Trump, Xi to Set Aside War Differences 05/12 06:17

   President Donald Trump is set to leave Tuesday 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 war -- or at the very least, reopen the Strait 
of Hormuz.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is set to leave Tuesday 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 war -- or at the very least, 
reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

   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 that Trump will be able to persuade Xi to change China's 
posture.

   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.

   US administration sanctioned China ahead of the trip

   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 think tank.

   "They are very cautious, risk averse, 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.

   In recent days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott 
Bessent have stepped up their calls for China to use its influence to help 
reopen the strait, through which about 20% of the world's crude flowed before 
the war began.

   The State Department announced Friday it was sanctioning four entities, 
including three China-based firms, for providing sensitive satellite imagery 
that enables Iranian military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East. 
Earlier, the Treasury Department moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused 
of purchasing oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil. The sanctions 
cut off the companies from the U.S. financial system and penalize anyone who 
does business with them.

   Beijing has called the sanctions "illegal unilateral pressure" and enacted a 
blocking statute -- passed in 2021 and never used until now -- that prohibits 
any Chinese entity from recognizing or complying with the sanctions.

   Ahead of Trump's arrival, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week hosted 
his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Beijing. The Chinese foreign minister 
used the moment to defend Iran's right to develop civilian nuclear energy.

   Xi has also offered implicit criticism of the U.S. over the war. He has said 
that safeguarding international rule of law is paramount, adding it "must not 
be selectively applied or disregarded," nor should the world be allowed to 
revert "to the law of the jungle."

   Both China and the US want to avoid a return to a tariff war

   Trump on Monday downplayed differences with China over Iran and underscored 
that Xi wants to see the strait reopened. "He'd like to see it get done," Trump 
said of the Chinese leader.

   Like Trump, Xi also has plenty of reason to not let differences over Iran 
impact other facets of the relationship, analysts say. China imports about half 
its crude oil and almost one-third of its liquefied natural gas from Middle 
Eastern countries affected by the closure of the strait, according to China's 
General Administration of Customs.

   Beijing wants to guard against further deterioration of the U.S.-China 
relationship -- something that would add further challenges to its economy.

   "I think for Xi, a win is continued stability without surrender," said Craig 
Singleton, senior director for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' China 
program. "He wants the summit to validate China's superpower status, preserve 
the tariff predictability, and to reaffirm that Washington has to deal with 
Beijing on Beijing's terms."

   Yet, since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, 
there have been difficult moments between Trump and Xi that threatened to set 
back the relative stability in their relationship.

   China has long supported Iran's ballistic missile program and backed it with 
dual-use industrial components that can be used for missile production, 
according to the U.S. government.

   Last month, Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on China after reports 
that Beijing was preparing to deliver a shipment of new air defense systems to 
Iran, but later backed away from the threat, claiming that he had received 
written assurance from Xi that he would not provide Tehran with weaponry. Days 
later, Trump said cryptically that the U.S. Navy had intercepted a Chinese 
vessel carrying a "gift" for Iran. He has not offered further explanation.

   "There have been moments where it seemed like it was going to spill over," 
said Patricia Kim, who co-leads the Assessing China Project at the Brookings 
Institution. "But I think, again, the two sides are pretty invested in not 
allowing this to destabilize the broader relationship."

   Both Trump and Xi may be eager to avoid creating dark economic clouds, as 
they did last year, when the two powers appeared on the precipice of a massive 
trade war.

   Trump had set tariffs on Chinese goods at 145% and China announced a further 
tightening of rare-earth export controls that would have hurt U.S. industry -- 
before the governments backed off from inflicting maximalist penalties on each 
other. The two sides reached a fragile truce in their long-running trade 
disputes in October.

   Trump and other administration officials have made the case that the Iran 
conflict -- particularly the closure of the strait -- has caused greater harm 
to China and its Pacific neighbors than it has to the United States, which is 
far less dependent on Middle East oil.

   "China is an export-driven economy. That means they depend on other 
countries to buy from them," Rubio told reporters last week, making the case 
that it was in China's interest for Iran to let traffic resume. "You can't buy 
from them if you can't ship it there, and you can't buy from them if your 
economy is being destroyed by what Iran is doing," he said.

   But for now, China has shown little interest in wading deeper into the 
conflict and has appeared reluctant to be seen siding with Washington.

   "It will be difficult to get the Chinese deeply involved under any 
circumstances," said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state during 
the Biden administration and chair of The Asia Group. "They will want to be 
careful because they can see political quicksand as well as the next guy."