US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he is postponing a much-anticipated visit to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as the war with Iran shakes US foreign policy and delays efforts to ease tensions between the world's two largest economies, Reuters writes.
“We're resetting the meeting … We're working with China. They've agreed to that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump was to travel to Beijing from March 31 to April 2, for his first visit to China in his second term, which began 14 months ago. The visit will take place, instead, in about five or six weeks, Trump said.
Postponing the visit adds uncertainty to both markets and diplomacy, as the war with Iran has sent oil prices soaring, threatens shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and sharpens investor focus on energy security.
The delay will also put on hold talks aimed at easing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, tariffs, computer processors, illegal drugs, rare earths and agriculture — each a source of sometimes sour tensions.
Trump's campaign in Iran has triggered a series of military and economic consequences and caught the attention of his entire administration.
A lavish visit, at odds with the US economic difficulties
Trump's image of a lavish state visit was increasingly seen as at odds with a struggling US economy and the repatriation of US soldiers killed in the Middle East, said a person briefed on the planning of the meetings in Beijing.
Iran responded to joint US and Israeli attacks by threatening to fire on ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump's request for assistance from allies has so far been largely rebuffed. China, which imported about 12 million barrels of oil per day in the first two months of 2026, the world's largest amount, did not respond directly to the US president's request.
Beijing has never officially announced the dates of Trump's visit and usually does not detail Xi's schedule well in advance.
Preliminary preparations for the meeting included talks this week in Paris between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
These discussions focused on potential additional purchases of US agricultural products, including poultry, beef and various non-soy foods. Also discussed were the increased flow of rare earth minerals largely controlled by China and new approaches to managing trade and investment between the two countries, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“Diplomacy at the head of state level plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-US relations,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said earlier this week.
