U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Base on October 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea. <\/p>\n
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> said his planned trip to China later this month could be delayed as Washington sought to pressure Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring a renewed flashpoint in an already fragile bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n In an interview<\/a> with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said he expected China to help unblock the strait before he travels to Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping<\/a>, which had been scheduled for March 31 to April 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump added that the two weeks to the meeting were a “long time” and that Washington wanted clarity before then. “We may delay,” Trump told the FT, without elaborating on timing. <\/p>\n The remarks came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Paris<\/a> for talks about the planned summit. Beijing has yet to confirm the dates and typically announces such plans closer to their scheduled start. <\/p>\n The visit would be the first for a U.S. president since Trump’s last trip during his first term in 2017. It also comes five months after the two leaders met<\/a> in the South Korean city of Busan, where they agreed to a one-year truce in a trade war that had seen tit-for-tat tariffs briefly soar to triple-digit levels last year. <\/p>\n Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi said earlier this month that the agenda for the exchange was already “on the table.” <\/p>\n Trump said Sunday<\/a> aboard Air Force One that China sourced about 90% of its oil through the strait, framing Beijing’s cooperation on Hormuz as a matter of self-interest. The president has appealed to several European and Asian countries, including China, to help open up the chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply passes. <\/p>\n However, the numbers suggest Beijing may be more insulated from the closure than Trump’s comments implied.<\/p>\n China has spent the past two decades diversifying its energy sources<\/a> and building strategic reserves to cushion the blow of any prolonged disruption. <\/p>\n Seaborne oil imports through the strait now account for less than half of China’s total oil shipments, according to Rush Doshi, director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations. Nomura also estimated that oil flows through Hormuz represent just 6.6% of China’s total energy consumption. <\/p>\n