China and U.S. agree Hormuz shouldn’t be ‘militarized,’ Marco Rubio says

President Donald Trump discussed the Iran war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz during a summit with President Xi Jinping, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News in an interview Thursday.

BEIJING — President Donald Trump discussed the Iran war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz during a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News in an interview Thursday, adding that the United States was not asking for Beijing’s help with Iran.

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“The Chinese side said they are not in favor of militarizing the Straits of Hormuz, and they’re not in favor of a tolling system, and that’s our position,” America’s top diplomat said in Beijing after Trump, Xi and their delegations held more than two hours of talks.

During the wide-ranging interview, Rubio — who traveled to Beijing while under Chinese sanctions in what appears to be a first for a U.S. secretary of state — said Trump and Xi also discussed the Beijing-claimed island of Taiwan and the case of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy publisher in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong who was sentenced to 20 years in prison this year after his conviction in a landmark national security trial.