President Donald Trump needs to warn Chinese President Xi Jinping against pursuing a "dangerous alliance" with Iran when the two world leaders meet at the White House Thursday, an expert told Fox News Digital.
Jonathan Schanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, made the remark after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during talks in Beijing last week that China was prepared to play a "constructive role" in resolving international disputes. The U.S. war against Iran is nearing the 7-month mark.
"The president needs to tell Xi Jinping that this is a dangerous alliance. The Chinese assistance to the Iranian regime has actually spanned a number of fronts," Schanzer told Fox News Digital. "The first is, of course, the provision of drone parts and motors. This has actually helped the Islamic Republic attack all of its neighbors.
"On top of that, they've been providing some dual-use chemicals that have been helping the Iranians with their missile program. On top of that, we've watched a lot of targeting that looks a little bit too precise for the Iranian regime. So that looks like it may be helped from the Chinese as well," Schanzer continued.
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"On top of that, there's an economic relationship that I think is keeping the Islamic Republic afloat while it continues to hammer away at the oil economy worldwide. These are all things that need to stop. And the hope here is, of course, that Donald Trump is going to make a demand here that Xi Jinping stop all of this," he said.
When asked to respond to the Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers meeting in Beijing, Schanzer said, "When you look at what's happening here, it's pretty clear that the Chinese government is just not ashamed of this at all."
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"In other words, there's a war going on. The Iranians have spiked the price of oil. They have clogged the Strait of Hormuz. They're looking to do the same in the Bab al-Mandab, and they are completely unashamed by this. It's important for Donald Trump to bare his teeth here and to make it clear that the Iranians cannot get this kind of support and that the Chinese government is at risk of escalating with the United States," he added.
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that when Trump last visited China in mid-May, he and Xi agreed that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened without any tolls.
"I think the big thing in the background here is that we're obviously watching great power competition between two of the world's largest economies and largest militaries," Schanzer also said ahead of Thursday's meeting. "The thing that I watch right now is that Taiwan is clearly the main target for the Chinese Communist Party. They want to reunite with the island, as they would call it, and they're putting enormous pressure on Taiwan with that in mind. The United States needs to stand pat here. We have an enormous amount invested in chips in Taiwan, the Taiwan Semiconductor Company. This is the big one here. And if we're going to win the AI race, we need to maintain control of that company. More importantly, we need to make sure that that island remains secure."
