China said Sunday that it still wants a leaders’ meeting with the United States even as it openly condemned the war in Iran and pushed again for a ceasefire.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing that preparations are being made for a planned meeting between President Xi Jinping and America’s Donald Trump.
Wang also said China does not want the relationship with Washington to collapse into confusion or confrontation.
He warned that if the two sides turn their backs on each other, they will misread one another and make bad calls. He said open conflict between the two countries would drag the whole world down
Last fall, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in person in South Korea and both signaled plans to visit each other’s countries.
Trump is scheduled to visit China from March 31 to April 2. If that trip goes ahead, it would be the first visit to China by a sitting U.S. president since 2017. Beijing has not yet confirmed the exact dates.
Wang did not give any new detail on the schedule, but he said high-level contact between Xi and Donald has provided “an important strategic safeguard” for the China-U.S. relationship to improve and move forward.
Some analysts have questioned whether the trip will happen on time. The doubt comes because the planned visit would land soon after the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, which killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Wang did not mention either man by name on Sunday morning, but he repeated China’s call for a ceasefire in the Iran war. He said, “This is a war that should not have happened.” He also said, “It is a war that does no one any good.”
Wang pushes summit planning forward while Beijing calls for a ceasefire
Wang said China still sees value in staying in touch with the United States even when the two sides disagree on major issues. His comments showed Beijing trying to keep diplomacy alive while the region is on fire.
Since the joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, Wang has held phone calls with at least seven foreign ministers. Those calls included ministers from Russia, Iran, and Israel, based on official Chinese readouts.
Wang spoke on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary meeting, which lasts eight days and is set to end on Thursday. The event has brought top leaders to Beijing, including Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and Vice Premier He Lifeng, along with delegates from across the country.
That setting gave Wang’s comments more weight because they came during one of the most important political weeks on China’s calendar.
He also pushed back on Donald’s talk of a new “G2” world led by the United States and China. Wang rejected the idea that two countries alone should run global affairs. Instead, he backed a more multipolar world, saying, “This is no different from using kindling to put out a fire.” He added, “You will only get burned.”
Tariff talks continue as oil jumps above $100 and trade risks stay in view
The diplomacy is happening alongside trade talks. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and He Lifeng are expected to meet in Paris toward the end of this week.
Bloomberg claims that the two officials are set to discuss business deals that Xi and Donald could approve if the summit happens as scheduled.
Those talks come after China and the United States reached a fragile tariff truce in October. Under that deal, tariffs on each other’s goods were lowered to below 50% for one year. Before that, both sides had driven duties to well above 100% during the peak of tensions last spring.
At the same time, the war in Iran is already hitting global markets. Crude oil surged to $100 per barrel on Sunday after major Middle East producers cut output because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
West Texas Intermediate rose 11.73% to $101.56 per barrel. Brent crude climbed 9.84% to $101.81. U.S. crude had already surged about 35% last week, the biggest weekly jump in futures trading history going back to 1983.
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/chinas-jinping-will-still-meet-trump/
