CNN reporter taken aback as Chinese residents let Trump have it
President Donald Trump landed in China on Wednesday ahead of his high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping, reportedly hoping for help with his deeply unpopular war against Iran – but Beijing residents interviewed by CNN were quick to pour cold water on the idea.
“I don't have a good impression of President Donald Trump at all,” one Beijing resident, identified as Mr. Liu, told CNN. “The U.S.-Iran conflict was stirred up by him, too. Look at the trade and economic war before, wasn't that him too?”
CNN’s Boris Sanchez said, citing U.S. officials, Trump is “expected to encourage Xi to push Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz,” a critical shipping waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade historically flows. On the ground in Beijing, CNN’s Mike Valerio reiterated Sanchez’s claim and expressed shock at the pushback he personally heard from Beijing residents.
“What's important for everybody back home in America to know: deals and getting help with the war in Iran are far and away the two biggest topics the president is going to raise in his meeting with President Xi Jinping,” Valerio said.
“In terms of asking for help from China to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, we went up and down throughout town in Beijing most of the day yesterday, and I was so struck by so many who told us they do not want China getting involved at all in this U.S.-Israeli war.”
Beijing resident Mr. Li, for instance, told CNN it was not China’s "diplomatic principle” to get involved in such matters. Ms. Yuan, another Beijing resident, was more blunt in her opposition.
“I don't think China should interfere too much in those kinds of issues,” she told CNN.
Trump’s visit to China already got off to “a rocky start,” according to the progressive advocacy platform Call To Activism, after the president stepped off Air Force One to be greeted not by Xi, but by lower-ranking Chinese officials, the optics of which Mary L. Trump, Trump’s niece, described as “humiliating.”
"I don't have a good impression of President Donald Trump at all"
Beijing residents pour cold water on what's expected to be one of Trump’s key asks of Xi at the U.S.-China summit. pic.twitter.com/1l658LWoUP
— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) May 13, 2026