BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will kick off a five-day, three-nation Southeast Asia tour on Monday (Apr 14) 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 trying to present 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 US$586.5 billion in Chinese goods.
Vietnam was the biggest ASEAN buyer with a bill of US$161.9 billion, followed by Malaysia, which imported US$101.5 billion in Chinese goods in 2024.
The manufacturing powerhouse rushed to seek a delay on the 46 per cent 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 per cent.
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.
