In an interview with Fox News after Thursday’s talks, Trump said Xi had offered to help on Iran.
“He said, ‘I would love to be a help, if I can be of any help whatsoever’,” Trump said. He also said Xi wanted China to keep buying oil from the region and keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly pointed to some overlap between Washington and Beijing on the waterway. Speaking to NBC News after the first day of talks, Rubio said China had indicated it was opposed to militarising the strait or imposing tolls on vessels passing through it.
“It’s good that we have an alliance, or at least agreement, on that point,” he said.
But analysts said this did not amount to a fundamental shift in the Iran equation.
Chong from NUS said Beijing and Washington both want access to the Strait of Hormuz, lower energy and commodity prices, and greater stability in the Middle East.
But that alignment has limits, he added, because the trajectory of the conflict ultimately depends not only on Washington and Beijing, but also on the calculations of Tehran and Israel.
“It seems that neither Washington nor Beijing can convince Iran and Israel to act otherwise,” Chong said, adding that this includes getting Iran to commit to giving up nuclear weapons.
The harder question is whether China will actually adjust its support for Tehran.
Chong said Beijing could still help Iran if it wanted to, without crossing the threshold of direct arms transfers.
Assistance involving technology, technical aid, information, parts, components or dual-use equipment “can still amount to something substantive”, he said.
TAIWAN ISSUE
As widely expected, Taiwan featured prominently in the summit, with Beijing placing the issue at the centre of how it defines stability in China-US ties.
Describing Taiwan as “the most important issue” in bilateral relations, Xi said ties could remain generally stable if the matter is handled properly. But if mishandled, he warned, the two countries could “collide or even come into conflict”, pushing relations into a “very dangerous situation”.
China regards Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control.
Xi also said “Taiwan independence” was incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait and urged the US side to handle the issue with utmost caution. According to the Chinese readout, he said maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait represented the greatest common ground between Beijing and Washington.
The Chinese readout did not mention whether Trump raised Taiwan during the talks or how he responded to Xi’s remarks. The US readout did not mention Taiwan at all.