President Donald Trump is moving ahead with plans for a grand meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week, but uncertainty over the White House strategy for ending the Iran conflict along with tensions over Beijing’s support for Tehran suggest the two-month postponement of the summit did little to strengthen Washington’s hand.
Trump on Tuesday said he and Xi would discuss the war in Beijing next week, praising the Chinese president as “very respectful.” The remarks came despite anger in the Chinese capital over sweeping U.S. sanctions targeting trade with Iran, culminating last week in the unusual step of Beijing ordering companies and ships to openly defy the measures.
Diplomatic dust-ups over the Iran war have injected uncertainty into preparations and overshadowed potential deliverables from the high-level summit, at which the two leaders are set to discuss a packed agenda on trade, Taiwan, fentanyl and artificial intelligence.
“It’s a huge distraction,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington. “The original date had to be postponed because Trump couldn’t handle two things at the same time, so the war obviously has already had an impact. But now, the question is, is the war going to critically affect the substance of the trip?”
Behind the scenes, U.S. and Chinese officials have been working to broker a deal that experts say is likely to include Chinese agricultural purchases, investment agreements, a consensus statement on AI guardrails and orders of U.S. commercial aircraft — a package of deliverables Trump could bring back to Washington as a foreign policy win. Analysts say Beijing, meanwhile, is hoping to extend a trade truce, ease sanctions and technology restrictions, and potentially secure assurances the United States will pull back on arms sales to Taiwan.
Those discussions will unfold amid rapid developments in the Iran conflict. On Tuesday, Trump abruptly paused an operation to escort trapped ships through the Strait of Hormuz less than two days after it began, citing ongoing peace negotiations — precisely the kind of high-intensity diplomatic management Trump had hoped to avoid when he postponed his original meeting with Xi in March.
Underscoring how deeply the Iran conflict is entwined with the summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Wednesday, where the Iranian envoy briefed Wang on the Pakistan-mediated negotiations with Washington, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency.
“I think it’s a deliberate design that the Iranians are coming to tell the Chinese what is their bottom line position, what they think that China can help deliver and what China can do to massage Trump,” Sun said.
Beijing has avoided taking a strong public position on the war and has quietly urged Tehran to consider a U.S. peace deal. At the same time, it has maintained support for the regime, holding a number of official calls with Iranian officials in recent months while lashing out at what its Foreign Ministry has described as “dangerous” U.S. tactics in the strait.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has sharply escalated pressure on Beijing, imposing sweeping sanctions on dozens of entities and a major Chinese oil refinery tied to the shadow trade that funnels hundreds of millions of barrels of Iranian oil to the country each year, roughly 13 percent of its total imports.
Washington also took the unusual step of physically seizing two Chinese-linked vessels transporting Iranian goods — one of which Trump said was carrying “a gift from China” which “wasn’t very nice.” Beijing condemned the sanctions, calling them “illegal.”
With a week to go before the summit, senior U.S. officials expected to form part of the sizable delegation to Beijing have zeroed in on China’s role in the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urged Beijing to use its meeting with Araghchi to help loosen Tehran’s chokehold on the strait.
“I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told, and that is that what you are doing in the straits is causing you to be globally isolated,” Rubio said ahead of Wang’s meeting with Araghchi.
That request could soon be tested. Rubio on Tuesday urged China not to veto a U.S.-backed U.N. resolution calling on Iran to halt attacks and mine-laying operations in the Strait of Hormuz. The measure could go to a vote just days before Trump’s visit. Last month, Beijing vetoed a separate U.S.-backed resolution supporting a coordinated international effort to secure the strait.
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a key figure in preparations for the U.S.-China summit, accused Beijing of helping fund a “state sponsor of terrorism” through its support for the Iranian regime.
Analysts have downplayed expectations for major breakthroughs from the summit, saying both sides are likely to focus instead on stabilizing relations and extending a fragile trade truce.
“After all these years of ups and downs, China has significantly lowered its expectations,” said Ren Xiao, a former Chinese diplomat and director of the Center for Chinese Foreign Policy Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Since Trump first previewed the summit in February — saying he hoped it would be the “biggest display you’ve ever had in the history of China,” the agenda has been scaled back from three days to two. It is also unclear whether he will receive the lavish welcome he has anticipated. Beijing does not publicly confirm high-level meetings in advance, wary of last-minute hiccups, and preparations have been kept under wraps.
On the U.S. side, preparations have forged ahead amid continuing distractions in the Middle East and periodic clashes with Beijing over the war. This week, images appearing to show U.S. military C-17 transport planes landing at Beijing airport circulated widely on Chinese social media, fueling speculation about what advance equipment Washington may be sending ahead of the summit.
Such flights are a routine part of advance preparations for presidential travel, which typically involve transporting security personnel, communications systems and armored vehicles including the presidential limousine known as “The Beast.”
Trump in February spoke enthusiastically about wanting a grand display of parading Chinese uniformed guards, and said last month that Xi will give him a “big, fat hug” in Beijing following his efforts to reopen the strait.
China maintains a tiered system of welcome ceremonies for foreign leaders, including 21-gun salutes and elaborate receptions at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square or more muted meetings depending on expected outcomes and the standing of the guests in Beijing. Privately, Chinese officials are concerned that an overly extravagant welcome could send awkward signals that it Beijing is being too accommodating toward the U.S. amid the fracturing conflict, according to the official.
“We know that Trump loves grand ceremonies, but China also hates to be seen as fawning over him at this sensitive point, worried that a grander-than-2017 welcome would contradict China’s role as a peacemaker and friend of the Middle East,” said Wang Yiwei, a former Chinese diplomat who is now a council member in the state-affiliated Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs.
Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.
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