The energy partnership will be high on the agenda when US President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, with Washington seeking Beijing’s commitment to resume regular purchases of US oil and gas.
American officials have recently done said A deal for Beijing to buy more US energy is under consideration, as the war in Iran and the blockade around the Strait of Hormuz have raised new questions about China’s exposure to Middle Eastern supply routes.
Chinese imports of US oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) reached $8.4 billion in 2024, but were largely halted after the tariff war launched by Trump in April 2025.
In 2024, China imported 193,000 barrels per day of US crude oil, worth about $6 billion in total. But it has not imported any US oil since May 2025 because of a 20% import tariff imposed during the trade war, making up for the shortfall with higher shipments from countries such as Canada and Brazil.
For US LNG, China’s imports have fluctuated significantly in recent years. In 2021, China imported about 7.04 million tonnes of US LNG, but that figure fell to 4.15 million tonnes in 2024 as Chinese buyers turned to suppliers such as Russia and Qatar, which offered more cost-effective cargoes than shipments to the US.
The figure fell further to 26,000 tonnes in 2025 after China imposed a 25% tariff on US LNG as part of the trade war.
On the other hand, China’s imports of US ethane and propane have been less affected by rising political tensions between the two countries. This is because the US was China’s only supplier of ethane and remained China’s largest supplier of propane in 2025. Both materials are for plastic production.
USA has been pushing China buys its energy through a carrot and stick strategy. On the one hand, the US Treasury Department in April sanctioned Chinese oil refiners and dozens of ships and vessels linked to Iran’s shadow fleet, while also threatening secondary sanctions against Chinese banks that help settle transactions related to Iranian oil.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on May 6 that buyers of Iranian oil were contributing to Tehran’s terrorist activities and that China’s refusal to comply with US sanctions should become a key point of discussion at the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting.
On the other hand, Trump said China is welcome to buy energy from the US. At a White House press briefing on May 5, he described Xi as an “extraordinary guy” and said he got along well with Xi.
“We have offered if he wants to send the ships to the US,” Trump said. “I made a statement: send your ships to Texas. It’s not that far. Send your ships to Louisiana. Send your ships to Alaska. Alaska is actually very close to a lot of Asian countries; people don’t realize that.”
Trump added that the US was making “extraordinary” deals with South Korea and Japan, which lost their main source of oil supplies due to the disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. He also said that although China had 60% of its oil imported through the Strait of Hormuz, Xi had been “very respectful” as the strait’s logistics have been affected by the war in Iran.
Beijing’s responses
During a regular conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian was asked about Trump’s suggestion that Beijing should buy American oil instead of Iranian oil. Lin declined to give a direct answer and referred the media to the relevant authorities.
Chinese commentators have different views on the matter. Some say the rift in the Middle East has strengthened the case for China to diversify its oil and gas supplies, including from the US.
A columnist based in Hunan using the pen name Xu Sanlang says China suspended most energy imports from the US as a countermeasure after Trump returned to the White House in early 2025. He says China’s last crude oil purchase from the US was in February 2025, while LNG imports were halted after December 2024.
Citing Chinese customs data, Xu says China imported about $325 billion of crude oil in 2024, of which US crude accounted for only 1.8%, or about $6 billion. The figure essentially dropped to zero in 2025.
However, citing Kpler data, he says about 600,000 barrels per day of US crude were loaded onto tankers destined for China in April 2026. He says the main reason was Iran’s move to close the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“Faced with this situation, the most rational response is to diversify procurement sources,” Xu writes. “Although the US is China’s trade rival, it has sufficient energy supplies. China’s energy purchases were previously disrupted by a tariff war in 2025, but the situation has changed since then. Security of supply is more important than anything else.”
“Trump has long asked China to buy more US agricultural products, aircraft and energy products, but when the trade war was intense, China could ignore these demands,” he adds. “Now conflicts in the Middle East and global supply chain tensions have made it easier to accept Trump’s demand to buy energy from Beijing.”
He points out that resuming US energy purchases would meet China’s security of supply needs while giving Trump some “face” during his visit to Beijing. “It kills two birds with one stone,” he said. “It protects energy security by creating favorable conditions for China-US negotiations.”
Other commentators argue that Beijing should not deepen its reliance on US energy, as Washington has illegally used force to control oil exports from Chinese allies, including Venezuela and Iran.
A writer based in Henan says Trump claimed earlier this month that the US was taking “hundreds of millions of barrels of oil” from Venezuela and shipping the crude to Houston for refining.
“Four months ago, US forces raided Caracas and took Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife,” he writes. “How can Trump now say that the US and Venezuela are partners?”
The writer says the US Treasury Department revoked Chevron’s license to operate in Venezuela on March 1 and issued a new general license that broadly authorizes US companies to do business with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela.
“This is not normal international trade. This is bare-bones looting,” he says.
He says the US was putting pressure on Iran and blocking oil routes through Hormuz, while urging other countries to buy Venezuelan oil refined in Texas. As oil prices rise, he says, U.S.-controlled Venezuelan crude becomes more valuable, making the deal look more like coercion than cooperation.
A writer based in Hebei says China didn’t necessarily need to buy U.S.-refined Venezuelan crude because it had spent two decades building pipelines to import oil and gas from Central Asia. It says the Central Asia-China gas pipeline sent 4.67 million tons of natural gas to China in January and February this year, or about 79,200 tons per day, and has been operating steadily.
It says the pipeline starts in Turkmenistan and enters China through Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Horgo in Xinjiang, passing entirely over land. In 2025, China imported $8.41 billion worth of natural gas from Turkmenistan, making it China’s second largest gas supplier after Russia, which supplied $9.41 billion. He says the route does not go through disputed waters and is not subject to shipping delays or higher insurance costs due to rising oil prices.
“Together with LNG imports from Australia, Qatar, Russia and other suppliers, China has effectively built a diversified energy network,” he says. “No matter how strong a naval power is, it cannot interrupt the steel pipelines that run through the heart of Central Asia.”
Even some commentators SAY China may choose to increase its imports of heavy crude oil from Canada, although it is about US$10 a barrel more expensive than Venezuelan oil.
Read: Trump’s new sanctions on Chinese firms: leverage over Xi or overreach?
Follow Jeff Pao at X at @jeffpao3
