Chinese President Xi Jinping and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Tuesday.SPANISH GOVERNMENT/Reuters
The international order is crumbling and the world is in chaos, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday, as the U.S. began blockading the vital Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices spiking and threatening the global economy.
Mr. Xi made the dire assessment in a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a prominent critic of U.S. President Donald Trump’s war against Iran who earlier this week called on Beijing to play a larger role in international affairs.
“China can do more,” including by demanding “that international law be respected and that the conflicts in Lebanon, Iran, Gaza and the West Bank and Ukraine cease,” Mr. Sánchez said in a speech Monday.
Meeting the Spanish leader the next day, Mr. Xi said, “In a world currently beset by chaos and a crumbling international order, a country’s approach to international law and the international order reflects its world view, values, vision for order and sense of responsibility.”
While not mentioning Mr. Trump by name, the comments were the most pointed criticism Mr. Xi has made personally of the war in Iran and the economic and geopolitical turmoil it has unleashed.
Portraits of victims reportedly killed in a U.S.-Israeli air strike on a residential building near are displayed in Tehran on Monday.-/AFP/Getty Images
China supported mediation efforts which fell apart in Pakistan this weekend, and earlier Tuesday, Mr. Xi said Beijing would continue to play a role by advancing a new “four-point proposal on promoting peace and stability in the Middle East” during a meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
These include peaceful co-existence, respect for national sovereignty and international law, and the co-ordination of development and security, according to a Chinese readout.
“We cannot allow the world to revert to the law of the jungle,” Mr. Xi said, adding that international law cannot only apply “when it is convenient and be abandoned when it is not.”
The UAE and Spanish leaders are the latest prominent visitors to Beijing, as both U.S. allies and rivals have flocked to the Chinese capital in recent months amid a general rebalancing toward China in response to Mr. Trump’s aggressive trade policies and military actions.
China has walked a fine line of criticizing both while maintaining a delicate détente with the White House established during a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi in South Korea late last year. That was due to be followed up by a visit to Beijing by Mr. Trump in late March, but this was postponed to May as a result of the war in Iran.
“We’re speaking to China. I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I feel,” Mr. Trump said of the change of plans.
As the conflict drags on with the collapse in negotiations and the threat that hostilities could resume when the current ceasefire ends next week, it’s unclear whether Mr. Trump’s visit to China – the first by any U.S. President in nearly a decade – will be postponed again, or even cancelled.
That could damage the already shaky trade truce with China, which is sure to be severely tested in the coming days by the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran was previously allowing Chinese vessels to transit the waterway and Beijing has demanded all parties keep it open.
Speaking Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the blockade a “dangerous and irresponsible” act that risks exacerbating the conflict.
There is also the threat of potential tariffs on the horizon: Mr. Trump has promised to impose a blanket 50-per-cent levy on any country selling weapons to Iran, in the wake of reports from CNN and the New York Times – citing U.S. officials – that China was preparing to or already had sent arms, assertions Mr. Guo said were “completely made up.”
Last year, China matched the U.S. tariff for tariff in a rapidly escalating trade war that threatened to completely decouple the world’s two largest economies, and there is no indication that Beijing would back down if faced with a similar situation.
“If the U.S. insists on using [such claims] as an excuse to impose additional tariffs on China, China will resolutely take countermeasures,” Mr. Guo said Tuesday.
So far, the Chinese economy is weathering the Iran war disruptions better than most, in large part thanks to its substantial oil and gas reserves, built up in response to the Ukraine war and the sanctions on Russia that followed.
The same cannot be said for the rest of Asia, where many countries are highly dependent on energy imports from the Gulf. In a report this week, the United Nations Development Programme warned that output losses in Asia-Pacific could range from 0.3 to 0.8 per cent of regional gross domestic product, or roughly US$97-billion to US$299-billion.
With reports from Reuters and Alexandra Li in Beijing