Trump and Xi appear intent on keeping deep differences over Iran war
from overshadowing China summit
[May 12, 2026]
By AAMER MADHANI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday is set to leave for
Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping after weeks of trying, and
failing, to persuade the Chinese government to use its considerable
leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the two-month old
war — or at the very least, reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has veered between venting that China, the world’s biggest buyer
of Iranian oil, hasn't done more to get the Islamic Republic in line,
and acknowledging that Xi's government helped de-escalate the conflict
last month by nudging Tehran back to ceasefire talks when negotiations
wobbled.
But ahead of the U.S. leader's high-stakes visit, the White House has
set low expectations that Trump will be able to persuade Xi to change
China's posture.
Instead, the administration seems determined not to let differences on
Iran overshadow efforts to make headway on other difficult matters in
the complicated relationship — ranging from trade to further Chinese
cooperation to block exports of fentanyl precursors.
“We don’t want this to be something that derails the broader
relationship or the agreements that might come out of our meeting in
Beijing,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Bloomberg TV
last week.
US administration sanctioned China ahead of the trip
Beijing publicly insists that it wants to see the war end, and has been
working diplomatically behind the scenes to help its ally Pakistan push
to broker a peace agreement. It has also sent a “subtle message of
discontent to Iran” for closing the Strait of Hormuz, and to the U.S.
for its blockade of Iranian shipping, said Ahmed Aboudouh, a specialist
on China’s influence in the Middle East with the London-based Chatham
House think tank.
“They are very cautious, risk-adverse, and they don’t want to be
involved in anything that would drag them into something that they don’t
consider their problem,” he said.
In recent days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary
Scott Bessent have stepped up their calls for China to use its influence
to help reopen the strait, through which about 20% of the world's crude
flowed before the war began.
The State Department announced on Friday that it was sanctioning four
entities, including three China-based firms, for providing sensitive
satellite imagery that enables Iranian military strikes against U.S.
forces in the Middle East. Earlier, the Treasury Department moved to
target Chinese oil refineries accused of purchasing oil from Tehran, as
well as shippers of the oil. The sanctions cut off the companies from
the U.S. financial system and penalize anyone who does business with
them.
Beijing has called the sanctions “illegal unilateral pressure” and
enacted a blocking statute — passed in 2021 and never used until now —
that prohibits any Chinese entity from recognizing or complying with the
sanctions.
Ahead of Trump's arrival, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week
hosted his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Beijing. The Chinese
foreign minister used the moment to defend Iran’s right to develop
civilian nuclear energy.
Xi has also offered implicit criticism of the U.S. over the war. He has
said that safeguarding international rule of law is paramount, adding it
“must not be selectively applied or disregarded,” nor should the world
be allowed to revert “to the law of the jungle.”
Both China and the US want to avoid a return to a tariff war
Trump on Monday downplayed differences with China over Iran and
underscored that Xi wants to see the strait reopened. “He’d like to see
it get done,” Trump said of the Chinese leader.
Like Trump, Xi also has plenty of reason to not let differences over
Iran impact other facets of the relationship, analysts say. China
imports about half its crude oil and almost one-third of its liquefied
natural gas from Middle East countries affected by the closure of the
strait, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner for members of his
administration and law enforcement organization leaders, during
National Police Week, in the White House Rose Garden, Monday, May
11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Beijing wants to guard against further deterioration of the
U.S.-China relationship — something that would add further
challenges to its economy.
“I think for Xi, a win is continued stability without surrender,”
said Craig Singleton, senior director for the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies' China program. “He wants the summit to validate
China’s superpower status, preserve the tariff predictability, and
to reaffirm that Washington has to deal with Beijing on Beijing’s
terms.”
Yet, since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes in late February,
there have been difficult moments between Trump and Xi that
threatened to set back the relative stability in their relationship.
China has long supported Iran’s ballistic missile program and backed
it with dual-use industrial components that can be used for missile
production, according to the U.S. government.
Last month, Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on China after
reports that Beijing was preparing to deliver a shipment of new air
defense systems to Iran, but later backed away from the threat,
claiming that he had received written assurance from Xi that he
would not provide Tehran with weaponry. Days later, Trump said
cryptically that the U.S. Navy had intercepted a Chinese vessel
carrying a “gift” for Iran. He has not offered further explanation.
“There have been moments where it seemed like it was going to spill
over,” said Patricia Kim, who co-leads the Assessing China Project
at the Brookings Institution. “But I think, again, the two sides are
pretty invested in not allowing this to destabilize the broader
relationship.”
Both Trump and Xi may be eager to avoid creating dark economic
clouds, as they did last year, when the two powers appeared on the
precipice of a massive trade war.
Trump had set tariffs on Chinese goods at 145% and China announced a
further tightening of rare-earth export controls that would have
hurt U.S industry — before the governments backed off from
inflicting maximalist penalties on each other. The two sides reached
a fragile truce in their long-running trade disputes in October.
Trump and other administration officials have made the case that the
conflict — particularly the closure of the strait — has caused
greater harm to China and its Pacific neighbors than it has to the
United States, which is far less dependent on Middle East oil.
“China is an export-driven economy. That means they depend on other
countries to buy from them,” Rubio told reporters last week, making
the case that it was in China's interest for Iran to let traffic
resume. “You can’t buy from them if you can’t ship it there, and you
can’t buy from them if your economy is being destroyed by what Iran
is doing,” he said.
But for now, China has shown little interest in wading deeper into
the conflict and has appeared reluctant to be seen siding with
Washington.
“It will be difficult to get the Chinese deeply involved under any
circumstances,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy Secretary of
State during the Biden administration and chairman of The Asia
Group. “They will want to be careful because they can see political
quicksand as well as the next guy.”
___
Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington, Adam Schreck in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and David Rising in Bangkok contributed
to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
