President Donald Trump visits the Temple of Heaven in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14, 2026. Trump wrapped up a multi-day visit to China on Friday. (The White House/X)
President Donald Trump said the U.S. and China both want to see an end to the war with Iran, but there was little indication of a breakthrough as he departed Beijing on Friday following a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping.
The Xi-Trump talks focused primarily on trade and Taiwan, though the war in the Middle East loomed heavily over the summit. Disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have strained global fuel supplies, including in China, which has recently dipped into its strategic oil reserves to offset shortages.
Sitting alongside Xi on Friday before boarding Air Force One, Trump told reporters the two leaders “feel very similar” on the war in Iran.
“We want that to end. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open,” he said.
China is one of the largest buyers of Iranian oil and has long maintained close economic ties with Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. Separately, U.S. officials have accused some Chinese firms of providing Iran with intelligence and other support during the conflict. Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington hoped Beijing could use its influence with Tehran to push Iran toward de-escalation.
But as the summit came to a close, leaders in Beijing offered little in the way of tangible commitments.
A statement from China’s foreign ministry mentioned neither the strait nor Iran, stating instead that the two leaders had exchanged views on major international and regional issues, “such as the Middle East situation, the Ukraine crisis, and the Korean Peninsula.”
Chinese leaders have condemned the conflict from the start, deriding the initial U.S.-Israel attacks on Tehran as an “unacceptable” violation of Iran’s sovereignty. Chinese media on Friday reiterated those calls for an end to the violence, saying there is no point in continuing a conflict that never should have started in the first place.
“China always believes that dialogue and negotiation is the right way forward, and the use of force is a dead end,” a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry told the state-run China Global Television Network.
Following Friday’s final meeting, the White House said Xi reiterated China’s opposition to the militarization of the strait, including any effort to charge tolls, and expressed interest in purchasing more U.S. oil to reduce dependence on the strait in the future.
The U.S. last month set up a naval blockade to prevent ships from entering or exiting Iranian ports in an attempt to exert economic pressure on Tehran. The two nations have been locked in a fragile ceasefire for more than a month following weeks of missile strikes, naval clashes and attacks on regional energy infrastructure, but remain far apart on critical issues, including Iran’s control over the strait and its supply of enriched uranium.
As a major economic partner of Iran, China holds significant economic leverage in the conflict but has so far limited its public involvement mainly to calls for diplomacy and a lasting settlement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing earlier this month for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, underscoring Tehran’s efforts to maintain close ties with Beijing.
On Thursday, Iranian state media reported the country was allowing some Chinese vessels to pass through the strait after diplomatic outreach from Beijing. Chinese firms have also been accused by the State Department of providing satellite images to Tehran to help it better target U.S. forces in the region.
President Trump, speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday, said he had received reassurance from Xi that Beijing would not provide Tehran with any military equipment while the U.S. is at war.
“He said he’s not going to give military equipment, that’s a big statement,” Trump said. “He said that today, that’s a big statement, said that strongly. But at the same time, he said, you know, they buy a lot of their oil there, and they’d like to keep doing that. He’d like to see Hormuz Strait open.”
China has not independently confirmed that commitment, but at a congressional hearing Thursday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, acknowledged that the Iranian military “is largely made up of Russian and Chinese equipment.”
Meanwhile, traffic through the strait remained at a virtual standstill this week as maritime officials continued to report attacks on commercial vessels attempting to transit.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported Thursday that a vessel anchored near the Gulf of Oman had been captured by unauthorized personnel and was en route to Iranian territorial waters.
Indian authorities on the same day reported that a separate Indian-flagged cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman after an attack sparked a fire aboard the vessel while it was en route from Somalia to the United Arab Emirates, according to The Associated Press.