Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping concluded their Beijing summit on Friday with the US president asserting that Washington and Beijing share similar views on ending conflict in Iran, though he provided virtually no specifics about any breakthrough or concrete plan.
Speaking at the Zhongnanhai garden on the final day of talks, Trump said the two countries do not want Iran to develop nuclear weapons and want the Strait of Hormuz kept open. "We feel very similar about how we want it to end," he told reporters, calling the situation "a crazy thing there."
The vague language masks deeper tensions over how much leverage China should exert on Tehran. China is the world's largest buyer of Iranian crude, giving it potential influence, yet Beijing has shown reluctance to be positioned as Washington's enforcer in the Middle East.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer insisted that China "doesn't want to be on the wrong side" of the Iran question and that opening the strait is critical for Beijing's interests. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially suggested the administration hoped to get China to play a more active role in pressuring Iran to change course. But just hours later, Rubio contradicted that message, telling NBC News that the US was not seeking Chinese assistance. "We don't need their help," he said.
China's foreign ministry issued its own call for a ceasefire and for the strait to open "as soon as possible," language that appears in the official readout of Thursday's meeting between the two leaders. But Beijing's version of events was far more restrained, with only a brief reference to "the situation in the Middle East."
The disconnect reflects differing calculations in both capitals. About half of China's crude oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, making its security economically vital. Yet analysts and officials in Beijing view the Iran crisis as primarily a US problem, not China's to solve.
Zhou Bo, a retired Chinese military officer and fellow at Tsinghua University, bluntly captured Beijing's frustration with Rubio's framing. "In China, we have a saying: it is like, 'Why should I clean your shit?'" he said, suggesting that Washington was attempting to shift responsibility rather than seek genuine cooperation.
Trump also complicated the picture during a separate television interview with Fox News, suggesting that recovering Iran's enriched uranium was largely a public relations exercise. "I think it's more for public relations than it is for anything else," he said, a comment that raised questions about how seriously the administration views the nuclear dimension of the crisis.
Beyond Iran, Trump touted trade wins, claiming China has agreed to purchase US oil, soybeans, and 200 Boeing aircraft. He repeatedly praised the visit as productive and characterized himself as having solved problems other leaders could not tackle. "This has been an incredible visit," he said as he and Xi sat in an ornate wood-paneled room with a gold carpet.
On more contentious issues like Taiwan, the summit produced no visible concrete agreements. Some observers view the visit primarily as symbolism, with Xi having achieved a long-sought goal of hosting a US president as an acknowledged peer on the world stage.
Julian Gewirtz, who served as China director at the National Security Council during the Biden administration, characterized the meeting as an attempt by Beijing to "lock in this current phase of strategic stalemate for the remainder of Trump's term and ideally beyond." Chinese scholars have also noted a shift in the balance of power. Wu Xinbo, an international relations professor at Fudan University and government adviser, said the US and China have "reached a new point of equilibrium" rather than the historical pattern of American dominance.
Chinese state media rolled out commentary using the phrase "constructive strategic stability," with Xinhua news agency explaining it as "harmony without uniformity and seeking common ground while reserving differences."
On Beijing streets, locals described Trump with one word that kept surfacing: unpredictable. "What he says isn't necessarily what it means," one resident observed, capturing a broader sense that rhetorical commitments made in the gilded halls of Zhongnanhai may not translate into concrete action once the motorcades disperse.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump left Beijing claiming consensus on Iran while offering nothing substantive, leaving Beijing and Washington to interpret vague assurances however suits their interests."
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