{"id":133821,"date":"2025-04-15T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/xi-jinping-goes-on-charm-offensive-as-asia-reels-from-tariff-whiplash-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T18:18:09","slug":"xi-jinping-goes-on-charm-offensive-as-asia-reels-from-tariff-whiplash-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/xi-jinping-goes-on-charm-offensive-as-asia-reels-from-tariff-whiplash-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Xi Jinping goes on charm offensive as Asia reels from tariff whiplash – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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HONG KONG \u2014 Chinese <\/a>President Xi Jinping<\/a> is turning on the charm as he looks to sweep up the shards of America\u2019s shattered economic relationships<\/a>.
As the world’s markets and leaders try to absorb the impact of the market chaos <\/a>unleashed by the Trump administration\u2019s announcement and softening of sweeping tariffs<\/a> on almost all U.S. trading partners, Xi embarked on a trip through Southeast Asia. After a visit to Vietnam<\/a>, he landed in Malaysia on Tuesday.
\u201cA trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere,\u201d he wrote in the Vietnamese newspaper Nhan Dan. \u201cOur two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system<\/a>, stable global industrial and supply chains, and an open and cooperative international environment.\u201d
President Donald Trump has interpreted Xi\u2019s words, as well as his Chinese counterpart\u2019s meetings with the leaders of the major economies in China\u2019s backyard, as Beijing getting together for a \u201clovely meeting\u201d with one of the countries worst hit by tariffs \u201cto figure out, \u2018how do we screw the United States of America?\u2019\u201d
The message Xi is sending on his tour is loud and clear. China is seeking to capitalize on the Trump administration\u2019s truculence to cast itself as the world\u2019s preferred trading partner<\/a>.\u00a0
That Xi\u2019s rare Southeast Asian tour started with Vietnam is no accident. Trump\u2019s punishing 46% tariff on the country will hammer the economy of a country that is the sixth largest source of U.S. imports and a third of whose gross domestic product relies on trade with the U.S.\u00a0
After Malaysia, which received a 24% levy from the U.S., Xi is expected to visit Cambodia \u2014 hit by 49% duties. He will do so after telling his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, that Beijing and Hanoi must \u201cjointly oppose unilateral bullying and safeguard the global free trade system,\u201d according to China\u2019s state-run broadcaster CCTV News.
Xi\u2019s trip, his first overseas foray in over a year, is just the beginning of a broader response to Trumponomics<\/a>, analysts say.
The Chinese leader \u201chappily sees Donald Trump destroying, undermining, discrediting, deliberate international order in order to make it easier for him to push for the transformation of the international order into something \u2018better,\u2019\u201d says Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University of London.
Winning over Southeast Asia, with its developing economies already largely dependent on Beijing, will be the easy part.
Slightly more difficult for Xi will be supplanting the U.S. as the biggest trading partner of the European Union.\u00a0
Last week, Xi told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez that the bloc should join forces with China to oppose \u201cunilateral bullying\u201d and defend the \u201cinternational rules and order\u201d \u2014 words almost identical to ones he used this week in Hanoi.\u00a0
While Beijing followed that up Monday with a statement emphasizing Sino-European unity, Washington has made things easy for Xi, says Wang Dong, executive director of Peking University\u2019s Institute for Global Cooperation.\u00a0
\u201cChina doesn\u2019t have to \u201cdrive a wedge\u201d between the U.S. and its allies,\u201d Wang told NBC News. \u201cRather, the bullying and cruel manner the Trump administration rolled out the punitive tariffs, along with the unpredictability and selfishness manifested by the U.S., have already driven US allies and partners closer to Beijing.\u201d\u00a0
A thaw in relations has already begun. E.U. leaders<\/a> last week agreed to revive negotiations on the prices of electric vehicles \u2014 they imposed a 45% tariff<\/a> on low-emission Chinese cars in October \u2014 despite fears that Chinese products may flood the European market if the U.S. keeps in place its 145% levy on Chinese imports<\/a>.
But that softening comes amid a raft of economic disputes between the world\u2019s second- and third-largest economies. It may also be difficult to achieve more due to China\u2019s one-party rule and\u00a0concerns over human rights allegations.
\u201cLots of people don\u2019t share China\u2019s political values,\u201d said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King\u2019s College London.\u00a0
More difficult still will be warming up long-standing U.S. allies in Asia \u2014 specifically Japan and South Korea \u2014 whose economies will suffer the effects of 24% and 25% tariffs respectively, despite them scrambling teams of trade envoys within days of the tariff announcements.
The U.S. is both countries\u2019 main guarantor against security threats from China and Russia, and Tokyo’s and Seoul\u2019s reactions are best summed up by the South Korean Foreign Ministry\u2019s comment Monday that \u201cbilateral dialogue with the United States is the most effective way to resolve the issue of U.S. tariff measures.\u201d
But with China both countries\u2019 largest trading partner and Washington’s increasingly spotty loyalty mean South Korea and Japan\u00a0are essentially \u201ccaught in a quandary,\u201d Brown said. \u201cChina is still practically a power you have to deal with.\u201d\u00a0\t
And if the carrot doesn\u2019t work, there\u2019s always the stick. Beijing holds at least one key piece of leverage over Washington and its allies.\u00a0
China held more than $700 billion in U.S. government bonds \u2014 the proceeds from which the U.S. Treasury finances public expenditure \u2014 making it among the largest holders of such bonds.
If China sells those bonds, it will threaten America\u2019s ability to finance its debt, Brown said.
Between that, and Beijing wearing the reassuring face of a reliable trading partner, \u201cChina\u2019s got itself into a relatively good position,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd it annoys the hell out of America.\u201d
Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter\/producer for NBC News.
Peter Guo is\u00a0a fellow on NBC\u2019s Asia Desk, based in Hong Kong.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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