China's Xi courts Southeast Asia as Trump tariffs bite

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will kick off a five-day, three-nation Southeast Asia tour on Monday as Beijing seeks to tighten regional trade ties and offset the impact of huge tariffs unleashed by his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Xi will visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia in his first overseas trip of the year, China’s foreign ministry said.

He will meet his three Southeast Asian counterparts on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

Beijing is presenting itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Trump, who announced — and then mostly reversed — sweeping tariffs this month that sent global markets into a tailspin.

Trump’s tariffs “inflict serious harm on developing countries”, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a call on Friday.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was the biggest recipient of Chinese exports last year, data from China’s customs authority shows, importing $586.5 billion in Chinese goods.

Vietnam was the biggest ASEAN buyer with a bill of $161.9 billion, followed by Malaysia, which imported $101.5 billion in Chinese goods in 2024.

The manufacturing powerhouse rushed to seek a delay on the 46 percent tariff Trump initially imposed before the US leader granted most countries a 90-day pause.

Trump, however, also hiked a blanket China tariff to 145 percent.

Despite temporary reprieves — which now include an exemption for consumer electronics — Trump’s tariffs “instilled major anxiety” in developing Asian nations, said Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia Program.

“The tariffs, if really implemented beyond China, will leave economies no choice but drifting away further from the US,” she said.

‘Bamboo diplomacy’

Xi will be in Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday, his first trip there since December 2023.

Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach, striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.

It shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in contested South China Sea, but it also has close economic ties with China.

Xi will then visit Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday.

Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said Xi’s visit was “part of the government’s efforts… to see better trade relations with various countries including China”.

Xi will then travel on Thursday to Cambodia, one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia and where Beijing has extended its influence in recent years.

“The Cambodian-Chinese ties have not changed… and we will continue to make it robust,” Prime Minister Hun Manet said at the recent inauguration of a Chinese-funded road.

He said Xi’s visit would confirm their close relationship and called China “a key partner” in the development of Cambodian infrastructure.

Firming up ties with Southeast Asian neighbours could also help offset the impact from a closed United States, the largest single recipient of Chinese goods last year.

Beijing “wants to use this time to show it’s the opposite to the coercive and self-interested US,” the ICG’s Le Thu said.

“China has been a dominant and resident power centre in the region, and there will only be stronger pull,” she said.