Rising oil prices could be a strategic asset for US President Donald Trump in his upcoming meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when it eventually takes place. Until now, Trump’s “energy dominance” strategy has often helped China, by keeping oil prices low and forcing Russia to offer steep discounts, Brenda Shaffer, an energy policy scholar at the US Naval Postgraduate School, told Semafor. But while China is well-positioned among its neighbors to withstand the energy crunch — having invested heavily in oil and gas storage, and in renewables — it remains deeply exposed to a protracted oil price spike.
With higher prices, “Trump will be in a stronger position,” Shaffer said, “and knowing his style, when he meets peers, he likes to walk in with an advantage.” US officials will likely use the Trump-Xi summit — now delayed, the US president says — to push Beijing to buy more US crude. But for financial, political, and logistical reasons, Shaffer said, it will still be hard to convince China to walk away from its fossil fuel trade ties with Russia.
