Despite fanfare, Xi shows Trump no sign of breaking with Iran

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WASHINGTON —The Xi-Trump summit produced no tangible new commitments on the Middle East or Iran.

Iran did not feature in either of the leaders' public remarks on Thursday, but a separate Xinhua readout said that Xi expressed hope that the US and Iran “will return to the track of resolving issues through dialogue and negotiation as soon as possible.” The readout did not indicate any new Chinese commitment to help bring that about.

On Friday, US Ambassador to China David Perdue told CNBC that Trump told Xi that Chinese help for Iran is unacceptable. 

Ahead of the summit, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged Trump to press Xi to stop Chinese companies from providing Iran satellite imagery and targeting support, supplying missile and drone components and buying sanctioned Iranian oil.

Thursday’s meeting offered no public indication that Beijing had agreed to curb any of those forms of support.

Continued support from China

“China is essentially key to keeping the Iranian regime afloat at the moment,” Grant Rumley, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Al-Monitor.

Diplomatically: Last week, China and Russia vetoed a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of experts monitoring compliance with UN sanctions on Iran for a year. Eleven countries voted in favor and Pakistan and Somalia abstained. The veto ended the panel's mandate, though the underlying sanctions remain in place.

Just a week before the Xi-Trump summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing and Wang described the two countries as “comprehensive strategic partners.”

Economically: China buys upward of 90% of Iran’s exported oil, often at a steep discount, according to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. While those purchases have fallen during the war, they have not stopped: Chinese imports averaged 534,000 barrels per day in August, compared with roughly 1.4 million bpd in 2025, according to Kpler data. Per the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Iran's 2025 oil exports to China totaled around $31.2 billion.

China also seems to have kept its air links with Iran open despite new US sanctions targeting the country's aviation sector coming into effect on Wednesday. A Mahan Air flight from Tehran landed in Guangzhou on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the new US measures illegal. Maintaining those flights provides Iran a channel for business and tourism with one of its most important economic partners at a time when other international connections — including to the UAE, Iraq, Oman, Azerbaijan and others — are being cut off.

Hard sell 

“Historically, Beijing rarely uses its leverage in the region for reasons that don’t directly benefit China,” Rumley said, adding, "Any commitment Trump gets from Xi during this summit is likely to be a half-measure on the ground, at best.” 

China also has ways to maintain support while limiting the appearance of direct state involvement. Privately owned Chinese teapot refineries process the majority of Iran’s oil exports to China. 

“The very nature of China’s support to Iran allows Xi some wiggle room in the form of plausible deniability,” Rumley said. “Xi can say the Chinese state has stopped sending supplies to Iran while Chinese companies and third-party entities continue a steady drumbeat of dual-use support to Iran,” he added. 

Beijing also remains a major source of dual-use technology for Iran’s military programs. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Chinese entities sent roughly 1,300 shipments of dual-use components to Iran’s Defense Ministry in the first half of 2026, including electronics usable in drones and missile guidance systems.

The relationship gives China a relatively low-cost way to support a partner capable of complicating US military operations in the region without requiring a formal defense commitment to Tehran.

Rosaleen's take: China remains central to Iran’s ability to withstand US pressure and the summit offered no public sign that this dynamic will change. And even if Trump secured some commitment from Xi behind closed doors, China’s support for Iran runs through a mix of state policy, private companies and third-party networks that would make any agreement difficult to enforce.