Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit three Southeast Asian countries early next week to strengthen regional cooperation in his first tour abroad after US President Donald Trump slapped 145 per cent tariffs against China’s exports intensifying the trade war with Beijing.Xi will pay state visits to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia from April 14 to 18, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.All three countries are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping with which China had the largest trade amounting to USD 962.28 billion last year, with China’s exports totalling USD 575 billion.Many Chinese observers warned the competitive trade nature between China and its Asian neighbours — since they are all export-driven economies with the US being one of their key markets — could hinder Beijing’s efforts to rally them, a dilemma further compounded by territorial disputes on both land and sea.Though Xi’s visits to these countries were on the cards for a while, the timing of the visits coincides with Trump’s tariffs against Chinese goods while pausing levies against the rest of the countries.According to the latest US notification, the overall trade tariffs on China amounted to 145 per cent.China retaliated with 84 per cent tariffs, imposed some restrictions on imports of some US films and expressed interest in holding a dialogue with Washington to resolve the issue.China remained the only country which retaliated against Trump’s tariffs.Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia were too hit hard by US tariffs but sought time to work out bilateral trade tariffs.As Trump’s tariffs loomed large on China, Xi earlier this week sought to strengthen China’s strategic relationships with neighbouring countries by appropriately managing differences and enhancing supply chains.In his first public speech after Trump’s steep global hike of tariffs, Xi called for building a community with a shared future with neighbouring countries and striving to open new ground for China’s neighbourhood work, state media reported.Xi made the remarks at the high-level central conference on work related to neighbouring countries.The two-day conference on Tuesday and Wednesday was attended by top officials from the ruling Communist Party.China has been steadily recasting its neighbourhood policies as its relations with the US become increasingly strained.China recently scaled down border tensions with India and sought to improve its relations with other neighbours like Japan and South Korea, bracing for tough times under Trump’s presidency on trade and strategic fronts.The India-China relations, which have been frozen for over four years over the eastern Ladakh military standoff, showed signs of improvement after Xi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kazan in Russia last October.Since then, the two countries have held a series of high-level meetings to normalise relations.Recently, China held trade talks with South Korea and Japan, the first economic dialogue between the three countries in five years, to discuss regional trade facilitation as the countries braced for Trump’s tariff announcement.The trade ministers of the three countries discussed free trade agreements to promote regional and global trade.China is also ramping up trade relations with several other countries in the neighbourhood under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
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