Four US military transport planes have already landed in the Chinese capital. Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping is going ahead. And with the Strait of Hormuz still in crisis, the stakes have never been higher.

China’s oil through Hormuz ~40% of all Chinese crude imports

Summit dates May 14–15 Trump–Xi in Beijing

C-17s on the ground 4 advance logistics, as of today

Original summit delay Feb 28 when hostilities broke out

There’s something almost cinematic about the image: US military cargo planes touching down in Beijing one by one, advance teams fanning out across a city that, just weeks ago, seemed an unlikely destination for a Trump state visit. And yet here we are. Four C-17s are on the ground. Air Force One is coming. The summit is real.

The visit was originally scheduled before the outbreak of hostilities in late February derailed everything. That it’s back on — and apparently gaining momentum by the hour — says something important about where both Washington and Beijing think this crisis needs to go next. Neither side wants to be the reason this meeting doesn’t happen.