The timing cannot be better for Chinese President Xi Jinping, as it concludes a tour of three countries in Southeast Asia, amid increasing introductory pressure from US President Donald Trump.
“It is a very smart step,” said Gil Lan, Associate Professor in the Department of Law and Business at Ted Rogers College of Administration at the University of Toronto Metropolitan.
The five -day visit to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia was an attempt to support the allies and support inside the region and to provide Beijing as a stable and reliable partner in the aftermath The comprehensive definitions announced by Trump Earlier this month on countries around the world – Including high fees in places in Southeast Asia That was on the line of the Chinese leader.
“It is a great opportunity for China to put itself at the top of the global trading matter. This was the opportunity to give the states,” he said.
The Chinese leader had the last time Cambodia visited nine years ago and Malaysia 12 years ago.
On April 2, Trump announced a “mutual” tariff by 46 percent of Vietnam, 24 percent on Malaysia and 49 percent on Cambodia-although the US President is almost. Stop the rate by 10 percent for 90 days.
China, the only confined, is facing 145 percent of the customs tariff from the United States.
Support the global free trade system
On Monday, Hanoi, his first stop, Vietnamese President Lung Cuong received a special party. according to Statement from Chinese Ministry of Foreign AffairsThe Chinese president said that the two countries “will strengthen strategic determination, jointly oppose bullying, and support the global free trade system and maintain global industrial supply chains.”
“He got the highest level of Al -Marahi in VIP so that he can bear it to anyone,” said Ben Blander, director of the Asia Pacific Program in Chatham House, a London -based research center.
For Bland, the timing is “very useful” as the United States looks very unilaterally, forcibly, even.
China and Vietnam expressed its support to maintain a multilateral commercial system focused on the World Trade Organization, in a joint statement issued on Tuesday at the end of a two -day visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“XI Jinping can provide a face to China as reliable, reliable, open and honest in its dialogue with its partners, although it is A busy record of forced behavior Towards Southeast Asia, from paradoxes. “
On his second stop, Hashsh and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the president of this year from The Association of Southeast Asian Countries (Asian), they were The free trade agreement is expected to discuss Between China and the group of 10 members, according to reports.
eleventh The last stop was CambodiaOn Thursday, when he arrived in Bennah, a warm welcome by the President of the State Norudum Sehhamouni on the fiftieth anniversary of its founding on April 17, 1975, the seizure of Cambodia by the hands of Khmer Rouge.
Xi also met the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manit. In addition to discussions on strengthening bilateral relations and regional and international issues, many agreements were expected to be signed on cooperation in various sectors.
Trump answered a question about the Shi tour in Southeast Asia in the Oval Office on Monday, during a bilateral meeting with the President of El Salvador, Nayb Bokil.
“This is a beautiful meeting. We meet, like, in an attempt to know,” “How can we link the United States of America? “
Trade and infrastructure
China diplomacy in Southeast Asia has been going on for decades. it has been The largest commercial partner of ASEAN Since 2009, and in 2024, the value of China -Asian Trade amounted to 998 billion US dollars.
To get a better sense of growing economic relations, trade between ASEAN and China has multiplied more than twice between 2010 and 2019, and its booths since the establishment of the Chinese Asian Trade Agreement in 2005.
But it is not just a newer visit by XI or commercial relations that indicate a strengthening relationship in the region. For LAN at Toronto Metropolitan University, foreign direct investment is also an indication.
In the past decade, China has spent billions of dollars in building infrastructure projects as part of Belt and Road InitiativeIncluding high -speed railways between Thailand and China, fast roads and roads in Cambodia, a railway station and a power plant in Vietnam.
Lan said: “What (Southeast Asian countries) likely to do is now quietly, guaranteeing China’s calm that they are still trading with China and are still partners with China, but it does not appear on the radar to appoint the President of the United States.”
Economic and regional conflicts
However, what appears to be a declaration of the Asia and Pacific bloc is stronger, not without separate elements, economically and geographically.
the Council of Foreign RelationsAnd it is the New York-based Thinking Center, in September referring to “confirmation” in China in its demands on the South China Sea-and the non-exploited oil and natural gas there-increases tension with its neighbors, especially the Philippines.
Beijing also used economic coercion on countries, such as imposing strict health checks, then a complete ban on Banana is imported from the Philippines In 2012, in response to Manila’s regional demands in the South China Sea.
Canada and the United States have a stake in this water. In August, the Minister of National Defense in Canada, Bill Blair, He met his Australian counterpartDeputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles, to discuss strengthening their defense cooperation in the region, and is supposed to be a way to contain China.
The conflict in the South China Sea can It is possible that 5.5 trillion dollars in trade will be suspended.
Bland, from Chatham House, said that these clashes will not evaporate overnight.
“It is quite possible to not be confident of both great powers, or even on the margins to improve your relationships with both great powers at the same time,” he said in a reference to China and the United States.
At the same time, China also introduces other neighbors, such as Japan and South Korea. In March, senior diplomats from the three countries held its first economic meeting in five years.
However, there are still routine skirmishes in the East China Sea on claims about what China refers to as the Dio and Japan Islands are called the Senkaku Islands.
Despite the constant sense of distrust, the threat and the inability to predict Donald Trump can inspire closely to work.
“At the end of this, you may see Asia stronger,” he said. “It is not necessarily that the world turns to Asia, it is the world away from the United States.”
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