China’s Leader Ends Southeast Asia Tour Touting Beijing’s Reliability vs. US Tariff Threats
Chinese President Xi Jinping capped a three-nation Southeast Asia tour in Cambodia on Friday, promoting Beijing’s reliability as the region faces economic uncertainty due to US President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals.
China has been strongly increasing its influence in the region over the past decade, largely by exercising its substantial economic leverage. Beijing is now presenting itself as a source of stability and certainty as Trump’s tariffs threaten the region’s export-oriented economies whose largest market is generally the United States.
Cambodia faces among the highest reciprocal tariff rates proposed by Washington. In addition to Trump’s universal 10% tariff, it faces the threat of a 49% tariff on exports to the US once his 90-day pause expires. For the other nations visited by Xi, Vietnam ‘s tariff would be 46%, and Malaysia ‘s 24%.
“The timing of the visit is extraordinarily auspicious for China, falling just in the wake of the announcement of Trump’s tariffs that have caused managed consternation in Cambodia and Vietnam … and upset in Malaysia,” Astrid Norén-Nilsson, a senior lecturer in the Study of Contemporary South-East Asia at Sweden’s Lund University, said in an email interview on Thursday.
“Xi Jinping can now carry out the tour equipped with the moral authority and goodwill of a singularly constant friend and reliable trading partner.”
In Vietnam and Malaysia, Xi emphasized strengthening ties, particularly in trade and investment, and underscored the need to oppose unilateralism and protectionism and uphold the multilateral trading system.
