Trump has said the operation against Iran could run for about four weeks, which would bring it close to the eve of the China trip. China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on whether the Iran situation had changed plans to host Trump. Asked about the implications of the Iran strikes on talks with Xi, a White House official said Trump was “taking decisive action to eliminate major national security threats,” but did not mention China. For now, the US is betting that its Iran operation would not trigger any Chinese military response. The main US concern is that difficulty in rapidly replenishing reserves of munitions would reduce “medium-term deterrence” over the threat of Chinese military action against Taiwan, the official said.
