Trump hints at possible delay to Beijing summit as US pressures China to help reopen Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump said his planned trip to China later this month could be delayed as Washington sought to pressure Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring a renewed flashpoint in the already fragile bilateral relationship.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said he expected China to help unblock the strait before traveling to Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, scheduled for March 31 to April 2.

Trump added that two weeks was a “long time” for a meeting and Washington wanted clarity before then. “We may delay,” Trump told the FT, without elaborating on the timing.

The remarks came as Treasury Secretary Scott Besant met his Chinese counterpart He Laifung in Paris for talks on the planned summit. Beijing has yet to confirm dates and usually announces such projects closer to their scheduled launch.

The visit will be the first for a US president since Trump’s last trip in 2017 during his first term. It comes five months after the two leaders met in the South Korean city of Busan, where they agreed to a one-year deal in a trade war that escalated to triple-digit levels last year.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said earlier this month that an exchange agenda was already “on the table”.

Trump said on Sunday that China gets 90% of its oil through the strait on Air Force One, framing Beijing’s cooperation in Hormuz as a matter of self-interest. The president has appealed to several European and Asian countries, including China, to help open the chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s daily oil supply passes.

However, the numbers suggest Beijing is more isolated by the shutdown than Trump’s comments.

China has spent the past two years diversifying its energy sources and building up its strategic reserves, mitigating the blow of any long-term disruption.

Seaborne oil imports through the strait now account for less than half of China’s total oil shipments, said Rush Doshi, director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations. Nomura estimates that oil flows through Hormuz represent just 6.6% of China’s total energy consumption.

Satellite imagery tracked by maritime research institutes has shown that Iran has continued to ship large quantities of crude oil to China since the war began late last month.

Both sides ratcheted up the pressure ahead of a high-level summit in Beijing. The US launched trade investigations on a wide range of countries for failing to address overcapacity and forced labor.

In a statement on Monday, China’s Commerce Ministry said the Trump administration had “once again abused the Section 301 investigation process to supersede domestic law over international norms,” ​​calling the investigations “extremely one-sided, arbitrary and discriminatory.”

Beijing said it had formally made representations to Washington against the investigation. “We urge the US side to immediately correct its wrong practices and meet China halfway,” a ministry spokesman said, calling for talks and negotiated solutions.

The ministry said it would closely monitor the progress of the investigation and take unspecified measures to protect China’s interests.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.