Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that trade wars “yield no winners” as he prepares to kick off a tour of Southeast Asia against the backdrop of heightened trade tensions between China and the United States.
Writing in Vietnam’s Nhan Dan newspaper ahead of his visit to the country on Monday, Xi said that countries should work to advance a “comprehensive and inclusive global economic globalization”.
“Trade wars and tariff wars yield no winners, and protectionism offers no solutions,” Xi said.
“There is a need to resolutely protect the multilateral trading system, sustain the stability of global production and supply chains, and maintain an open and cooperative international environment.”
At a time of rising unilateralism and protectionism, China’s economy has remained a “key driver of the world economy,” Xi said.
“China will persist in high-level openness, creating more opportunities for the world, and contributing to the shared development of countries through its own high-quality development,” the Chinese leader said.
Xi arrives in Vietnam on Monday as part of a five-day tour that will also see him visit Malaysia and Cambodia.
The trip comes as Beijing is seeking to portray itself as a reliable trade partner for the region amid the uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth announcements on tariffs.
Trump has slapped a baseline tariff of 10 percent on dozens of countries, many of them in Asia, in addition to targeted tariffs of 25 percent on vehicles, steel and aluminium.
The US president has said he will introduce new tariffs on semiconductors this week, while steep “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of US trade partners are on pause until July following his announcement of a 90-day reprieve last week.
Trump’s pause did not include China, whose exports have been slapped with a 145 percent tariff.
China is the biggest trade partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the top trade partner of Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia individually.
Vietnam is the biggest buyer of Chinese goods in the region, with imports from China surging more than 30 percent to $144bn in 2024, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
After Vietnam, Xi is scheduled to visit Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday, followed by a visit to Cambodia.
