China's Xi Jinping Tries To Woo Southeast Asian Neighbors Amid Trump Tariff Pause
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Synopsis
A policy expert said Xi will doubtless find a more receptive audience than he would have without the tariffs.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is leaving no stone unturned as the U.S. persists with the staggering tariff rates it has imposed on imports from the Asian country.
Xi is reportedly visiting China's southeast Asian neighbors, namely Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, in a bid to rally support from these nations.
Bloomberg reported that the overtures are a bid to prevent China's smaller neighbors from striking deals with the U.S. that would be detrimental to China.
The latest applicable tariff rate for Chinese imports is 154%, even after Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs applicable to most other countries. The reprieve aims to bring the trading partners to the negotiating table and bargain for favorable trade terms.
An announcement from U.S. customs exempted tech products, including those from China, from the list, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and President Trump have since said separate levies would be worked out for semiconductors.
Gregory Poling, Senior Fellow and Director, Southeast Asia Program at Center for Strategic and International Studies, reportedly said, "Xi will doubtless find a more receptive audience than he would have without the tariffs."
The policy expert, however, was skeptical of the degree of success. "Vietnam and Cambodia at least will ignore any Chinese pleas to hang tough and not make concessions with the United States," he said.
The Bloomberg report said Xi would go to lengths to present China as a more reliable trading partner than Trump's U.S.
On the other hand, Southeast Asian nations, which serve as the conduit for Chinese imports to the U.S., are concerned about the flooding of cheap imports from China into their markets.
Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia now face a "Catch-22" situation. They must cut off trading links with their largest trading partner or face massive U.S. tariffs.
The tariff rates announced by the Trump administration on these nations, ahead of the 90-day pause, were 46%, 49% and 24%, respectively.
The report said the countries will likely stay neutral and avoid picking a side in the U.S.-China trade war.
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