Trump and Xi Exchanged Letters on China Sending Weapons to Iran

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan, South Korea, on October 30, 2025. 

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

US President Donald Trump said he and Xi Jinping exchanged letters on reports that China is sending weapons to Iran and the Chinese leader “essentially” told him that the country is “not doing that.”

When asked if the US’ actions in Iran and Venezuela, along with comments about Cuba, particularly on oil changes the dynamic of the upcoming meeting between the two leaders next month, Trump said, “I don’t think it does.”

“He’s somebody that needs oil. We don’t. He’s somebody I get along with very well — just wrote me a beautiful letter,” Trump said.

He went on to say, “He responded to a letter that I wrote because I had heard that China is giving weapons to — I mean, you seeing it all over the place — to Iran,” adding, “I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that and he wrote me a letter saying that essentially he’s not doing that.”

CNN exclusively reported last week that US intelligence indicates that China is preparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran within the next few weeks, according to three people familiar with recent intelligence assessments.