HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — China’s leader Xi Jinping said no one wins in a trade war as he kicked off a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia on Monday, presenting China as a force for stability in contrast with U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs moves.

Although Trump has paused some tariffs, he has kept in place 145% duties on China, the world’s second-largest economy.

“There are no winners in a trade war, or a tariff war,” Xi wrote in an editorial jointly published in Vietnamese and Chinese official media. “Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”

Xi’s visit lets China show Southeast Asia it is a “responsible superpower in the way that contrasts with the way the U.S. under President Donald Trump presents to the whole world,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

Xi was greeted on the tarmac by Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong at the start of his two-day visit, a mark of honor not often given to visitors, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, a professor of Vietnamese studies at Fulbright University Vietnam. Students of a drum art group performed as women waved the red and yellow Chinese and Communist Party flags.

While Xi’s trip likely was planned earlier, it has become significant because of the tariff fight between China and the U.S. The visit offers a path for Beijing to shore up its alliances and find solutions for the high trade barrier that the U.S. has imposed on Chinese exports.

In Hanoi, Xi met with Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, his counterpart. “In the face of turmoil and disruption in the current global context, China and Vietnam’s commitment to peaceful development, and deepening of friendship and cooperation and has brought the world valuable stability and certainty,” he said.

He also met with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. The two sides signed a series of memorandums, whose details were not made public. Nhan Dan, the official mouthpiece of Vietnam’s Communist Party, said that China and Vietnam will speed up a $8 billion railway project connecting the two countries in a deal that was approved in February.

The timing of the visit sends a “strong political message that Southeast Asia is important to China,” said Huong Le-Thu of the International Crisis Group think tank. She said that given the severity of Trump’s tariffs and despite the 90-day pause, Southeast Asian nations were anxious that the tariffs, if implemented, could complicate their development.

Vietnam is experienced at balancing its relations with the U.S and China. It is run under a communist, one-party system like China but has had a strong relationship with the U.S.

In 2023, it was the only country that received both U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping. That year it also upgraded the U.S. to its highest diplomatic level, the same as China and Russia.

Vietnam was one of the biggest beneficiaries of countries trying to decouple their supply chains from China, as businesses moved here. China is its biggest trading partner, and China-Vietnam trade surged 14.6% year-on-year in 2024, according to Chinese state media.

That trade relationship goes both ways.

“The trip to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia is all about how China can really insulate itself against the from Trump,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, pointing out that since Xi became the president in 2013, he has only visited Vietnam twice.

But the intensification of the trade war has put Vietnam in a “very precarious situation” given the impression in the U.S. that Vietnam is serving as a backdoor for Chinese goods, said Giang. Vietnam had been hit with 46% tariffs under Trump’s order before the 90-day pause.

China and Vietnam have real long-term differences, including territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where Vietnam has faced off with China’s coast guard but does not often publicize the confrontations.

After Vietnam, Xi is expected to go to Malaysia next and then Cambodia.

Wu reported from Bangkok. AP video journalist Hau Dinh contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The tariff fight between the world’s two largest economies spiraled into greater peril Wednesday as President Donald Trump tried to narrow his global trade war into a direct — and risky — faceoff with Beijing.

As Trump reversed his larger “reciprocal” tariffs on most of the world in the face of recession fears, he nonetheless hiked his tariffs on China once again — to 125%. The move locks the strategic rivals into a deepening standoff that endangers both their economies and interests around the world. The stakes are higher than ever, as the U.S. and China are already embroiled in competition on everything from artificial intelligence to monetary policy to overall global influence.

Each nation dares the other to blink first. But the rounds of escalation are raising concerns that the window for diplomacy has narrowed even further, while the economic pain on both economies intensifies.

Behind it all, as usual, geopolitics lurks — the concerns about regional and global security that are always in play when economic relations between two of the world’s most powerful nations turn aggressive.

“When you punch the United States of America,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, “President Trump is going to punch back harder.”

After Beijing responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 34% “reciprocal” tax on China with the same 34% rate on American goods, Trump raised the tariff by another 50 percentage points, only to be met by the same tariff hike by Beijing on Wednesday morning. U.S. products going to China are now to be taxed 84%.

