The results are beginning to come in from the summit meeting in Beijing: Xi is said to have promised Trump that China will not supply Iran with weapons. That is an important promise, if it is kept. China is, however, interested in Iranian oil. China imported 1.4 million barrels per day from Iran before the war began, fully 90 per cent of Iran’s exports.
Trump has proposed that China could buy American oil. The United States is today the world’s largest oil producer, something the media avoid informing people about. They are more concerned with portraying Trump and the United States as weak.
Who will be weakened, the future will show. But a consistently erroneous perception of the world situation is unlikely to lead to anything good.
President Donald Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox News that Chinese President Xi Jinping, during their recent bilateral meeting in Beijing, agreed to refrain from sending military equipment to Iran.
“We discussed it. When you talk about support, it’s not as though they’re at war with us or anything like that. He said that he is not going to give Iran military equipment. That is an important statement,” Trump told Hannity during an interview on Thursday.
“But at the same time he said that they buy a great deal of their oil from there, and that they would very much like to continue doing that,” Trump added.
China purchased approximately 1.4 million barrels of oil daily from Iran in 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. While this constituted between 12 and 15% of China’s total crude oil imports, it accounted for more than 90% of Iran’s total oil exports, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The White House revealed on Thursday that Trump and Xi discussed China’s purchase of oil from the United States during their bilateral meeting. China stopped purchasing American oil in May 2025, after imposing a 20% tariff on American crude oil amid a trade war, Global Banking & Finance Review reported on Thursday.
China provided tangible proof that they are serious towards Trump; they mean business. The Chinese are ordering 200 aircraft from Boeing.
President Donald Trump revealed during an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News that Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday agreed to purchase 200 aircraft from the American manufacturer Boeing.
“One thing he agreed to today is that he is going to order 200 planes – that’s huge for Boeing,” he told Hannity.
“200 large aircraft. That means many jobs, very many. Boeing wanted 150, they got 200,” Trump said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had earlier hinted at an order for Boeing aircraft, saying to CNBC: “I think we are going to see large Boeing orders” on Thursday morning.
Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg travelled with Trump to Beijing.
The ubiquitous Nils-Inge Kruhaug has interviewed Øystein Tunsjø of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, and Tunsjø believes that Trump is substantially weaker than China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is running the show during Donald Trump’s visit, and he probably also has the most to gain from it, says Professor Øystein Tunsjø.
Both presidents have done well, Tunsjø believes. He is a professor at the Institute for Defence Studies.
“But Xi is on home ground and is running the show. He also got to advance his most important issue, Taiwan,” he tells NTB.
“Xi probably has the most to gain from the meeting, because he can increase his support and status on the home front more than Trump can, based on a summit meeting in Beijing,” says Tunsjø. (NTB)
Xi can take the support of the Chinese people for granted. He does not need to concern himself with either support or status. He is a dictator. He recently removed the entire leadership of the People’s Liberation Army, without anyone daring to protest. Is that supposed to be a democratic mechanism in the communist dictatorship functioning better than in the United States, since Tunsjø says that Xi can increase his popularity “more than Trump can”?