Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Photo: open sources
New tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration could be the biggest strategic gift for Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Wall Street Journal reports that the economic tensions between the US and the rest of the world are only increasing Beijing’s influence on global trade.
According to the WSJ, many Asian countries – including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines – will face a choice: either to adapt to the new US trade realities or to turn to China as a more stable economic partner.
Trump has imposed draconian duties: 46% on Vietnam, 36% on Thailand, 32% on Indonesia, and 17% on the Philippines. According to experts, this will provoke a rapid reorientation of trade towards China, which offers more favourable terms of cooperation.
“Xi won’t have to make much effort to exploit these differences in a weakened West,” the WSJ emphasises. The article notes that even the European Union may return to more active cooperation with China, despite the US long-term strategy to reduce Europe’s dependence on Chinese investment and production.
“It is now only a matter of time before trade missions to China from France, Germany and other countries resume again,” the publication says.
Thus, Trump’s trade policy aimed at protecting the domestic market may play into the hands of the US geopolitical rival China in the long run, creating new channels of influence on the international economy for Beijing.
