Trump Leaves Beijing Without China’s Help on Iran
President Donald Trump concluded a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 15, securing no concrete commitment from Beijing to pressure Iran — the primary diplomatic objective Washington had attached to the meeting. The summit, the first visit by an American president to China in nearly a decade, ended with a single major deal announced: a Chinese order for 200 Boeing aircraft, well below the 500 jets Trump had publicly floated before his arrival.
Trump entered the summit with three demands, according to Middle East Eye: that China relax export controls on rare earths, purchase more American agricultural goods, and use its influence over Tehran to help end the ongoing military conflict between Iran and the US-Israeli coalition. Beijing gave no ground on any of the three, Euronews reported.
The result was described by Euronews as “a mere stabilisation of relations” — a broad effort to prevent the rivalry from spiralling further out of control, rather than any breakthrough.
“You don’t get the sense that much has been accomplished,” Helmut Brandstätter, a liberal Member of the European Parliament from Austria with close contacts among Chinese diplomats, told Euronews.
On Iran, the gap between the two sides was wide before the summit began. Al Jazeera reported that US officials had urged Beijing to press Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blockaded since Tehran began targeting energy infrastructure and shipping in the waterway. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said publicly that it was in China’s own interest to secure freedom of transit through the strait, and went further, accusing Beijing of “funding the largest state sponsor of terrorism” given that China purchases approximately 90 percent of Iranian oil exports.
Beijing’s response was cooler. William Yang, senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that while both China and the United States want the strait open, “their preferred approaches to achieve this goal don’t align.” He added that China had “nudged Iran towards de-escalation, looking at ceasefire flexibility, but it’s a different picture than trying to manage the conflict and to end it.”
Fox News reported that during the summit, both leaders did agree in principle that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open and that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. But Beijing produced no concrete plan to pressure Tehran, and the joint statement contained no mechanism for enforcement or follow-through.
The failure to secure Chinese cooperation on Iran left Trump returning to Washington with his threats against Tehran surging. The New York Times reported on May 18 that the United States and Israel were “engaged in intense preparations — the largest since the cease-fire took effect — for the possible resumption of attacks against Iran as early as next week.” The White House made active preparations for a renewed military campaign just two days after Trump’s return from Beijing, according to the World Socialist Web Site.
Trump’s inability to leverage China’s relationship with Tehran reflects a broader misreading of Beijing’s strategic posture in the Middle East, according to analysts and former diplomats. Marco Carnelos, a former Italian ambassador to Iraq and Middle East peace process coordinator for the Italian government, wrote in Middle East Eye on May 20 that Washington had arrived at the summit “making unprecedented and embarrassing demands,” and misunderstood China’s position from the outset.
“China’s Middle East policy is built on a trinity of strategic concepts: non-interference in internal affairs, the primacy of development in addressing security threats, and a balanced diplomacy that refuses to take sides,” Carnelos wrote.
That framework has deep roots. Beijing brokered the landmark 2023 Saudi-Iran rapprochement, hosting talks that restored diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran after a seven-year rupture. The agreement was signed in Beijing in the presence of China’s senior diplomat Wang Yi and was widely seen as a demonstration of Beijing’s ability to underwrite regional security through dialogue rather than military presence.
Christopher Heurlin, an associate professor of government and Asian studies at Bowdoin College, told Al Jazeera before the summit that Iran was not actually a central issue for either party in the talks. “The Iran issue is not really the central issue for either party in this summit,” he said, noting that Taiwan remained China’s primary concern while Trump would focus on trade concessions.
Beijing’s position was reinforced by a statement from Chinese officials during the summit: China said there was “no point in continuing” the Iran war, but stopped well short of offering to play the role of deal-broker Washington was seeking.
The Boeing order — China’s first large aircraft purchase since Trump’s 2017 visit to Beijing, when 300 planes were agreed — was the headline commercial outcome. But even that landed poorly. The order of 200 jets was far below Trump’s pre-trip expectation of 500, and Boeing shares fell 4 percent on Wall Street in reaction, Euronews reported.
Beyond Boeing, the summit produced a framework statement. According to a Chinese government readout cited by CNBC, Presidents Xi and Trump agreed to develop “a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability,” with Beijing treating this as a guiding framework for the next three years. Xi called for deeper cooperation in economic and trade issues, agriculture and tourism, and said “China’s door to opening up will only open wider.” Both sides also agreed to make better use of diplomatic and military communication channels.
That language satisfied neither investors nor the governments watching from the Middle East.
Regional Impact
The summit’s outcome is already reverberating across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, still seeking to contain fallout from the Iran conflict, floated a proposal on May 14 — the same day the summit began — for a regional non-aggression pact between Gulf states and Iran, the Financial Times reported, citing Arab and Western diplomats. The framework is modelled on the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which eased Cold War tensions between the United States, Europe and the Soviet Union.
The New Arab reported that Gulf states were caught in the crossfire of the six-week Iran conflict after Tehran launched attacks across the region and locked down the Strait of Hormuz. Regional capitals are now concerned the war will leave a more hawkish leadership in power in Tehran that, while weakened, will continue to pose a threat to its neighbours.
Saudi Arabia’s outreach to Iran — alongside its growing commercial ties with China — signals a Middle East increasingly unwilling to outsource its security to Washington. As the Caspian Post reported, Riyadh’s proposal reflects “a broader transformation in Middle Eastern geopolitics” in which regional powers are prioritising “economic development and strategic autonomy over ideological confrontation.”
China’s role in any such stabilisation would be significant. Carnelos wrote in Middle East Eye that Beijing “will weave the Middle East together through infrastructure and commerce. And if it facilitates dialogue, it will do so on its own terms, not Washington’s.”
Background
The Trump-Xi summit was originally scheduled for late March but was postponed after the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran on February 28. Trump announced the delay on March 16, saying he needed to remain in Washington to oversee the war effort. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the meeting was rescheduled to May 14-15. The Iran conflict has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes. China imports roughly 12 million barrels of oil daily, making it the world’s largest importer and a major purchaser of Iranian crude. Beijing brokered the 2023 Saudi-Iran normalisation agreement in one of its most significant Middle East diplomatic interventions to date. The Beijing summit was the first American presidential visit to China since 2017.
What Happens Next
The New York Times reported on May 18 that the US and Israel are in active preparations for possible renewed strikes against Iran, potentially as early as the coming week. Iran has refused to hold direct talks with Washington before the US lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports. President Xi is expected to visit Washington later in the year for a reciprocal state visit, as confirmed by White House press secretary Leavitt. Saudi Arabia’s proposed non-aggression pact framework is under discussion among Gulf and regional states but has not yet been formally tabled, according to the Financial Times. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, with a short-lived US military initiative to reopen it by force in early May ending in less than 48 hours without meaningfully increasing traffic through the strait, Al Jazeera reported.
