China’s Xi keeps Iranian president at arm’s length ahead of Trump summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, a brief, low-key audience at a regional security summit, signaling Beijing’s calibrated approach toward Tehran just weeks before Xi’s planned trip to Washington.

The two leaders met for several minutes on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media. The meeting brought together leaders of the 10-member bloc, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The semi-official Mehr news agency said the Xi-Pezeshkian meeting focused on “bilateral ties in line with strengthening relations between Tehran and Beijing”, without offering further details.

That contrasted with Beijing’s approach of keeping the meeting out of public view.

Chinese state media, including the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, gave extensive coverage to Xi’s meetings with other visiting leaders on Tuesday, but made no mention of the meeting with Pezeshkian. Modi, on the other hand, posted photographs of his meeting with the Iranian leader.

“Xi keeps Iran at arm’s length in public while maintaining contact in private,” said Han Shen Lin, managing director for Greater China at the Asia Group, a Washington-based strategic advisory firm.

SCO leaders in a joint statement condemned military strikes against Iran, while supporting member states’ right to civil nuclear development under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The statement stopped short of committing members to any concrete military or economic support.

The lack of coverage of Xi-Pezeshkian on the state newspaper’s front page reinforces the view that Beijing is “carefully managing the optics,” Lin said. China seeks to preserve its strategic relationship with Tehran without signaling that it is on the country’s side, he said, particularly ahead of Xi’s planned meeting with President Trump later this month.

China has been the biggest buyer of Iranian-sanctioned oil exports, but those flows through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen sharply since the war began, as Beijing cut imports, tapping into its huge reserves.

The Chinese embassy in Singapore did not respond to a request for comment.

It remains uncertain whether Beijing will give the relationship a higher public profile once Xi’s visit to Washington is behind us.

Behind the silent treatment may be a starker frustration, said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, managing director of Beijing-based Ankura China Advisors.

Beijing has been consistent in what it wants from Tehran: an end to the conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran’s leadership has largely moved in the opposite direction, Montufar-Helu said. “This is where Beijing is signaling real dissatisfaction with Tehran.”

Still, Alfredo cautioned against reading too much into the cooler public stance, saying the fact that Xi had even a casual conversation on the sidelines shows Beijing is keeping the door open.

Bessent did not name China directly, but said finance ministers had “broadly agreed” on the need to address such imbalances.

China’s exports boosted its trade surplus to a record $1.2 trillion last year, a gap that has drawn the ire of Western governments for distorting global markets and has become a central irritant in U.S.-China relations.

China and the United States are “maximizing their influence” ahead of Xi’s visit, said Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. “The parallel meeting with Iran is a reminder of Beijing’s influence in the Iran war and throughout the Global South,” he said.

Wang said the Iran war will likely dominate the agenda of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, and that any U.S. effort to expand secondary sanctions on Chinese banks or companies could prompt a stronger response from Beijing.