Xi Jinping warned that American protectionism will not lead anywhere while the Chinese chief was embarking on a tour of Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia to strengthen the bonds of the economies of Southeast Asia of exports shaken by Donald Trumps, the climbing of trade war.
The visit, Xis First Foreign Trip this year, comes a few days after the American president increased prices on Chinese products up to 145%, deepening the fears of a decoupling between the two largest economies in the world and triggering a sale on the world markets.
Before the visit, XI called for greater cooperation with Vietnam and other development economies to promote an equal and ordered multipolar world.
The trade war and the tariff war will not produce any winner, and protectionism will not lead anywhere, wrote Xi in the Vietnamese media, adding that countries should resolutely protect the multilateral trading system, industrial chains and stable global supply and an open and cooperative international environment.
Many countries in Southeast Asia which have high commercial surpluses in goods with the United States due to its low-cost exports have also been affected by samples up to 49%. World supply chains have moved to the region in recent years, especially in Vietnam, with the aim of diversifying from China and avoiding American prices.
Trump has since announced a 90-day stay on certain prices, but commercial uncertainty has disrupted the governments of Southeast Asia and raised questions about the commitments of tones in Washingt to the region, where China is already the largest investor and trading partner of many countries.
XIS Visit sends the message that we are those who try to defend the current international economic order, we are those who defend the abolition of obstacles and that the Chinese market will remain open, said Dylan Loh, assistant professor at the Singapores Nanyang Technological University.
Stressing uncertainty, the United States announced on Friday that smartphones and some other consumption technology products as well as semiconductors and manufacturing equipment of imported Tamines of China would be excluded from abrupt reciprocal rates, before Trump has the course on Sunday and declared that the exemption was temporary, with a separate price regime to establish for the Sector.
The tour of Chinese leaders begins on Monday in Vietnam, one of the fastest growth savings in worlds and emerging manufacturing power. On Tuesday, he went to Malaysia, president of this year of the association of nations of Southeast Asia and Cambodia.
XI will also try to arouse the favor of the leaders of Southeast Asia under pressure to repress the transhipments of Chinese products across their countries to bypass the American rates.
Writing in the Financial Times last week, Trumps sales advisor Peter Navarro said: we want to hear countries like Cambodia, Mexico and Vietnam that you will stop allowing China to escape American prices by exports of transfer of transfer through your countries.
The Secretary in the United States of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, met the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam Ho Duc Phoc last week and agreed to start official trade negotiations.
Yanmei XIe, an independent analyst on Chinese policy, said that Washington had opened commercial negotiations with various countries, a large demand would be to decline more China in exchange for access to the US market.
The game is underway to try to get third -party countries on the side, said XIe.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Schez met Xi in Beijing on Friday, and EU leaders plan to go to China for a summit in late July. XI told Snchez that he wanted to deepen links with the European country in the midst of a difficult trade war and repeated its warning that the world underwent accelerated changes invisible in a century.
The American prices unveiled this month would have a detrimental effect on the countries of Southeast Asia, the economists warned. Vietnam, which faces a rate of 46%, is among the hardest, the United States representing almost a third of its exports.
The Singaporean Bank OCBC reduced its GDP growth forecasts of 2025 for Vietnam by 6.2% to 5% after the price announcement, although Hanoi has maintained its growth target by 8%.
Loh said that the Southeast Asian countries would try to cover themselves and walk an increasingly thin line between rival superpowers. While Vietnam has been one of the largest beneficiaries of making China manufacturing, its largest neighbor is also its greatest source of new investment projects.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapores declared in an interview with the FT last week that the upheaval of the global trade system could prove to be very hostile for the little nations, which was likely to be in a hurry.
Beijing has spent years establishing solid economic and commercial relations in Southeast Asia, investing billions of dollars in infrastructure, even if its territorial disputes in the South China Sea have worsened.
James Char, an expert in China at the School of International Studies in Rajaratnam in Singapore, said that the uncertainty caused by Trumps' trade policies had created an opportunity for Beijing to join his claims to be a reliable partner for the countries of the region.
But while many development economies in Southeast Asia are increasingly aligned with China, there is a general apprehension on the influence of Beijing in the region, he added.
Basically, most countries in Southeast Asia have reserves on the potential of Chinese to be a great hegemon of great magnanimous power, said Char.
