Trump Says China Trip to See Xi May Be Delayed
After President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times that he may delay the trip to China planned for the end of the month, members of his administration said it may wait until the war in the Iran region is over.
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In that same interview, Trump said, "It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there," and said he wanted China and others to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz so that fossil fuels and other goods can continue to travel to Europe and Asia.
He didn't directly link his decision on when to go to whether China escorts ships through the Strait of Hormuz, but said that he can't wait two weeks to get China's answer.
On March 16, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it a false narrative that the trip would be delayed if China said no.
“If the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president demanded that China police the Strait of Hormuz,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC in Paris, where he and the U.S. trade representative were meeting with Chinese counterparts to prepare for the presidents' meeting at the end of the month. “If the meeting, for some reason, is rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics.”
“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," he added.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters March 16: “As commander-in-chief, it’s his No. 1 priority right now to ensure the continued success of this operation, Epic Fury."
Trump also talked about his request for more naval support in the Strait of Hormuz in Washington on March 16, claiming some countries have volunteered to help, but also saying the U.S. doesn't need it.
Wendy Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said in a note to reporters that the delay is looking likely. She said that Bessent's emphasis that the delay would be because the president needs to manage the war, "rather than his displeasure with China for not helping Washington to keep the Strait of Hormuz open," is an effort to lessen tensions with China.
She said that both China and the U.S. may be glad to postpone, since "they have had relatively little time to develop substantive and meaningful deliverables.
"It appears that over the past two days progress has been made regarding nailing down Chinese commitments to buy more agricultural products, energy, and planes from the United States."