in recent days been involved in preparations for the summit, including efforts to secure Chinese commitments to buy U.S. agricultural products.
“This evolution in explanation seems to be an effort to lessen tensions with Beijing by providing a more generic non-China-focused reason for any postponement,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade negotiator.
Preparations for the summit have already been highly compressed, with negotiations over major outcomes not beginning in earnest until early this year, according to U.S. and Chinese officials familiar with the talks. At the same time, intermittent geopolitical disruptions — including the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a Chinese ally — have weighed over preparations.
“Postponement may also come as somewhat of a relief to both sides as, when compared to previous summits, they have had relatively little time to develop substantive and meaningful deliverables,” Cutler said.
Trump has hoped to secure a political win ahead of the midterm elections by striking a deal with China on agricultural purchases, while both sides seek to extend a fragile trade truce after a tumultuous year marked by tensions over Trump’s tariff campaign and Beijing’s restrictions on rare-earth exports. Last month, the president said he hoped the trip would be the “biggest display you’ve ever had in the history of China.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that while there are “tensions” with Beijing, it will ultimately be a “constructive partner” in efforts to police the strait. “Opening the Strait of Hormuz is even more important for China than it is for the United States,” he said.
While China is the world’s largest importer of crude oil and a major consumer of supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, several factors make it unlikely that it will yield to Washington’s request to step in — including the fact that China, unlike many other countries in Asia, maintains massive domestic oil reserves. China has stores of around 1.3 billion barrels of crude, enough to replace around four months of seaborne deliveries.
“Beijing isn’t panicking because it has spent years preparing for energy disruptions. Strategic reserves and diversified supply give China a short-term buffer, so the immediate risk is higher prices rather than physical shortages,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
There are also early indications that Tehran may be willing to selectively police the strait, allowing some supplies through — including shipments to China, its largest oil buyer.
“We’ve continued to see Iranian tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz with oil bound for China,” said Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who tracks energy and maritime risks in the Middle East.
“China is in a different category because it’s Iran’s main oil client. They need China,” she said.
Raydan said that, according to statistics available for February, China imported around 1 million barrels of oil a day from Saudi Arabia, 700,000 from Iraq and 400,000 from Iran, all of which has been affected by the paralysis in the strait. However, the Saudis have already begun efforts to reroute oil through overland pipelines to the Red Sea, circumventing the strait and offering potential relief for Beijing.
While Beijing may be somewhat insulated from the immediate shortfalls in crude, pressure on broader oil prices will at some point become painful for the world’s largest economy.
“China may look comfortable in the near term, but its long-term exposure is enormous. It’s the largest buyer of [Persian] Gulf oil, so sustained disruption in the Strait threatens not just energy prices but the stability of the supply chains that underpin China’s export economy,” Singleton said.
Washington’s allies in Asia, notably Japan and South Korea, also are vulnerable to the Hormuz oil shock.
Trump’s request that they send warships for tanker escort comes at a particularly awkward moment for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is expected to meet Trump in Washington on Thursday and has been seeking to strengthen ties with the White House. On Monday, she said that Japan — which has strict constitutional checks on deploying its military abroad — has not made a decision on whether to supply vessels.
“We are examining what Japan can do independently and what can be done within the legal framework,” Takaichi said.
Michelle Yee He Lee in Seoul contributed to this report.
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