US President Donald Trump's threat to slap a 25 per cent tariff on countries that trade with Iran risks reopening old wounds with Beijing, Tehran's biggest trading partner. It remains unclear which countries with Iranian business links Trump might target, and he has not named China. The US president has also made offhand remarks that threatened to upend US foreign policy without acting on them before. When asked at Tuesday's regular press conference on Trump's tariff threat, China's foreign ministry said that Beijing would "resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests". "Whether Trump's tariffs are enforceable remains a question," said Xu Tianchen, a Beijing-based analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Source: The Telegraph January 13, 2026 13:20 UTC