US President Donald Trump’s request to delay the planned summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) casts a shadow over mutual ties that have been stable since their meeting in October last year, but is unlikely to cause a major setback, analysts said.
Trump’s move shows how the Iran conflict has upended his foreign policy agenda, and added war to trade and Taiwan among the spectrum of issues separating the world’s two biggest economies. The delay hits pause on the retooling of bilateral relations just as both sides concluded high-stakes trade talks in Paris on Monday to lay the groundwork for Trump’s Beijing trip, originally slated for the end of the month.
The negotiations followed Washington’s imposition of new investigations into “unfair trade practices,” aimed at rebuilding trade pressure on countries around the world — including China — after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s global tariffs last month.
Illustration: Mountain People
“The situation is not in jeopardy, and Beijing still wants to organize the summit, but the US-Iran conflict and the Supreme Court ruling on tariff policies have complicated these efforts,” Fudan University international relations expert Zhao Minghao (趙明昊) said. “It makes US-China interactions this year more difficult because of Trump’s ‘war of choice’ in Iran.”
The postponement would mean there was also time for more trade actions, Zhao added.
“The White House says it will continue its tariff policy, but without a doubt, we could see new uncertainties in this regard that impact Beijing’s calculations on dealing with the US,” he said.
A source familiar with the Paris talks said before the second day of meetings that China showed openness to potential additional purchases of US agricultural goods, including poultry, beef and non-soybean crops. The two sides also discussed the flow of rare earths, largely controlled by China, and new approaches to manage trade and investment between the countries.
The state-run China Daily described the negotiations in an editorial published on Tuesday as “constructive,” but warned Trump that Beijing’s “openness should not be mistaken for acquiescence.”
“The US side should refrain from taking any further actions that could disrupt or undermine a stable China-US economic relationship. Actions that inject uncertainty — whether tariffs, restrictive measures or unilateral investigations — do just that,” the editorial said.
That sentiment would similarly apply to the setting up of the summit, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy associate professor Alfred Wu (吳木鑾) said.
“The fluctuations [in plans] are not ideal from China’s perspective. China actually wants something more predictable,” he added.
MIXED MESSAGES
US officials have sent mixed messages about the reason for the delay. On Sunday, Trump told the Financial Times he might postpone the meeting if China did not help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
On Monday, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said Trump might need to delay the trip due to coordinating the war effort, not because of the request that China help police the strait or because of any trade disagreements.
Despite the delay, the priority for both sides is keeping relations on an even keel and continuing to plan for a successful visit, analysts said.
For the export-reliant Chinese economy, dealing with rising uncertainty in the global economy was the No. 1 priority, they added.
“China’s first priority remains keeping the relationship with the US relatively steady so it can continue focusing on self-strengthening in preparation for the longer-term strategic competition ahead,” Brookings Institution foreign policy fellow Patricia Kim said.
China understood keeping Trump satisfied was key to managing bilateral ties and would still host Trump, even though it might be wary of giving him too grand a reception as the US continued military operations against Iran, a strategic partner for Beijing, Kim added.
“Trump is preoccupied with a war in Iran that has not been resolved as quickly as predicted, so he is keen to ensure that the military and economic fallout from that is contained within the next couple of weeks or so, which means planning a successful visit to Beijing is next to impossible,” Asia Society fellow on Chinese politics Neil Thomas said. “From China’s perspective, there’s been a lot of concern in Beijing about the lack of preparations from the American side for the summit, so Chinese policymakers wouldn’t mind an extra few weeks to prepare for a more substantive visit.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) echoed this sentiment on Monday when asked about Trump’s weekend remarks.
“Diplomacy between heads of state plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance to China-US relations,” he said.
There is ongoing communication about the timing of the trip, Lin added.
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