Trump says he didn’t ask Xi to pressure Iran on Strait of Hormuz

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for photos at Zhongnanhai Garden on May 15, 2026 in Beijing, China. Photo by China Pool /Getty Images

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President Donald Trump said China’s Xi Jinping largely agrees with him on the risks of Iran becoming a nuclear power but said he did not push his Chinese counterpart to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

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“He said that very strongly, they cannot have a nuclear weapon and he wants them to open up the strait,” Trump said Friday, speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he returned from a summit with Xi in China.

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Trump said he stopped short of asking Xi to lean on Iran to ease traffic through the passage, but predicted the Chinese leader would do so.

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China’s President Xi Jinping (R) gestures as he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump (L) during a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15, 2026. Photo by EVAN VUCCI /POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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“I think he will. I think automatically he’d like to see it opened up,” Trump said. “I’m not asking for any favors, because when you ask for favors you have to do favors in return. We don’t need favors.”

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Trump’s comments offered no sign of a breakthrough in the standoff over one of the world’s most critical shipping arteries, where the threat of Iranian strikes and a US blockade of Iran’s ports has largely shut down commercial shipping, including vessels carrying crude to China.

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That situation had strained ties between the world’s two largest economies ahead of Trump and Xi’s summit, with China being a major importer of Iranian oil.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump at a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI /AFP via Getty Images

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“The Iranian situation — on that I think we agree almost entirely other than he’s a buyer and we’re not, we don’t need it,” Trump said.

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Trump added that he discussed sanctions over ties to Iran with China and would make a decision on that front in the next few days.

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The president also reiterated that the latest Iranian proposal to end the war had failed to meet his expectations. He said he’d accept a pledge from Iran to forgo enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels for 20 years but that the current offer was insufficient.

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“Twenty years is enough, but the level of guarantee from them is not enough. In other words, it’s got to be a real 20 years,” he said.

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Trump also signaled that his interest in the ceasefire may be waning — saying the US “really did the ceasefire as a request to other nations” and that he otherwise wasn’t interested in it, while signaling he may soon resume some strikes.

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U.S. President Donald Trump greets Vice President of China Han Zheng upon his arrival in Beijing, China, as Space X CEO Elon Musk, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue and Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang watch, May 13, 2026. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

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“We finished probably 70, 75%, we didn’t finish every one of the things, we’ll go back and finish them off,” Trump said, when asked about the threat of the US resuming bombing Iranian targets.

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Trump has repeatedly threatened to again strike Iran if the country does not quickly reach a deal to end the war and over its nuclear program.

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Trump has made recovering Iran’s nuclear material a priority and the issue remains a key sticking point in negotiations.

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“At the right time, we’ll either go in or we’ll get it. I think we’ll probably get it. But if we don’t get it, we’ll go in,” he said Friday.

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