By Alice Philipson with Mary Yang in Beijing
Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned that protectionism “leads nowhere” and that a trade war would have “no winners”, state media said, as he arrived in Vietnam on Monday on the first leg of a Southeast Asia tour.
Xi will visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia on his first overseas trip of the year as Beijing seeks to tighten regional trade ties and offset the impact of huge tariffs unleashed by his US counterpart Donald Trump.
A line of well-wishers stood outside the Vietnamese capital’s airport waving Chinese flags as Xi arrived in Hanoi for the start of a tour that Beijing says “bears major importance” for the broader region.
He said in a statement reported by China’s Xinhua news agency soon after his arrival that he looked forward to an “in-depth exchange of views with Vietnamese leaders on issues concerning ties between the two parties and countries that have a global impact”.
Xi earlier urged the two countries to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment”.
He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere” in an article published on Monday in Vietnam’s major state-run Nhan Dan newspaper.
Beijing is trying to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Trump, who announced — and then mostly reversed — sweeping tariffs this month that sent global markets into a tailspin.
Vietnam’s top leader To Lam said in an article posted on the government’s news portal on Monday that his country “is always ready to join hands with China to make cooperation between the two countries more substantive, profound, balanced and sustainable”.
Approximately 40 cooperation documents are expected to be signed by both nations, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son told state media.
‘Bamboo diplomacy’
Vietnam was Southeast Asia’s biggest buyer of Chinese goods in 2024, with a bill of $161.9 billion, followed by Malaysia with Chinese imports worth $101.5 billion.
Firming up ties with Southeast Asian neighbours could also help offset the impact from a closed United States, the largest single recipient of Chinese goods last year.
Xi will be in Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday, his first trip there since December 2023.
China and Vietnam, both ruled by communist parties, already share a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach — striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
The two countries have close economic ties, but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own but its claims are disputed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei.
The Chinese leader insisted in his article on Monday that Beijing and Hanoi could resolve those disputes through dialogue.
“We should properly manage differences and safeguard peace and stability in our region,” Xi wrote.
“With vision, we are fully capable of properly settling maritime issues through consultation and negotiation,” he said.
Vietnam’s Lam said in his article on the government news portal that “joint efforts to control and satisfactorily resolve disagreements… is an important stabilizing factor in the current complex and unpredictable international and regional situation”.
After Vietnam, Xi will visit Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday.
Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said Xi’s visit was “part of the government’s efforts… to see better trade relations with various countries including China”.
Xi will then travel on Thursday to Cambodia, one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia and where Beijing has extended its influence in recent years.
