Two days after the initial postponement announcement, US President Donald Trump has threatened to further delay his meeting with Xi Jinping unless China sends ships to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the third week of the US-Iran war. The move highlights risks to China's energy security and regional stability.
As covered in the initial report on March 17, Trump announced a postponement of his Beijing visit—originally set for March 31 to April 2—by five or six weeks to focus on the escalating US-Iran conflict. Now in its third week, the war has prompted Washington to confirm a one-month delay to the Trump-Xi summit. A South China Morning Post opinion piece underscores the strategic dilemma for Beijing, as US actions threaten China’s energy imports through chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, expose vulnerabilities, and heighten nuclear proliferation risks in the neighborhood involving actors like North Korea and others. Trump’s latest threat marks a shift from earlier denials of linkage to Chinese assistance on Hormuz security. Keywords: Marco Rubio, Russia, Ali Khamenei, Middle East, Israel, Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump, North Korea, Spain, China, Benjamin Netanyahu, France, Nato, Beijing, Iran.
