US President Donald Trump has claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s current tour of Southeast Asia is likely aimed at undermining the United States. Xi began a five-day visit to several countries significantly affected by Trump’s trade tariffs.
On Monday, Xi arrived in Hanoi and met with Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam. The two sides emphasized stronger trade cooperation and signed multiple agreements, including initiatives to boost supply chain connectivity.
Responding to the developments from the Oval Office, Trump remarked that the talks in Vietnam appeared to be centered on strategies to hurt the US, although he said he didn’t take it personally.
“I don’t blame China; I don’t blame Vietnam,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “That’s a lovely meeting. Meeting like, trying to figure out, ‘how do we screw the United States of America?’”
Vietnam is among a handful of countries in South-east Asia that are reeling from some of the most punitive of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, hit with a rate of 46 percent.
A major industrial and assembly hub, the US is Vietnam’s main export market, for which it is a crucial source of everything from footwear, apparel and electronics.
Xi’s visit to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia this week, comes as Beijing faces tariffs of 145 percent, and as other countries seek to negotiate reductions in their reciprocal tariffs during the 90-day reprieve.
Xi’s trip to Hanoi offers an opportunity to consolidate relations with a neighbour that has received billions of dollars of Chinese investments in recent years as China-based manufacturers moved south to avoid tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration.
Xi had planned to travel to the region prior to Trump’s tariff announcement but the visit was fortuitously timed, with the Chinese leader positing China as a stable trading partner, in contrast to the chaotic policy backflips coming out of Washington.
In an article in Nhandan, the newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist party, Xi wrote there are “no winners in trade wars and tariff wars” and protectionism “leads nowhere”.
In a later meeting with Vietnam’s prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, Xi said the two countries should oppose unilateral bullying.
Chinese and Vietnamese state media reported on Monday that 45 agreements were signed between the two nations, including on rail links, although details were not shared.
Amid mounting pressure from Washington, Vietnam is tightening trade controls with China. A Trump administration official noted that President Trump and Vietnam’s leader To Lam had agreed to work on reducing reciprocal tariffs.
Southeast Asian nations, including Vietnam, are treading carefully as they try to balance relations with both the US and China. There are growing concerns that the region could become a dumping ground for Chinese goods blocked by US tariffs.
Rising US-China tensions have sparked fears of economic decoupling between the world’s two largest economies. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to ease those worries, saying a major deal could still happen and that decoupling isn’t inevitable—though it remains a possibility.
While the White House recently granted tariff exemptions for key Chinese-made products like smartphones, laptops, and semiconductors, Trump clarified that these reliefs are only temporary. On Truth Social, he emphasized that no one—especially not China—is “off the hook.”
After wrapping up a two-day visit to Hanoi, Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to continue his Southeast Asia tour, with stops in Malaysia and Cambodia through Friday.
Courtesy: The Guardian
Bd-pratidin English/FNC
