Trump’s Threat to Delay Summit With Xi Casts New Shadow Over China Relations

Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Trump’s Threat to Delay Summit With Xi Casts New Shadow Over China Relations President Trump warned that he could postpone a meeting set to begin in just over two weeks if China refuses to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Listen · 2:30 min Share full article By Ravi Mattu Reporting from London March 16, 2026, 7:29 a.m. ET President Trump threatened to postpone a long-planned summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he called on China to send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, casting a new shadow over the relationship between the world’s two biggest economies. Mr. Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that he “may delay” the meeting, which is expected to start on March 31 in Beijing, if China does not answer his demand to help reopen the strait to shipping in the next two weeks. Mr. Trump said that waiting until the summit for an answer may be too long. “We’d like to know before that,” he said. China is one of several countries that have responded cautiously to Mr. Trump’s demands for naval assistance to thwart Iran’s efforts to block the strait, which is a transit route for about a fifth of the world’s oil. China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil , has not responded directly to Mr. Trump’s remarks but has previously called for the cessation of hostilities. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that officials from both countries were discussing plans for the summit, and stressed that direct discussions between the leaders were essential. “Head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable, strategic guiding role in China-U.S. relations,” Lin Jian, the spokesman, told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing. In Paris, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was holding a second day of talks with He Lifeng, his Chinese counterpart, to finalize preparations for the meeting. They were scheduled to speak to reporters on Monday afternoon local time. Mr. Xi invited Mr. Trump to visit Be...