Xi plays long term game of keeping South east Asia onside during his tour of region

BANGKOK – While Chinese President Xi Jinping’s whistle-stop tour of three South-east Asian nations has inevitably been viewed mostly through the prism of the immediate global ructions wrought by the Trump administration’s trade tariffs, Beijing would argue its long-term game in the region is paying off.

Mr Xi whizzed through the capitals of Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia in five days from April 14 to 18, during which he signed many deals designed to deepen China’s economic ties with these nations.

He also sought to convey the message that the region should band together to resist what he said was the US’ unilateralism and protectionism under President Donald Trump – basically to win the region over to Beijing’s side in its rivalry with Washington, now manifested in the tariff war unleashed by Mr Trump.

China has been slapped with a 145 per cent tariff on its exports to the US.

But South-east Asian countries are also among the hardest hit globally by the Trump administration’s so-called reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2. Cambodia was hit with one of the highest rates globally at 49 per cent, while Vietnam and Malaysia faced duties of 46 per cent and 24 per cent respectively before a 90-day reprieve for all countries, bar China, was announced on April 9.

While countries in the region were welcoming of the economic deals, Mr Xi’s message of solidarity was received with varying enthusiasm.

During his first stop in Hanoi, the two sides signed 45 deals, among which Vietnam’s top leader, Mr To Lam, emphasised the building of three railway lines as “the highest priority” in terms of major infrastructure cooperation between the two countries.

They include a US$8.4 billion (S$11 billion) cross-border railway crossing the breadth of northern Vietnam and connecting China’s landlocked Yunnan province to Haiphong port,