President Donald Trump plans to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on his energy posture with Iran when the leaders meet Wednesday in Washington. But there’s little reason for China to yield — especially since the war has helped strengthen its hand as an emerging global energy superpower.
The war in Iran has spiked global prices for energy and other commodities and created a political albatross around the neck of both Trump and his party. The price of a global barrel of oil stood at about $100 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, China has been exporting its clean energy technologies to other vulnerable countries, leveraging its massive oil stockpiles and presenting itself as a more stable geopolitical partner.
“China absolutely has been a big winner,” said Erica Downs, a former CIA energy analyst who is now a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. “China has managed the crisis relatively well. I don’t think Xi is going to feel any pressure, whatsoever, to respond to any U.S. pleas.”
Trump and his administration will stress during Xi’s visit that “continuing to do business with Iran and the regime is unacceptable, and there will be consequences for it,” a senior White House official said.
Leave a comment