Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a veiled swipe at President Trump and his ongoing tariff fight as he traveled to Southeast Asia this week to build China’s partnerships with fellow communist country Vietnam.
“Trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere,” Xi wrote in a signed letter published by Chinese and Vietnamese state media outlets as he arrived in Hanoi for a diplomatic visit Monday.
“Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
Xi did not directly refer to the U.S. or Trump in the letter, which stressed the importance of promoting “an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.”
Trump last week paused some tariffs in his ongoing trade policy overhaul as he tries to make deals with other countries, but he has ramped up tensions with China — the world’s second-largest economy.
Tariffs on imports from China are now at 145 percent, based on the most recent revisions in Trump’s trade policies — drastically up from the 34 percent Trump doled out in his initial tariff plan unveiled April 3.
China responded with its own 125 percent tariffs on American goods, and Xi abruptly halted exports of rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial to the semiconductor and auto industries.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced that smartphones and about 20 other electronics would be exempt from the tariffs, however Trump and other officials over the weekend suggested that was only temporary, with new tariffs likely on the way.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House on Friday that China is the “biggest source” of America’s “trade problems,” and said that the Trump administration is in talks with China’s neighbors, including Vietnam, as it tries to level the playing field on trade with other countries.
“I’m not calling it a trade war but I’m saying that China has escalated and President Trump responded very courageously to that and we are going to work on a solution with our trading partners,” Bessent said. “It’s China’s decision that we have a deficit with them. They sell us over five times what we sell them.”
Xi is scheduled to be in Vietnam for at least two days, according to Chinese state media.
“China is going all out to build a great modern socialist country and achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by pursuing Chinese modernization,” Xi wrote in his open letter marking the trip.
