China ignores Trump’s Strait of Hormuz request as the Iran war deepens and his Beijing trip slips

China won't help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz as requested by President Donald Trump, but it is probably welcoming the delay in Trump's highly anticipated trip to Beijing as the US risks getting bogged down in the Middle East, analysts say.

- By Didi Tang

The latest developments are unfolding as Trump’s Iran war, in its third week, is faced with mounting pressure as oil has stopped moving through the strait and US allies have refused to step up to secure the strait. That has produced concerns that China, the United States’ biggest geopolitical rival, could stand to benefit from a war that some say was ill-considered.

“President Trump’s request to delay his long-awaited summit with President Xi Jinping underscores how significantly he underestimated the fallout from Operation Epic Fury,’said Ali Wyne, senior research and advocacy adviser for US-China relations at the International Crisis Group.”A show of US force that was meant to intimidate Beijing has instead served to puncture the illusion of US omnipotence: Unable to reopen the Strait of Hormuz alone, Washington now needs its principal strategic competitor to help it manage a crisis of its own making.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry gave a non-answer when asked if it would help reopen the strait but repeated its call for “parties to immediately stop military operations, avoid further escalation of the tense situation and prevent regional turmoil from further impacting the global economy.”