Trump signals possible delay to Beijing summit as U.S. pressures China to help reopen Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump said his planned visit to China later this month could be postponed as Washington tries to pressure Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring a new flashpoint in already fragile bilateral relations.

One report Speaking to the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said he expects China to help remove the barrier across the strait before traveling to Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping scheduled for March 31 to April 2.

Trump added that the two weeks until the meeting is “a long time” and that Washington wants clarity before then. “We may be delayed,” Trump told the FT, without providing details on timing.

The remarks came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Paris for talks on the planned summit. Beijing has yet to confirm dates and usually announces such plans closer to the scheduled start time.

The visit will be the first for a US president since Trump’s last visit during his first term in 2017. The visit also comes five months after the two leaders met in Busan, South Korea, and agreed to a one-year ceasefire in the trade war, where tit-for-tat tariffs briefly rose to triple-digit levels last year.

Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said earlier this month that the swap agenda was already “on the table.”

Embers sunday said It is stated in Air Force One that China supplies approximately 90% of its oil through the strait and that Beijing frames cooperation on Hormuz as a matter of personal interest. The president called on several European and Asian countries, including China, to help open the chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply passes.

But the figures suggest Beijing may be more isolated on the shutdown than Trump’s comments imply.

China has spent the last two years diversifying its energy sources and building its strategic reserves, mitigating the effects of any long-term disruption.

Seaborne oil imports through the strait currently account for less than half of China’s total oil shipments, according to Rush Doshi, director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations. Nomura also estimates that oil flows through Hormuz represent only 6.6% of China’s total energy consumption.

Satellite images tracked by maritime research firms showed that Iran has continued to send large amounts of crude oil to China since the war began late last month.

Both sides appeared to be stepping up pressure ahead of a high-stakes summit in Beijing. The United States has launched trade investigations in many countries over allegations of overcapacity and failures to address forced labor.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Monday that the Trump administration “once again abused the Section 301 investigation process to override domestic law over international rules,” calling the investigations “highly one-sided, arbitrary and discriminatory.”

Beijing said it had formally appealed to Washington against the investigations. “We call on the US side to immediately correct its wrong practices and not let China down,” a ministry spokesman said, calling for a solution through dialogue and negotiation. he said.

The ministry said it would closely monitor the progress of the investigations and take unspecified measures to defend China’s interests.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.