Trump delays China visit because Iran war likely will not be over by March 31; US-China trade talks; Xi on marine economy; Stabilizing expectations
President Trump does not believe the war with Iran will be over in two weeks, and so he will not be traveling to China to meet Xi. Today he said “we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so”, as Bloomberg reports:
President Donald Trump said he had requested China delay a summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for about a month, saying it was important for him to remain in Washington to oversee the Iran war.
“We’re working on that right now. We’re speaking to China. I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here,” Trump said Monday during a White House event when asked about potentially rescheduling the high-profile summit. The meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies is currently set to begin later this month.
“I have to be here, I feel. And so we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so, and I’m looking forward to being with them. We have a very good relationship,” he continued. “But because of the war— there’s no tricks to it either. It’s just, it’s not like, ‘Oh gee, I’m waiting.’ It’s very simple. We got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here. So it could be that we delay a little bit, not much.”
Trump first suggested the visit may be delayed on Sunday, in a call with Edward Luce from the Financial Times:
Trump said he was also expecting China to help unblock the strait before he travels to Beijing at the end of this month for a summit with Xi Jinping, his first trip to China in his second term.
“I think China should help too because China gets 90 per cent of its oil from the straits [sic],” Trump said. Waiting until the summit would be too late, he said.
“We’d like to know before that. It’s [two weeks is] a long time.” He added that his trip to China might also be put back. “We may delay,” Trump said.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent tried to clarify Trump’s remarks about PRC help in an interview with CNBC Monday:
You know, we will see whether the visit takes place as scheduled. But what I do want to parse, and there’s a false narrative out there that if the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president’s demanded that China police the Straits of Hormuz…
That’s completely false. So, if the meeting for some reason is rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics. The president wants to remain in D.C. to coordinate the war effort and that, you know, traveling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal…
It would be a decision the president made as commander-in-chief to stay in the White House or to stay in the United States while this war is being prosecuted.
China is unlikely to help the US fix the mess in the Strait of Hormuz, especially when they can cut their own deal with Iran for safe passage of their ships.
Given the recent reporting that the visit preparations may have been behind schedule, and the relatively positive tone coming from both sides out of the US-China meetings in Paris over the last two days, this delay is probably not that big a deal. If it extends past April, or the current trade understanding breaks down, then we can draw a different conclusion. But really the most important takeaway should be that the US President is admitting he does not think the Iran war is ending this month.
To talk about US-China relations, among other topics, I am hosting a Sinocism Live at 3PM ET on Tuesday, March 17, with Demetri Sevastopulo, US-China correspondent for the Financial Times. I will post the video and audio of the conversation later if you can not join the live discussion.
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