Hours later, Trump declared that Chinese imports to the United States would be “immediately” taxed at 125%, citing “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.”

“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted this had been Trump’s strategy all along and that Beijing has “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors.”

While the financial markets rebounded from their deepest lows at the news that China would be facing the brunt of Trump’s wrath, the real-world prospects of the intensifying trade war with China were still set to be significant.

On Wednesday, the U.S.-China Business Council urged the two leaders to “come to the table” and talk. “Targeted tariffs to encourage China to come to the negotiating table are one thing, but these sweeping tit-for-tat tariffs are in no one’s interests. They will significantly harm the global, U.S., and Chinese economies as well as American businesses, farmers, and consumers,” the council said.

Trump has left little room to negotiate an off-ramp with China, short of that country capitulating — which would be anathema to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Xi will not be forced into a call,” said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center. Only once in recent history, she noted, has a Chinese leader phoned the United States without invitation — after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The trade tensions, if unchecked, could spill into other domains, she warned.

Craig Singleton, the senior China fellow at another Washington-based think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agreed that a phone call from Beijing is “unlikely in this climate.”

“Each side believes time is on its side, which raises the risk that neither moves to de-escalate until real damage is done,” he said. “This is no longer about tariffs alone. It’s a test of wills.”

Before Trump’s announcement, Bessent called it “unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate.”

“And I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them,” Bessent said on Fox Business Network’s “Morning with Maria” on Wednesday. “Their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China. So, they can raise their tariffs. But, so what?”

China has its own calculations. Its leadership, overseeing the world’s second-largest economy, has vowed not to surrender to U.S. bullying.

While Trump’s higher-than-expected tariffs caught other countries by surprise, China says it has been prepared, having learned a lesson from its previous tariff dealings during Trump’s first term. In response to Trump’s several rounds of tariff raises, Beijing has responded swiftly each time with a package of tariff and non-tariff measures.

“We have been in a trade war with the United States for eight years and have accumulated rich struggle experience,” said an editorial by the ruling party’s flagship newspaper People’s Daily, dated Monday. The newspaper assured the Chinese public that “the sky will not fall.”

“Facing the impact of U.S. tariff bullying, we possess strong resilience,” the party newspaper said, citing the country’s reduced dependence on exports to the U.S. market and new measures to boost domestic consumption.

Since Trump imposed his first round of tariffs on China in 2018, Beijing’s leaders have developed a toolkit of tariffs, import curbs, export controls, sanctions, regulatory reviews and measures to limit companies from doing business in China. All are designed to inflict pain on the U.S. economy and businesses in response to any trade move by the U.S. government.

Melanie Hart, senior director of the Global China Hub at the Atlantic Council, said Beijing is now “throwing the entire toolkit against” the United States, blacklisting companies, hitting American farmers and cutting the nation off from critical minerals.

“They have a bunker that they’ve been building for this moment,” Hart said. “They’re in the bunker. And if I’m Xi Jinping, I’m feeling a lot more comfortable than Donald Trump today.”

But People’s Daily also made it clear that Beijing remains open to talks. “Faced with volatility and extreme pressure from the United States,” it said, “we have not closed the door to negotiations.”

The country’s official Xinhua News Agency, in an editorial, insisted as well that China doesn’t want a trade war — but can fight one.

“There are no winners in a trade war,” it said. “But China is not afraid of a trade war.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of both Canada and Mexico got on the phone with President Donald Trump this past week to seek solutions after he slapped tariffs on their countries, but China’s president appears unlikely to make a similar call soon.

Beijing, which unlike America’s close partners and neighbors has been locked in a trade and tech war with the U.S. for years, is taking a different approach to Trump in his second term, making it clear that any negotiations should be conducted on equal footing.

China’s leaders say they are open to talks, but they also made preparations for the higher U.S. tariffs, which have risen 20% since Trump took office seven weeks ago. Intent on not being caught off guard as they were during Trump’s first term, the Chinese were ready with retaliatory measures — imposing their own taxes this past week on key U.S. farm imports and more.

“As Washington escalates the tariff, Beijing doesn’t see other options but to retaliate,” said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank. “It doesn’t mean Beijing doesn’t want to negotiate, but it cannot be seen as begging for talks or mercy.”

