President Donald Trump said on Sunday he may have to delay his planned trip to China because he wants to straighten out the politics of the war in Iran first.
President Trump's visit, scheduled for March 31st, will not be expected to yield any new agreements or breakthroughs, it's a political gesture, a way of maintaining stability between the two rival nations.
There's already a chill over the planned meeting because of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's disapproval of tariffs set against China in the earlier days of Mr. Trump's second term.
And it doesn't help the US-China relationship when China joins Russia in supplying electronics, surveillance and weapons to Iran, as it has in the recent past.
But now President Trump is pressing China to help break the political block of the Strait of Hormuz that's stopping the flow of most of the oil that nations like India and China depend on.
It's been a peculiar feature of the US-Israeli war with Iran that Iran never stopped shipping oil to China, even as bombs exploded and warships sailed not far away.
Huge shipping tankers have been leaving Iran most days headed for China, which is Iran's biggest oil client, and the US and Israel have not stopped the flow, reasoning that to do so would likely bring accusations from China that such interference with business could be construed as an act of war.
So President Trump wants to see if China will continue to uphold its half of an uneasy decades-long partnership with the United States by taking part in convincing Iran to open the Strait for US and allies' oil, fertilizer, metals and other shipments that have been held up for at least two weeks.
Xi's government is expected to help, and if it refuses we may see Mr. Trump cancel his planned trip, or apply new pressures on Xi's government to shut down Iran's attempt to hold a third of the world's nations as economic hostages because they can't get the energy, materials and chemicals they need to thrive.