China's Xi Says There Are No Winners in a Tariff War as He Visits Southeast Asia

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, in Hanoi, Vietnam, April 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, in Hanoi, Vietnam, April 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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China's Xi Says There Are No Winners in a Tariff War as He Visits Southeast Asia

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, in Hanoi, Vietnam, April 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, in Hanoi, Vietnam, April 14, 2025. (Reuters)

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 US President Donald Trump's latest moves on tariffs,

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 US 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 US. The visit offers a path for Beijing to shore up its alliances and find solutions for the high trade barrier that the US 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 in areas including strengthening cooperation in supply chains, railroad development and environmental protection, according to AP footage of the signed documents.

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 USand China. It is run under a communist, one-party system like China but has had a strong relationship with the US.

In 2023, it was the only country that received both US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping. That year it also upgraded the US 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," 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 US 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.



India Plane Crash Death Toll Rises to 279

A view of the debris of the Air India airplane crash on a residential building near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, western India, 14 June 2025. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA 88168
A view of the debris of the Air India airplane crash on a residential building near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, western India, 14 June 2025. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA 88168
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India Plane Crash Death Toll Rises to 279

A view of the debris of the Air India airplane crash on a residential building near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, western India, 14 June 2025. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA 88168
A view of the debris of the Air India airplane crash on a residential building near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, western India, 14 June 2025. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA 88168

Grieving families waited Saturday for news after one of the deadliest air disasters in decades, with the toll rising to 279 people killed in the Indian passenger jet crash.

The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call shortly before it crashed around lunchtime on Thursday, bursting into a fireball as it hit residential buildings.

On Saturday, a police source said that 279 bodies had been recovered from the crash site in the northern Indian city of Ahmedabad, one of the worst plane disasters of the 21st century, AFP reported.

There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the jet when it crashed, leaving the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of a hostel for medical staff.

At least 38 people were killed on the ground.

"I saw my child for the first time in two years, it was a great time," said Anil Patel, whose son and daughter-in-law had surprised him with a visit before boarding the Air India flight.

"And now, there is nothing," he said, breaking down in tears. "Whatever the gods wanted has happened."

Distraught relatives of passengers have been providing DNA samples in Ahmedabad, with some having to fly to India to help the process.

The official casualty number will not be finalised until the slow process of DNA identification is completed.

Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.

Those killed ranged from a top politician to a teenage tea seller.

The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, said even he could not explain how he survived.

"Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realized that I was still alive," Ramesh, a British citizen, told national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed.

Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Friday that a flight data recorder, or black box, had been recovered, saying it would "significantly aid" investigations.

Forensic teams are still looking for the second black box, as they probe why the plane crashed after lifting barely 100 meters (330 feet) from the ground.

US planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood "ready to support them" over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.