Hawzah News Agency- Trump traveled to Beijing with a delegation of 30 business leaders as the US economy grappled with the fallout from his belligerent policies against Iran and the ongoing energy supply chain crisis.
On his way back, Trump promised to “consider lifting sanctions on Chinese oil companies that buy Iranian oil.” This promise was not an initiative, but an implicit admission of the failure of maximum pressure and the urgent need of the US energy market for stability that could only be possible by respecting the economic relations between China and Iran.
The most important test of this trip was Trump’s attempt to drag China into the pressure camp on Iran; an attempt that met with complete failure and China, as an independent power, imposed its own red lines.
Trump and Rubio claimed that China opposed the militarization of the Strait of Hormuz and demanded its reopening. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement responded to this narrative by condemning the US and Israeli military aggression and calling the principle of war illegal. Beijing cleverly separated the “necessity of keeping the Strait open” from the “legitimacy of Iran’s defensive actions” and placed itself on the “right side of history''.
Reports, including an Al Jazeera analysis, have stated that “there is nothing official on paper to suggest that Beijing is going to take action on Iran.” This means that China has refused to play the role of regional gendarme for the US. Beijing has proven that its engagement in the 25-year-old document with Iran goes beyond Washington’s occasional and tactical pressures.
The greatest achievement of this trip for China was not economic concessions, but the consolidation of the image of an equal power in the global media. Trump’s forced praise of Xi as a “great leader” in a situation where Beijing did not back down from its positions one iota, solidified the proposition that respect in the new world order is achieved not by surrender, but by “saying no” and standing firm.
The coincidence of this trip with the announcement of the finalization of Putin’s visit to Beijing and China’s support for Iran at the BRICS and Shanghai summits effectively placed Washington under siege by an emerging power bloc. Trump went to Beijing to escape the isolation caused by the warmongering in West Asia and Ukraine, but China used the trip to demonstrate its leadership in the anti-unilateralist bloc.
Trump’s trip to China should be called a “trip without achievements” for the White House. Trump was unable to convince Beijing to put pressure on Iran, nor did he achieve a new balance in Taiwan, nor did he even receive official recognition for his alleged economic achievements.
Source: AVA PRESS
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