U.S. steps up calls on China to press Iran to open Strait of Hormuz ahead of Beijing summit
The White House is stepping up appeals to Beijing to use its influence with Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz, intensifying pressure just days before President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping meet in Beijing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday he hopes Chinese officials will raise the issue directly with Iran during this week’s visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Araghchi on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. “I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told,” Rubio said at a White House briefing. “And that is that what you are doing in the strait is causing you to be globally isolated.
You’re the bad guy in this.” Rubio argued that China has been hit harder than the United States by what he described as Iran’s effective shuttering of the strait during the two-month old war. Beijing’s export-driven economy depends on shipments through the waterway, he said.
China also imports about half of its crude oil and almost one-third of its liquefied natural gas from the Middle East, according to China’s General Administration of Customs. “It is in China’s interest that Iran stop closing the strait,” Rubio said. Separately, a diplomat familiar with the matter said the United States has engaged in serious efforts to persuade China to abstain from vetoing the latest U.S.-backed U.N.
Security Council resolution aimed at opening the strait and condemning Iran’s actions. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations. China and Russia — described as Tehran’s two allies on the council — vetoed an earlier Hormuz resolution last month, saying it went too far and did not condemn the United States and Israel for strikes that started the war.
Rubio’s appeal followed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s remarks Monday that Iran would be high on the agenda when Trump meets Xi — the first visit by a U.S. president to China since Trump visited in 2017. All eyes now turn to the Beijing summit and to forthcoming Security Council deliberations, where Washington is seeking movement from Beijing.