Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Beijing with a direct message for China, he hammered home during an interview with Fox News star Sean Hannity.
Rubio is already walking away with something no U.S. diplomat has gotten from Beijing in years: A joint statement putting the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil on record against the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Rubio set the tone before Air Force One even landed., joining Fox News’ Sean Hannity from the plane Wednesday nigh. He made the hard American redline position clear.
“It’s in their interest to resolve this,” Rubio said. “We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they’re doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf.”
“China’s economy is export-driven, meaning their economy is fueled not by what they consume domestically, but by what they make and sell to other countries,” Rubio told Hannity. “Economies are melting down because of this crisis in the Strait. They’re going to be buying less Chinese product and the Chinese exports are going to drop precipitously.”
It worked. Thursday’s summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People quickly produced a significant U.S. diplomatic victory.
The two sides agreed that “the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy.” President Xi personally made clear China’s “opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use.”
Both countries also agreed that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Xi also expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the strait, an economic concession that undercuts Iran’s leverage over Beijing.
Trump and Xi also worked toward building a “constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability,” with Xi calling the bilateral relationship “the world’s most consequential” and telling Trump: “We must make it work and never mess it up.”
The summit wasn’t a total lovefest, however. Xi issued a sharp warning about Taiwan, calling it “the most important issue in China-US relations” and warning it could create a “very dangerous situation” if mishandled. The Chinese side stopped short of committing to any direct action against Iran, and Beijing’s foreign ministry offered a careful diplomatic non-answer on next steps.
“On the Strait of Hormuz, China’s position is consistent and clear.”
Iran noticed, and their state media in Tehran gleefully ran the headline “Trump visits China in the shadow of failure and stalemate.”
Iran had also allowed a Chinese super tanker carrying two million barrels of oil to transit the strait without issue, the first Chinese-registered vessel permitted passage since the blockade began.
Rubio’s own presence at the summit carried its own symbolic weight. He was barred from entering China in 2020 after he criticized the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses.
Chinese officials quietly changed that after the Trump administration announced the summit.
Here’s a powerful clip from his Fox News interview, where Rubio hammers China —
Fox News Sean Hannity: What is your read on Chinese President Xi Jinping?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “My read is what it’s been for a while, and that is China has a plan… They believe they will be the world’s most powerful country. They will surpass the United States, and… pic.twitter.com/HXK3pK8irj
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) May 14, 2026