As the world’s second-largest economy, China aspires to be a great power on both the regional and global stage, commanding respect from all countries, especially the United States, as proof that the Communist Party has made China prosperous and strong.

After the U.S. this past week imposed another 10% tariff, on top of the 10% imposed on Feb. 4, the Chinese foreign ministry uttered its sharpest retort yet: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”

The harsh rhetoric echoed similar comments in 2018, when Trump launched his first trade war with China and it scrambled to line up tit-for-tat actions. Beijing’s leaders have since developed a toolkit of tariffs, import curbs, export controls, sanctions, regulatory reviews and measures to limit companies from doing business in China.

All are designed to inflict pain on the U.S. economy and businesses in response to the American measures.

That allowed the Chinese government to react swiftly to Trump’s recent across-the-board doubling of new tariffs on Chinese goods by rolling out a basket of retaliatory measures, including taxing many American farm goods at up to 15%, suspending U.S. lumber imports and blacklisting 15 U.S. companies.

Beijing showed restraint in its response to leave room for negotiation, analysts say.

Xi Jinping’s leadership of the ruling Communist Party spans both of Trump’s terms, giving Beijing more continuity in its planning. He is the one who decided it’s not yet time to speak with Trump, said Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“That’s not a scheduling issue, it’s leverage for China,” said Russel, who previously served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. “Xi won’t walk into a call if there’s a chance he’ll be harassed or humiliated and for both political and strategic reasons, Xi won’t play the role of a supplicant.”

“Instead, China is hitting back promptly — but judiciously — to each set of tariffs,” Russel said.

At his annual press conference Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that “no country should fantasize that it can suppress, contain China while developing good relations with China.”

“Such two-faced acts not only are bad for the stability of bilateral relations but also will not build mutual trust,” Wang said. He added that China welcomes cooperation with the U.S., but noted that “if you keep pressuring, China will firmly retaliate.”

Scott Kennedy, a trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Chinese this time are “not psychologically shocked” by Trump’s “shock-and-awe” tactics.

“They’ve seen this before,” Kennedy said. “These are the kind of things that they’ve anticipated.”

China’s economy has slowed but is still growing at nearly a 5% annual pace, and under Xi, the party is investing heavily in advanced technology, education and other areas. It has stronger trade ties with many other countries than during Trump’s first term and has diversified where it gets key products, for example, buying most of its soybeans from Brazil and Argentina instead of the U.S.

In turn, the percentage of Chinese goods sold to the U.S. has fallen.

“They are better prepared to absorb the effect of the shocks, compared to several years ago,” Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of Mexico’s exports go to the U.S., and Canada sends 75% of its exports here.

China has learned from its previous dealings with Trump, Russel said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum are facing a reversal of Trump’s previous trade policies, with tariffs imposed and then postponed twice on at least some goods.

“Beijing has seen enough to know that appeasing Trump doesn’t work,” Russel said. In the first go-around, Trudeau and Sheinbaum “bought a little time, but the pressure only came roaring back stronger.”

Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump in December after the president-elect threatened tariffs. But in announcing retaliatory tariffs Tuesday, Trudeau sternly warned: “This is a time to hit back hard and to demonstrate that a fight with Canada will have no winners.”

Sheinbaum also has said that “no one wins with this decision.”

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping were speaking on the phone late Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The conversation comes ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday. The U.S.-China relationship is expected to be one of the main focuses of Trump’s second term, with tensions between the two superpowers looming in the areas of trade, technology and the self-ruled island of Taiwan, among other things.

The president-elect confirmed on Truth Social that he had spoken with Xi and said “the call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A.”

Trump said they talked about trade, fentanyl and TikTok, among other things.

“President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!” he said.

Trump has threatened to slap tariffs of 60% on all Chinese imports into the U.S. But he has also in the past praised his relationship with Xi and has suggested China could help mediate international crises such as the war in Ukraine.

Xi will not attend Trump’s inauguration. China will be represented at the event by Vice President Han Zheng.

Trump said in a December interview on “Meet the Press” that he had been communicating with Xi since he won the election. Trump in the interview said he has “a very good relationship” with China’s leader. He said they did had not discussed Taiwan but discussed other issues.