Xi Jinping has projected stability, but analysts say China’s maritime claims may keep neighbors from drifting too far from Washington.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has wrapped up a whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia, seeking to rally support amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s chaotic trade offensive.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of State by email outside of office hours.
The sweeping tariffs Trump imposed on scores of countries and regions earlier this month—many of them were later walked back—shook global markets and revived uncertainty over U.S. trade policy. The president aims to bring manufacturing jobs back to the country and strong-arm trade partners into lowering „unfair“ tariffs—or taxes on foreign imports.
China looms large as the top trade partner for nearly every Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member. However, Chinese neighbors such as Vietnam are wary of the superpower’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea and seek to balance this economic dependency and security ties with the U.S.
During his five-day tour, which included stops in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, Xi met with leaders and signed a flurry of memorandums of understanding covering everything from transportation and customs to artificial intelligence.
