Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, 4th right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, attend the meeting at the Great Hall of People on April 25, 2019 in Beijing, China.
Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that there are no winners in a trade war and warned against protectionism.
The comments come ahead of his state visits to three Southeast Asian countries from April 14 to 18: Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia. Xi’s visit to Vietnam began on Monday and will end on Tuesday.
In an exclusive article for Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Xi wrote that “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere.”
He added that Vietnam and China should “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
In 2024, mainland China was Vietnam’s third largest source of foreign investment, behind Singapore and South Korea.
The world’s second largest economy is also reportedly Cambodia’s largest foreign investor, and the third largest investor in Malaysia for approved investments.
In the article, he said that it is important that both Vietnam and China “promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.”
Xi also called for deeper cooperation between the two countries, including business cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, saying “China welcomes more quality Vietnamese products in the Chinese market and encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Vietnam.”
He added that the two sides should increase cooperation in areas like industrial and supply chains, as well as “emerging” ones such as 5G, artificial intelligence and green development.
Xi also urged the two sides to work with the Global South “to uphold the common interests of developing countries.”
Vietnam was hit with one of the highest levels of “reciprocal” tariffs from the U.S. at 46%, although this has been paused by U.S. President Donald Trump for 90 days. Imports from Vietnam to the U.S. will be subject to the baseline 10% levies for now.