United States trade representative Jamieson Greer has said President Donald Trump secured a commitment from China not to “provide material support to Iran.” In an interview with American Broadcasting Company (ABC) News on Sunday (May 17, 2026), Mr. Greer explained that the U.S. did not ask China for direct assistance in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“When the President went in, he did not go in asking them to take action in the Straits of Hormuz. He was very focussed on making sure that they didn’t provide material support to Iran. That’s a commitment he obtained and confirmed,” Mr. Greer said on ABC News’ “This Week”. He noted that China has “a clear interest” in reopening the strait but does not want to get involved directly.

“The President isn’t seeking to have joint military operations with the Chinese. I don’t think the American Presidents have ever done that,” Mr. Greer said. “But obviously we want to make sure that they’re not getting in the way of anything we’re doing to try to clarify that situation,” he said.

While the U.S. and China were engaged in a trade war for much of last year, Mr. Trump told reporters on the flight back to the U.S. that the issue of tariffs did not come up in his conversations with Xi Jinping. However, Mr. Greer said trade negotiations did occur, just not at the leader level.

“Before the leaders meet people, like me and [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent and our staff, we meet with our counterparts with the  — on the Chinese side, and we work out among ourselves a lot of issues, so that the presidents don’t have to address it, and that’s why they didn’t address tariffs,” he said.

Mr. Greer also mentioned that the U.S. is considering establishing a “Board of Trade” with China to negotiate trading terms for specific goods. Asked to respond to critics who say the President did not accomplish much on the trip, Mr. Greer said a fact sheet is forthcoming, but highlighted several things he said were agreed upon.

He stated that China agreed to resume U.S. exports from several meat-exporting facilities, review certain biotechnology trades, and purchase 200 Boeing planes, although China has not confirmed the details of any agreements.

“So there are a variety of very concrete things that are already happening, already going into a place, and most importantly, as the president has said, we have strategic stability with China,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (May 12, 2026) embarked on a visit to China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping to discuss smoothing trade relations rocked by tit-for-tat tariffs.

“We’re going to be talking with President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say more than anything else, it’ll be trade,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House as he headed to China.

“He’s been a friend of mine. He’s been somebody that we get along with… this is going to be a very exciting trip. A lot of good things are going to happen,” Mr. Trump said about his meeting with the Chinese President.

Mr. Trump sought to downplay differences with Mr. Xi over Iran and the shadow the conflict is casting on global oil markets.

“We’re going to have a long talk about it. I think he’s been relatively good, to be honest with you,” Mr. Trump said of his plans to discuss the conflict with Mr. Xi.

“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” he added.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran, and we’ll win it one way or the other. We’ll win it. We’ll win it peacefully or not. The Navy’s gone. Their air force is gone. Every single element of their war machine is gone,” he added.

“We have Iran very much under control. We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated — so one way or the other, we win,” he said.

Accompanying Mr. Trump on Air Force One are Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio; Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth; U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer; Eric Trump; and Laura Trump, among others.

A large delegation of CEOs of top US companies will also be in Beijing during Mr. Trump’s visit.

The White House has invited top CEOs, including Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Larry Fink (BlackRock), and Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), to join Mr. Trump on his trip to China this week.

Also expected to join Mr. Trump’s delegation for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping are Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Cargill’s Brian Sikes, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Cisco’s Chuck Robbins, Coherent’s Jim Anderson, GE Aerospace’s H. Lawrence Culp Jr, Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon, Illumina’s Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard’s Michael Miebach, Meta Platforms executive Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Technology’s Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon and Visa’s Ryan McInerney.