{"id":897042,"date":"2026-04-05T09:18:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/trump-needs-chinas-help-fixing-the-global-oil-crisis-its-unlikely-to-play-along\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T09:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:18:33","slug":"trump-needs-chinas-help-fixing-the-global-oil-crisis-its-unlikely-to-play-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/trump-needs-chinas-help-fixing-the-global-oil-crisis-its-unlikely-to-play-along\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump needs China\u2019s help fixing the global oil crisis. It\u2019s unlikely to play along"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two weeks before President Donald Trump is scheduled to hash out critical US-China disputes in Beijing, he has set a new condition for the negotiations: help reopening the Strait of Hormuz.<\/a><\/p>\n

China has little incentive to concede to his demands.<\/p>\n

By closing the major shipping channel, Iran has effectively choked off one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply, triggering price spikes and fears of energy shortages that could upend the global economy. Now facing the worst oil crisis in history, Trump is calling on other nations, including France, Japan, South Korea and Britain, to work together to secure the strait.<\/p>\n

To persuade China, Trump is exerting additional pressure. In an interview with the Financial Times published Sunday, he said he wants to know whether China will provide assistance before his planned summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the end of the month. Without an answer, Trump added, he may decide to delay his trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,\u201d Trump told the FT<\/a>. \u201cI think China should help too.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the face of it, that request is extraordinary \u2013 Trump is asking China to risk its own military assets in a war the US started against a Beijing-friendly nation, and threatening to withhold diplomacy otherwise.<\/p>\n

But China is better positioned than the rest of Asia to endure a prolonged energy crisis. In the past several years, Beijing has sought to cushion itself from such an oil shock by stockpiling crude reserves, diversifying imports and investing billions in clean energy such as wind, solar and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

CNN also reported<\/a> that Iran is considering allowing some tankers through the strait if the oil is traded in Chinese yuan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chinese may say, \u2018Okay let\u2019s just wait,\u2019\u201d said Bert Hofman, a professor at the East Asian Institute at the National University Singapore. \u201cGiven that they are pretty secure strategically, they would have some room to maneuver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upper hand<\/h2>\n

The war, which both US and Israeli officials have said will continue for weeks, has overshadowed the Beijing summit first announced by Trump, who is now grappling with domestic backlash from rising fuel prices as attacks on Iran\u2019s energy infrastructure escalate.<\/p>\n

Inside China, news of the conflict comes with an air of schadenfreude.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is lonely these days in the world, no one really supports him,\u201d said Henry Huiyao Wang, president of the Beijing-based research group Center for China and Globalization. \u201cHe\u2019s really disturbed the world with the war in Iran and he\u2019s in kind of a tight situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While commentary from China\u2019s official state-run media on Sunday called for greater US-China collaboration in the face of global uncertainty, the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, denounced the idea of sending warships to the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this really about \u2018sharing responsibility\u2019 \u2013 or is it about sharing the risk of a war that Washington started and can\u2019t finish?\u201d wrote the unnamed author of the op-ed.<\/p>\n

In a Monday press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian gave no firm commitment to Trump\u2019s appeal and reiterated the importance of the upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHead-of-state diplomacy plays an indispensable role in providing strategic guidance to China-US relations. The two sides remain in communication regarding President Trump\u2019s visit to China,\u201d Lin said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s suggestion to delay the trip comes as US and Chinese economic officials have held several rounds of talks in Paris about potential trade agreements on agriculture and critical minerals, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

His leverage in negotiations with China was dealt a significant blow earlier this year, when the Supreme Court ruled that he overstepped his authority in unilaterally imposing tariffs on all trade partners. His administration is now looking to other mechanisms<\/a> to impose similar tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US needs China more than China needs the US,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n

Trump has warned NATO of a \u201cvery bad\u201d future if its members do not heed his call to send warships. Other US allies such as Japan and Australia have so far declined to do so.<\/p>\n

China, one of Iran\u2019s most important strategic partners and the biggest purchaser of its oil, has even less reason to side with Trump.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials have condemned the attacks on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire. However, China has also criticized Iranian strikes against neighboring states, including Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Though Beijing is unlikely to take action in the Strait of Hormuz, the country has a vested interest in bringing stability to the broader region. China is relatively insulated from the oil crisis, but it is not immune to its widening effects on energy prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will still be painful,\u201d said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. \u201cThey do want to keep their economy chugging along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beijing has also positioned itself as a diplomatic leader among Gulf states and the Global South, having brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic ties in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Middle East is ostensibly an area that Beijing has spent a lot of political capital on,\u201d Chong said. \u201cThey do want things to stabilize and highlight their role in the region, but what\u2019s happening now does cast a shadow on those efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CNN
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks before President Donald Trump is scheduled to hash out critical US-China disputes in Beijing, he has set a new condition for the negotiations: help reopening the Strait of Hormuz. China has little incentive to concede to his demands. By closing the major shipping channel, Iran has effectively choked off one-fifth of the world\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":897043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3883,4],"tags":[6944,5052],"class_list":{"0":"post-897042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-needs","8":"category-trump","9":"tag-needs","10":"tag-trump"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}