Trump says China ‘very happy’ about him ‘permanently opening’ Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday China was “very happy” that he was “permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz”.

“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also - And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran,” he wrote in a social post.

Meanwhile, in an interview to Fox Business Network, Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in a letter not to give Iran weapons, and Xi responded that China was not supplying Tehran.

Trump, in the interview taped on Tuesday and aired on Wednesday, did not say when the letters were exchanged. Last week, he threatened countries with an immediate 50% tariff if they supplied Iran with weapons.

“I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that, and he wrote me a letter saying that, essentially, he’s not doing that,” Trump told FBN’s “Mornings with Maria” programme.

He also said he did not expect shifts in the global oil market over the war on Iran and changes in Venezuela to impact the dynamics of his planned meeting with Xi next month. “He’s somebody that needs oil. We don’t,” Trump said.