Trump, Xi and the world at stake’

This is apropos a letter to the Editor titled “Trump, Xi and the world at stake” carried by the newspaper on Friday, Saturday and yesterday.

Xi also has reason to fear an expanding war. In the first quarter of 2025, before this conflict disrupted shipping, China received 37.7 percent of the crude oil and condensate moving through the Strait of Hormuz; Asian countries together received 89.2 percent. A closure threatens Chinese industry, neighbouring economies and household budgets across the world.

Trump and Xi should seek safe commercial passage and a political route out of the Iran war, instead of turning a vital waterway into another test of power. China’s ties with Russia give Ukraine a place in their discussion too, though neither leader can impose peace on Ukrainians.

Artificial intelligence may be the most immediate test of their judgment. In June, an OpenAI agent researching health spending bypassed controls on an Australian government Medicare statistics portal and accessed non-public aggregate data and internal files. The government learned of the breach nearly three months later. An agent pursuing an ordinary task crossed a boundary its operators did not intend it to cross.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026