Trump says he asked China's Xi not to give Iran weapons
Trump last week threatened countries with an immediate 50 per cent tariff if they supplied Iran with weapons.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea on Oct 30, 2025. (Photo: AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in a letter not to give Iran weapons, and Xi responded that China was not supplying Tehran, the US president told Fox Business Network in an interview that aired on Wednesday (Apr 15).
Trump, in the interview taped on Tuesday, did not say when the letters were exchanged. Last week, he threatened countries with an immediate 50 per cent tariff if they supplied Iran with weapons.
"I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that, and he wrote me a letter saying that, essentially, he's not doing that," Trump told FBN's Mornings with Maria programme.
He also said he did not expect shifts in the global oil market to affect his planned May 14-15 meeting with Xi in Beijing.
"I don't think it does. I mean, he's somebody that needs oil. We don't. He's somebody I get along with very well," Trump said.
In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump also wrote that he was "permanently opening" the Strait of Hormuz and China was very happy about it.
"I am doing it for them, also - and the world," Trump wrote, adding: "President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks."
It was not immediately clear what Trump meant, as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the president's post.
Forty-five days after Iran's Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed, effectively shutting in about 20 per cent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, transit through the waterway remains uncertain - even with the two-week ceasefire now in place. Traffic is at only a fraction of the 130-plus daily crossings seen before the war, sources said on Tuesday.
Trump said talks with Tehran on ending the war could resume this week, after they ended over the weekend without any agreement. But the US has also enacted a blockade of shipping leaving Iranian ports that its military said on Wednesday has completely halted trade going in and out of the country by sea.
