Xi fights Trump’s tariffs with global charm offensive

In response, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is now seeking to exploit those tensions and peel countries away from the U.S. But he must first overcome deepening concern about Beijing’s own aggressive trade practices.

Xi, facing the steepest U.S. tariffs, is heading a campaign to strengthen partnerships in Europe, Latin America and, with his first trip out of the country since Trump took office, in China’s own Asia backyard.

The message from Xi and his government is that China is a force for stable trade, positioning Beijing as an antidote to Trump.

To make that pitch convincing, Xi will have to get past longstanding trade and security conflicts with countries that are heavily invested in their relationship with the U.S. Many leaders are cautious about being seen as too close to one side or the other—and fear being trampled by both.

China “is reinforcing ties with third parties struggling to deal with the U.S.-China power play, particularly the Southeast Asian nations," said Zhao Minghao, a professor of international studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. “Beijing believes it has advantages in its neighboring region and Trump’s volatile policy is harming America’s credibility and soft power in Asia."

Xi’s push comes against a backdrop of tensions between China and much of the world. Cheap Chinese goods have flooded markets in many countries, some of which have responded with tariffs and antidumping actions.

In Europe, officials say China hasn’t delivered on pledges to address trade irritants, making them wary of any effort to significantly improve commercial ties. The European Union has pushed to diversify supply chains to reduce dependence on Chinese exports. Last year, Europe—worried about the impact of Chinese cars on its vital auto industry—put tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

China’s strategy of subsidizing companies to produce cheap products for export, its weak protection of intellectual-property rights, and Beijing’s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine have fueled European resistance to closer ties.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a recent call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, expressed concern that U.S. tariffs could drive more cheap products into the European market—and discussed working with Beijing on the issue, the commission said.

There have been hints that U.S. trade upheaval could help Xi smooth out some rough spots. Xi hosted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last week in Beijing, presiding over trade deals on products including cherries and pork—the latter after China had launched an antidumping investigation into EU pork imports.

Sánchez pressed for the EU to move closer to China, despite criticism of the idea from the U.S., where Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “that would be cutting your own throat."

U.S.-EU tension “doesn’t mean that the challenges and problems in the economic relationship with China go away," Poland’s deputy economy minister Michal Baranowski said before Sánchez’s trip. China presents opportunities for Europe, but there are also imbalances in the relationship, including what he referred to as unfair practices by China, he said.

Beijing is also presenting itself as the most reliable ally for Latin America, where the U.S. is the top trading partner and China is No. 2. Like much of the world, Latin America—an essential supplier of commodities such as soybeans to China—often finds itself caught between superpowers.

Some leaders in the region are eager to signal a preference. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to travel to Beijing next month, after he and Xi reached a series of agreements in Brazil last fall. He stands in contrast to avowed Trump supporters such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and the recently re-elected Ecuador President Daniel Noboa.

Even before Trump took office, Washington has failed to prevent many countries in Latin America from edging closer to China. China has signed trade deals with several and persuaded more than 20 nations in Latin America and the Caribbean to sign on to its sprawling infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative. China now ranks as South America’s top trading partner.

While China presses its case around the world, Southeast Asia is a crucial arena. China’s trade with 10 of its neighbors in the region hit $982 billion last year, ahead of the EU at $786 billion and the U.S. at $688 billion, according to official Chinese figures.

Vietnam, China’s top trading partner in Southeast Asia, faces a particularly difficult balancing act. Vietnam has grown into a leading exporter to the U.S., buoyed by cheap labor and investment and parts from China.

Many companies expanded production in Vietnam to avoid Trump’s earlier tariffs on China. Vietnam was initially hit with a 46% tariff this month, stirring fears that its export-led economy would be throttled. That was temporarily scaled back to 10% as Trump said he was providing a 90-day delay for many countries while raising duties on Chinese imports to 145%.

In Hanoi this week, Xi met with Vietnamese leader To Lam and the two sides signed 45 bilateral cooperation documents, including agreements to promote highway and rail infrastructure that will help better link the two neighbors.

Xi has “made it clear that he wants to expand trade ties, at the same time I think Xi knows that he doesn’t have enough domestic demand to make up for the U.S.," said Eric Olander, editor in chief of the China-Global South Project. “Xi’s objective in Southeast Asia is to bind these countries closer into the Chinese economic system."

On the other side are efforts by the Trump administration, which wants to use tariff negotiations to pressure countries to help isolate China, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The difficulty countries face in balancing the two sides was on display during Xi’s visit to Vietnam. Earlier, after the U.S. announced the so-called reciprocal tariffs, Trump said he had a “very productive" call with Lam, the Vietnamese leader, who had told him he wanted to negotiate.

After Xi and Lam met on Monday, Trump accused the two countries of trying to maneuver against the U.S. “That’s a lovely meeting," Trump said to reporters at the White House. “They’re meeting like, how do we screw the United States of America?"

Malaysia, where Xi arrived on Tuesday, is China’s second biggest trading partner in Southeast Asia and a key destination for Chinese investments in data centers. He will conclude his tour in Cambodia, which this month marked the completion of an extensive refurbishment to a naval base carried out by China.

China has also tried to smooth some over its trickier relationships in Asia, with uneven success.

Beijing said late last month that it was seeking to coordinate its response to U.S. tariffs with Japan and South Korea, two neighbors that have long had strained ties with China. Japanese and South Korean officials offered a more measured assessment of their first three-way trade talks with China in five years, saying no decisions had been made on a joint tariff response.

China has improved relations with India, with the two sides reaching a deal last fall on patrols along their shared border, the site of a deadly clash in 2020.

Tensions remain with some neighbors, particularly the Philippines, as the two sides have had increasingly fraught confrontations over disputed claims in the South China Sea.

Still, Chinese officials say things are looking up. The conclusion from a meeting of China’s leadership last week, chaired by Xi, was that China’s relations with its neighboring countries “are currently at their best in modern times," Xinhua reported.

Write to Austin Ramzy at austin.ramzy@wsj.com, Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com and Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com