Washington – One went to the United States. The other went to China. It was a sign of the times.
While the Swiss president was in Washington last week to press US officials about the president Donald Trump’s He threatened 31% of the Swiss goods rate, Swiss Foreign Minister was in Beijing, expressing the will of his nation to strengthen cooperation with China and improve a free trade agreement.
Like Trump’s Commercial War Close the two largest economies in the world in a collision course, the United States bewildered allies and partners are approaching China to cover their bets. It occurs when Trump’s commercial flexion full of a decade of American foreign policy, including his from his first term, to gather the rest of the world to join the United States against China. And threatens to give more lever to Beijing Any eventual dialogue With the US administration.
With Trump saying that countries are “kissing my butt” to negotiate trade agreements in their terms or risk the rigid import taxes, Beijing is reaching countries by far. He portrays himself as a stabilizing force and a predictable commercial partner, both to cushion the impact of Trump rates and to forge stronger commercial ties outside the US market.
“America and China are now locked in a fierce contest for global supremacy,” said Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, in a speech on April 16. “Both powers claim that they do not want to force countries to choose sides. But in reality, each seeks to bring others closer to their respective orbits.”
Trump has stopped some of his most pronounced rates in most American partners for 90 days after global Financial markets melted. But it has raised tariffs on Chinese products to 145%, attracting Beijing reprimands, which has promised “fight until the end.” American companies warn of higher prices, which means that Trump could face greater inflation and shelves of empty stores.
The magnitude of taxes is already drastically affecting US imports, with the shipping containers established to reach the port of Los Angeles, almost 36% in the last two weeks, according to Port Optimizer, which tracks ships. It is providing urgency for both the United States and China to reinforce the support of alternative partners.
While Trump administration officials suggest that the president could relieve tax rates in Chinese products to his discretion, there have been no indications that he is still looking for a reduction. That, after all, could suggest that their protectionist policies were harming the US economy.
“They want to make a deal obviously,” Trump told journalists on Sunday, saying that the United States had “turned cold” in China’s trade. “At this time, they are not doing business with us.”
The White House has framed any negotiation between the president of the United States and the Chinese President Xi JinpingBut none of the leaders seem willing to make the initial scope without some kind of concession. The two countries cannot even agree publicly if they are having conversations.
Earlier this month, XI – Your first foreign trip This year, he visited Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, which resulted in mutual promises for narrower economic and commercial ties. In Vietnam, which faces the 46% rate of the United States, Beijing and Hanoi agreed to strengthen industrial cooperation and supply chain. In Malaysia and Cambodia, XI obtained similar agreements. Cambodia faces a 49% rate of the US and Malaysia 24%.
Then there is Japan: despite its long -standing enmity towards the nation that once colonized parts of it, the Chinese government approached Tokyo and urged a coordinated response, according to Kyodo News.
China is also ready to use the stick. A South Korean newspaper has reported that China demands from South Korean companies that they do not send products containing rare land minerals of China to US defense companies or in front of probable sanctions.
Earlier this month, Beijing warned that no country should reach an agreement with the United States at the expense of China and promised to take countermeasures of a “resolved and reciprocal way” in case such a situation arises.
Hal Brands, a senior member of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said China “will try to exploit Trump’s abrasive behavior to venture with allies and US countries. UU. In the global south.”
Some scholars say that Beijing is already winning. “People lost confidence, or even trust, for the United States, particularly for Donald Trump in the United States, not for China,” said Li Cheng, professor of political science at Hong Kong University. “Then, in that sense, China wins in the geopolitical landscape.”
In the latest Ipsos survey, for the first time, more people worldwide now say that China has a positive impact on the world than in the United States. The pollster cited the wide reaction to Trump’s rates.
China is the largest exporter in the world and the largest importer. The total trade for China reached a record of 43.85 billion yuan (US $ 6 billion) in 2024, and the country is the largest commercial partner for the majority of the world, including the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the grouping of the 10 Asian countries in the southeast known as Asean.
The United States is the largest destination for China’s exports, although China is only the third largest commercial partner with the United States, behind Mexico and Canada. The total trade for the USA last year was US $ 5.4 billion, with a record deficit of $ 1.2 billion. For Asean countries, trade with the United States totaled $ 477 billion in 2024, including $ 352 billion in goods sold to the US. But China does more business with ASEAN.
The countries trapped between the United States and China are in “an impossible situation” because they need to stay economically connected to China, “a source of many of their contributions and imports” and with the powerful US market, said Matthew Goodman, director of the Greenberg Geoeconomic Studies Center in the Foreign Relations Council.
“They can’t choose one or the other, because they both need,” said Goodman.
In Europe, China is preparing to lift sanctions to relive a commercial agreement, according to South China Morning Post, based in Hong Kong. Chinese state media have been asking European leaders to join China to safeguard multilateralism.
Back in Beijing, XI has been receiving foreign leaders. Thursday, He told Kenya That China’s market has always kept its door open to high quality products from Kenya and that China encourages Chinese companies more capable of investing and starting businesses in Kenya, according to the official Xinhua news agency. On Wednesday, Xi met the president of Azerbaijan. XI criticized the trade war for undermining the rights and interests of all countries.
On Friday, when XI presided a key economic meeting, Beijing’s leadership reached a positive tone, but acknowledged “a growing impact of external shocks” and “urged to prepare for the worst scenarios with sufficient planning,” according to Xinhua.
Wang Yiwei, main member of the center of China and Beijing, said that China, after dealing with Trump’s first mandate, is prepared for his latest tariff approach. “China is prepared for the worst,” said Wang, “and no longer lives in the fantasy of globalization.”
Victor Gao, vice president of center of China and globalization, said Beijing is prepared for decoupling. “What will be the end? It is a complete detainee, which means that no more US exports to China, no more exports from China to the United States,” he said.
And, despite the high costs for China’s economy, China will survive, Gao said. “For a country, especially as China, with a history of 5,000 years, what kind of people have we not seen? Any invader, thieves and barbarians,” Gao said. “But in the end, everyone leaves. Everyone disappears, they are all defeated.”
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The AP writer Josh Boak contributed.
