Trump’s Threat to Delay Summit With Xi Casts New Shadow Over China Relations

President Trump warned that he could postpone a meeting set to begin in just over two weeks if China refuses to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump has threatened to postpone a long-planned summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he called on China to send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, casting a new shadow over the relationship between the world’s two biggest economies.

Mr. Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that he “may delay” the meeting, which is expected to start on March 31 in Beijing, if China does not answer his demand to help reopen the strait to shipping in the next two weeks. Mr. Trump said that waiting until the summit for an answer may be too long.

“We’d like to know before that,” he said.

China is one of several countries that have responded cautiously to Mr. Trump’s demands for naval assistance to thwart Iran’s efforts to block the strait, which is a transit route for about a fifth of the world’s oil. China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, has not responded directly to Mr. Trump’s remarks but has previously called for the cessation of hostilities.

A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that officials from both countries were discussing plans for the summit, and stressed that direct discussions between the leaders were essential.

“Head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable, strategic guiding role in China-U.S. relations,” Lin Jian, the spokesman, told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing.

In Paris, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was holding a second day of talks with He Lifeng, his Chinese counterpart, to finalize preparations for the meeting. They were scheduled to speak to reporters on Monday afternoon local time.

Mr. Bessent told CNBC on Monday that any delay would be because Mr. Trump chose to stay in the United States during the war with Iran, rather than because of a disruption to U.S.-China relations.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, later reaffirmed that the trip may be delayed because of the war. “As commander-in-chief, it’s his No. 1 priority right now to ensure the continued success of this operation, Epic Fury,” she said.

Mr. Xi invited Mr. Trump to visit Beijing when the leaders met in Busan, South Korea last October.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said China would see the Trump administration’s mixed messaging about the summit as more evidence of how the president’s erratic behavior is damaging the United States’ credibility.

“From Beijing’s perspective, Trump is projecting weakness, not strength, and much as the war can hurt the Chinese economy, it is likely to hurt the U.S. and its global capacity and standing even more,” Mr. Tsang said.

“So, the best option for Beijing is to sit pretty rather than engage proactively,” he added.

Since the start of the war in the Middle East late last month, the price of oil has soared above $100 a barrel. Israel has targeted Iranian oil facilities and the United States has hit military sites on Kharg Island, where about 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports are processed. Iran has retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz and launching missile and drone strikes against the oil infrastructure of U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.

Mr. Trump has previously said that the United States and Israel did not require help from other countries to conduct their military campaign against Iran. But in recent days, he has criticized European and Asian allies for not participating in the attacks.

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