Trump’s Delay of Xi Summit Buys China Time to Game Out Iran War

n6md{)70rku9h8xt4w9kl69(_media_dl_1.png The American Enterprise Institut

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(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s request for a delay to his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping is a likely welcome development for Beijing, even as it threatens to inject new uncertainty into ties between the world’s two largest economies.

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As the war against Iran rages into its third week, Trump said Monday it was important for him to remain in Washington to oversee the military operations and that he’s seeking to put off the high-profile meeting — currently scheduled for later in March — for about a month. Earlier, the US president linked the prospect of delaying the trip to China to Beijing’s willingness to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global shipping that’s been all but blocked by Iran.

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For a Chinese leadership that had felt frustrated by US preparations it deemed insufficient ahead of the landmark summit, the decision is less a setback than an opportunity to regroup. In contrast to most other Group of 20 leaders, Xi has so far stayed silent on the conflict engulfing a major Chinese friend, as officials in Beijing assess the full scale of the economic and diplomatic fallout from the war.

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“Considering the multiple encounters anticipated between Trump and Xi this year, a delay in the upcoming visit would not be a major setback,” said Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former acting deputy US Trade Representative. 

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Still, the latest developments “underscore the fragility of recent bilateral stabilization efforts and how unforeseen developments can present serious challenges to keeping the truce reached last October intact,” she added.

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Top leaders from the world’s largest economies were expected to meet four times this year, a framework designed to steady ties rocked by a sweeping trade war. The delay of Trump’s visit to China — the first by a US leader in nearly a decade — takes the momentum out of that schedule, and raises the question of whether the Republican will be able to visit while his country remains entangled in a war across the Middle East, a region where China has vast economic interests.

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China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t reply to a request for comment on Trump’s suggested postponement. When asked on Monday for a response about the prospect of delaying, a ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said the two nations were “in communication” about the summit and that head-of-state diplomacy is “irreplaceable.”

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For its part, China has never confirmed the dates for Trump’s visit, following its usual practice of announcing plans for its top leaders only days ahead for security reasons.

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Trade Truce

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Apart from containing a conflagration spilling across the Middle East and upending energy markets, at stake for Xi and Trump is a one-year trade pact negotiated in October following months of tariff disputes. 

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In a clear sign the US wants to avoid derailing its economic dialogue with China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attributed the potential delay of the summit to “logistics” after wrapping two days of trade talks with Chinese negotiators in Paris that he described as “really good.” US officials said both sides had discussed establishing a “Board of Trade” and that a delay to the summit shouldn’t spook markets.