He then told the Financial Times the following day that “I think China should help too because China gets 90% of its oil from the Straits [sic]…We’d like to know before [my trip to China at month’s end]. It’s [two weeks is] a long time. We may delay.” This substantially raises the stakes of his demand. If China doesn’t comply and Trump delays his trip, the fragile Sino-US trade truce could unravel, worsening the global economic uncertainty caused by the oil crisis. On the other hand, compliance would lend legitimacy to his proposed naval coalition and likely be seen by Iran as hostile.
Iran has already clarified that the strait is closed only to unfriendly countries – a category that presently does not include China – and a proposal was also reportedly floated for China to begin paying for Iranian oil with yuan.