President Donald Trump's actions during the escalating war in Iran are creating new pressure on Beijing ahead of his potential summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the conflict is unfolding at a difficult moment for the Chinese Communist Party, China expert Gordon Chang told Newsmax on Sunday.
"There are a couple of things," Chang told Newsmax's "Sunday Report," when asked how the war could affect the expected Trump-Xi meeting in roughly three weeks.
"One of them is that the Chinese may not want Trump there if the war is continuing," he said. "The Chinese have criticized the war, criticized the U.S., and then are they going to give him a grand welcome in their capital?"
Chang said Trump's position following U.S. actions in the region could complicate Xi's political narrative.
"Trump is triumphant, and I don't think that they want him there because Xi Jinping's narrative over the last half-decade, maybe even more than that, has been the United States is in terminal decline," Chang said. "So there are a lot of reasons why the Chinese don't want him there."
He added that China is also being affected economically as the conflict disrupts energy supplies.
"President Trump is taking their proxies off the board," Chang said. "This is a very bad time for the Chinese Communist Party."
Chang said the most immediate concern for Beijing is the price and availability of oil, particularly because China depends heavily on energy shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
"China gets somewhere between 45[%] to 50% of its imported oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and that is mostly closed," he said.
Chinese leaders are closely watching the internal instability inside Iran, particularly public protests against the regime, said Chang.
"The Chinese Communist Party is always worried when they see governments around the world topple," he said. "Iran right now is extremely fragile."
As a result, Chang said Beijing may intensify domestic controls.
"The Communist Party is, I'm sure, taking every measure to keep the Chinese people in line, including enhanced surveillance," he said.
Retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt, a Newsmax contributor who joined the interview, said that Trump's moves are reshaping the broader geopolitical landscape and undermining China's strategic ambitions.
"President Trump is changing the entire geostrategic board right now globally, and China doesn't like it," Holt said.
Holt added that China is reacting aggressively behind the scenes, including through influence campaigns tied to Beijing's intelligence networks.
"We see their spy networks in United Front activities here in the United States, actually feeding the media with bots, anti-Iran war," Holt said.
He added that instability in Iran could also threaten China-backed initiatives and partners abroad.
"This threatens not just the Belt and Road Initiative, but this threatens the BRICS initiative," Holt said.
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