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Trump Suggests He May Delay China Trip 03/16 06:58
President Donald Trump may delay his China trip due to the Iran war, but
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday it's not to pressure Beijing on
the Strait of Hormuz.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump may delay his China trip due to
the Iran war, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday it's not to
pressure Beijing on the Strait of Hormuz.
Bessent said any delay to Trump's trip to Beijing would not be because of
disagreements over the Iran war or efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"If the meeting for some reason was rescheduled, it would be rescheduled
because of logistics," he said. "The president wants to remain in D.C. to
coordinate the war and traveling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal."
Trump has suggested he may delay the much-anticipated visit to China at the
end of the month as he seeks to ramp up the pressure on Beijing to help reopen
the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war.
In an interview Sunday with the Financial Times, Trump said China's reliance
on oil from the Middle East means it ought to help with a new coalition he is
trying to put together to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait
after Iran's threats have throttled global flows of oil. The Republican
president said "we'd like to know" before the trip whether Beijing will help.
"We may delay," he said in the interview.
The uncertainty underscores just how much the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran
have reshaped global politics in the past two weeks. Calling off the
face-to-face visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could have its own major
economic consequences: Relations between Washington and Beijing have been
fraught as both sides have threatened the other with steep tariffs over the
past year.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said only that China and the
U.S. have maintained communication on Trump's visit. "Head-of-state diplomacy
plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-U.S. relations," Lin
Jian said at a daily briefing.
Bessent made his comments in Paris, where he was meeting with Chinese Vice
Premier He Lifeng for a new round of trade talks that were meant to pave the
way for Trump's Beijing trip. The U.S. and China have declared a truce that has
prevented both sides from levying dueling tariffs, but the stakes remain high.
"We had a very good two days here," Bessent said, adding a statement
"reaffirming the stability" between the two countries would be issued "in the
next few days."
In the early days of the Iran conflict, Trump had said U.S. Navy vessels
would escort oil tankers through the strait, and downplayed the threat posed by
Iran. But as oil prices soared, he and his administration have been forced to
consider new options -- including the idea, broached this weekend, for other
countries to join the push with their own warships. So far, none has yet
formally heeded the call.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from
a weekend in Florida that the U.S. had spoken to "about seven" nations about
offering military support. He wouldn't say which ones, though, and demurred
when he was asked directly about China -- though he subsequently suggested that
he'd made such an offer to Beijing.
"China's an interesting case study," he said, noting its reliance on Gulf
oil. "So I said, 'Would you like to come in' and we'll find out. Maybe they
will, maybe they won't."
War in Iran has sent the price of oil skyrocketing, which has raised the
price Americans pay at the pump, just as the midterm election season begins to
heat up. China, though, has faced its own economic pressures and recently
lowered its 2026 target for growth slightly to 4.5% to 5%, its slowest
projected growth since 1991 -- meaning prolonged disruptions in the strait
could have long-term impacts for Beijing as well.
Lin, at the briefing in Beijing, did not respond directly to questions about
Trump's call for outside help in the strait. He noted the impact on goods and
energy trade and repeated his government's call for an end to the fighting.
"China once again calls on all parties to stop military actions immediately,
avoid further escalation of tensions, and prevent instability in the region
from having a greater impact on global economic development," he said.
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