{"id":486139,"date":"2026-05-15T14:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486139\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:30:18","slug":"china-calls-for-strait-of-hormuz-reopening-as-soon-as-possible-as-trump-meets-xi-again-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486139\/","title":{"rendered":"China calls for Strait of Hormuz reopening \u2018as soon as possible\u2019, as Trump meets Xi again \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/china\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/china\">China<\/a> has called for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/strait-of-hormuz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/strait-of-hormuz\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a> to be reopened as soon as possible, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/xi-jinping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/xi-jinping\">Xi Jinping<\/a> told him he \u201cwants to help\u201d on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/iran\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/iran\">Iran<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">China\u2019s foreign ministry said there should be a \u201ccomprehensive and lasting\u201d ceasefire with Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cChina has always maintained that dialogue and negotiation are the right path, and that a military solution is not the way forward. Now that the door to dialogue has been opened, it should not be closed again,\u201d the foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cShipping routes should be reopened as soon as possible, responding to the calls of the international community, and jointly maintaining the stability and smooth flow of global supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The statement came Trump and Xi met for tea in the garden at Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in the centre of Beijing. The two leaders were due to have lunch together ahead of Trump\u2019s return to Washington at the end of his two-day visit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Earlier, Trump said he did not believe that Beijing wanted Iran to have a nuclear weapon and that only China and the US were capable of removing the enriched uranium from Iran. He said that Xi said China would not provide military equipment to Tehran and would like to see a deal between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/2026\/05\/15\/what-is-the-thucydides-trap-and-why-did-xi-jinping-mention-it-in-his-meeting-donald-trump\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What is the Thucydides trap and why did Xi Jinping mention it in his meeting with Trump?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cXi said if I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help,\u201d Trump told Fox News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">During a day of ceremonial events on Thursday that included a state banquet in Trump\u2019s honour, the Chinese and American leaders hailed their personal friendship and agreed to implement measures aimed at bringing stability to the bilateral relationship over the next three years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">These include the establishment of a Board of Trade and a Board of Investment, forums where the two sides can discuss their economic relationship.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"President Donald Trump meets China's president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of their visit to Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15th, 2026. Photograph: Evan Vucci\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/XS3NDW2N4CCHA5ZHGRFMMT3IXI.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>President Donald Trump meets China&#8217;s president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of their visit to Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15th, 2026. Photograph: Evan Vucci\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">US treasury secretary Scott Bessent suggested the US could remove tariffs from low-value Chinese goods that American manufacturers had no interest in producing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Xi told a group of American business leaders that China would become more open, a signal that Beijing could offer greater market access to US firms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOne thing I think that we\u2019re going to make a deal on is they\u2019ve agreed they want to buy oil from the United States. They\u2019re going to go to Texas. We\u2019re going to start sending Chinese ships to Texas, and to Louisiana, and to Alaska,\u201d Trump told Fox News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThey have an insatiable appetite for energy and we have unlimited energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Amid the bonhomie of Trump\u2019s visit to Beijing, Xi issued a warning that Taiwan was the single issue that could derail the relationship between China and the US. He told Trump that \u201cmishandling\u201d the issue of Taiwan could lead to clashes between the two superpowers and even to conflict.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767177794884-20c1be6d-99c9-4c2a-8d6b-ad074c095fb1.jpeg\"\/>Trump in China: What is at stake?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened as soon as possible, after Donald Trump&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,381,356,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,168834,7,8,107,65,66,67,3997],"class_list":{"0":"post-486139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews","27":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116579076343884825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}