President Trump met with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, projecting diplomacy for the cameras. But as The New York Times detailed, the meeting came after “a flurry of actions” from the Trump administration targeting China — a shadow conflict involving espionage, sanctions, cyberattacks, and AI export controls that has intensified in recent weeks.
The public messaging told a different story. Trump told reporters that Xi had personally assured him China would not supply military equipment to Iran — a claim that, if true, would represent a significant diplomatic concession from Beijing. Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, delivered a sharp counterpoint: BRICS nations must unite to shatter America’s “sense of superiority and impunity.” Araghchi noted that Iran had faced U.S.-Israeli aggression twice in the past year, framing the struggle as one shared by the entire bloc against “declining imperialist powers.”
The juxtaposition is telling. On one track, Washington and Beijing negotiate bilaterally. On another, a coalition of nations — including China’s BRICS partners — is openly organizing to resist American hegemony. The question is how long both tracks can run simultaneously before colliding.
