China’s main leader, Xi Jinping, and his colleagues are carrying out a full diplomatic offensive to try to convince other countries not to give in to pressure from the Trump administration on tariffs, hoping to demonstrate that China will not be isolated in the trade war. In recent days, China’s commerce minister has held a video conference with the European Union’s top trade official, calling for closer cooperation. Chinese diplomats have been in touch with officials in Tokyo and Seoul. And Mr. Xi arrived in Vietnam and Malaysia this week on state visits, where he was greeted by carefully staged crowds of supporters. At stake for Mr. Xi are the future of the global trade system that propelled China’s rise as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, as well as access to markets for many Chinese exports now that the United States has tried to block them with crippling tariffs. The outreach is also a test of China’s status as a global power in the face of what Beijing sees as an effort by Washington to contain and suppress its main rival. China has responded to the Trump administration with its own staggering tariffs on U.S. goods, as well as restrictions on the export of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the assembly of cars, missiles, and drones. To that end, Mr. Xi has attempted to build a broader coalition on his side – hoping to prevent countries from imposing their own tariffs on Chinese products, or giving in to Washington’s demands to disconnect from Chinese manufacturing. During his trips in Southeast Asia this week, he has portrayed China as a leading defender of the global order and indirectly portrayed the United States as an unreliable player. In Hanoi, he urged Vietnam to join China in opposing “unilateral bullying.” In Kuala Lumpur, he urged Southeast Asian nations to also “reject decoupling, supply disruption,” and “tariff abuse.” “Chinese officials have quietly communicated that the way the U.S. treats its longtime allies and partners in Europe is a sign of what is to come for Southeast Asia,” said Lynn Kuok, the Lee Kuan Yew Chair at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “With Trump’s steep, sweeping tariffs across the region, that message requires no reinforcement.” However, Mr. Xi’s attempts to present China as a model of free trade and a champion of the rules-based international order ignore years of Beijing’s coercive economic behavior and generous subsidies for select industries that have often alienated the country’s trading partners and neighbors. This partly explains why the world’s declining trust in Washington has not immediately resulted in a newfound alignment with Beijing – that, along with the risk of retaliation from Mr. Trump for siding with China. Already, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea have resisted China’s attempts to suggest that they had agreed with China to jointly combat Mr. Trump’s tariffs. European Union officials have instead emphasized their concerns about the dumping of Chinese goods in their market. Last week, Australia rejected a call from China’s ambassador, Xiao Qian, to “join hands” in rebuffing the Trump administration. These reactions to China’s appeals show that “Beijing is not filling the vacuum of trust left by the U.S., only offering immediate relief from the shock therapy the Trump administration has imposed on the world,” said Rorry Daniels, the managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. Mr. Xi’s long-planned trip to Vietnam this week, followed by a visit to Malaysia before a stop in Cambodia, has taken on greater urgency for China now that President Trump is using his 90-day pause on his “Liberation Day” tariff hikes to urge countries to negotiate trade agreements with the United States. Mr. Trump has also shown urgency by involving himself in trade negotiations on Wednesday with Japanese officials visiting Washington. Analysts say Beijing’s fear is that these agreements will isolate China by including deals that restrict Chinese exports. This could be through coordinated tariffs, or a crackdown on Chinese companies shipping their goods through third countries like Vietnam to conceal their true origin, or by targeting Chinese raw materials in exports destined for the United States. Vietnam honored Mr. Xi with the rare privilege of being greeted by a Vietnamese president on the airport tarmac when he arrived in the country on Monday. However, Hanoi resisted agreeing with Mr. Xi’s strongest comments condemning protectionism, and ultimately signed a vague joint statement opposing “hegemonism and power politics” – an accusation that many in Vietnam attribute to China during territorial disputes in the South China Sea. For Vietnam, the threat of a 46 percent U.S. levy prompted negotiating teams to travel to Washington to request lower tariffs. In a concession to Mr. Trump, the Vietnamese government promised this week to crack down on trade fraud – widely seen as a reference to companies shipping Chinese products through Vietnam to avoid U.S. tariffs. Still, Mr. Trump kept pressure on Hanoi, telling reporters on Monday that Mr. Xi’s meeting with Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, was probably focused on how to “screw” America. “Hanoi is being careful not to signal a tilt too far toward Beijing, especially in areas that could displease the Trump administration,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “Ultimately, Hanoi is still hedging between the world’s two great powers. But as the geopolitical climate hardens, the space to do so is rapidly shrinking.” Vietnam risks retaliation from its much larger neighbor if Beijing determines that Hanoi is trying to gain favor with the Trump administration at China’s expense. China imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on canola, pork, and other foods from Canada last month as a clear warning to countries not to cooperate with Washington on trade. To Beijing, if trading partners “pander to the United States, they will hurt China and at the same time, they will hurt their own country as well,” said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar. That threat was reiterated on Sunday by Yuyuan Tantian, a blog affiliated with China’s state broadcaster, CCTV. China did not comment on talks between other countries and the United States, the post said. “But if anyone uses China’s interests as a token of allegiance to the United States, China will never agree!” The warning highlights how Beijing has been both courting and confronting its neighbors as President Trump has been redefining Washington’s position in the world. Mr. Xi’s expression of “deep friendship” with Vietnam during his visit came shortly after China held live-fire drills in the Gulf of Tonkin to reaffirm its territorial claims in those waters over Hanoi. Even if China fails to build a united front against the Trump administration’s tariffs, it would still benefit from making other countries think twice about aligning their trade policies with the United States, said Jonathan Czin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who previously worked at the Central Intelligence Agency and studies Chinese politics. “Xi doesn’t necessarily need these countries to choose Beijing,” Mr. Czin said. “He just needs to prevent them from choosing Washington. That is part of why China’s ‘charm offensive’ has so far had such a dearth of charm.” Tung Ngo in Danang, Choe Sang-Hun in Seoul, Martin Fackler in Tokyo, and Berry Wang in Hong Kong contributed reporting.
