Chinese President Xi Jinping opposes Iran charging a toll in the Strait of Hormuz and is considering buying more oil from the US to replace lost volume from the Gulf, the White House said on Thursday, following a meeting between President Donald Trump and Xi.
The statement came as Xi hosted Trump, senior US officials and business leaders for an elaborate state dinner on Thursday. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies appeared to put aside differences on hot spots such as Taiwan and Iran, at least in public, to focus on business deals.
Trump told Fox News that Xi offered to help end the US-Israeli war on Iran, as he downplayed tensions over Chinese ties with Tehran.
“He said he’s not going to give military equipment… he said that strongly,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity, after the two leaders met.
“He’d like to see the Hormuz Strait open, and said ‘if I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help’,” Trump added.
CLICK FOLLOW: TO FOLLOW US
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on
Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other eSPORTY
Middle East Eye was the first to report that China provided air defence systems to Iran, following its June 2025 conflict with Israel and the US. On the cusp of the 2026 attack, China supplied Iran with kamikaze drones, MEE reported. The New York Times subsequently reported that shipments of Chinese shoulder-fired air defence systems to Iran took place in April.
The Financial Times reported that Iran used sophisticated Chinese satellites to target US military bases in the Gulf.
But analysts told MEE before Trump’s trip that Beijing had an interest in seeing the war on Iran come to an end.
“China and the US are aligned in opposing Iran having a nuclear weapons and seeing the Strait of Hormuz reopened,” Ahmed Aboudouh, an associate fellow at Chatham House and head of the China Studies research unit at the Emirates Policy Center, told MEE for an earlier story.
Iran is watching
Iran appeared to be watching the meeting and how the biggest buyer of its oil, China, would respond to discussions with the US. China purchases around 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.
‘Anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of relationship with’ Iran
– US President Donald Trump
“Look, anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of relationship with them [Iran],” Trump said, referring to Xi.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that its naval forces had allowed a number of Chinese ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
“It was ultimately concluded that a number of Chinese ships requested by this country would pass through this area after an agreement on Iran’s strait management protocols,” the IRGC said in a statement.
“This passage began last night,” they added.
Iranian state television said “more than 30 ships” had been allowed to pass, although it was not clear if they were all Chinese.
Even as the Chinese vessels crossed the waterway, Iran appeared to take aim at new vessels. A commercial vessel anchored off the coast of the UAE port of Fujairah was apparently seized by Iranian forces on Thursday, the UK Maritime Trading Organisation said.
