President Trump heads for Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping after weeks of trying, and failing, to persuade the Chinese government to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the two-month old Mideast war or, at the very least, reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Mr. Trump has veered between venting that China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil, hasn’t done more to get the Islamic Republic in line and acknowledging that Xi’s government helped de-escalate the conflict last month by nudging Tehran back to ceasefire talks when negotiations wobbled.
But ahead of the U.S. leader’s high-stakes visit, the White House has set low expectations as far as Mr. Trump being able to persuade Xi to change China’s posture is concerned.
Instead, the administration seems determined not to let differences on Iran overshadow efforts to make headway on other difficult matters in the complicated relationship – ranging from trade to further Chinese cooperation to block exports of fentanyl precursors.
“We don’t want this to be something that derails the broader relationship or the agreements that might come out of our meeting in Beijing,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Bloomberg TV last week.
Beijing publicly insists that it wants to see the war end, and has been working diplomatically behind the scenes to help its ally Pakistan push to broker a peace agreement. It has also sent a “subtle message of discontent to Iran” for closing the Strait of Hormuz, and to the U.S. for its blockade of Iranian shipping, said Ahmed Aboudouh, a specialist on China’s influence in the Middle East with the London-based Chatham House thinktank.
“They are very cautious, risk-adverse, and they don’t want to be involved in anything that would drag them into something that they don’t consider their problem,” he said.
