Even as the high stakes meeting in Beijing concluded on Friday, and President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One having established a veneer of friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, describing it as an “incredible visit” in which “a lot of different problems” had been…
ttled, business heads and economists across Asia were watching with some unease. Countries around the region have been trying to gauge how a thaw between the two economic superpowers could affect them—both in terms of destabilizing the regional balance of power and in terms of trade
Given an already fragile global situation, with the Middle East war affecting energy and gas prices, Asian nations worry that unpredictable shifts in the U.S.-China trade war or sudden tariffs could trigger another regional economic downturn. More from WWD It is no secret that U.S.-China hostility redirected apparel and manufacturing orders away from China, with Vietnam and Bangladesh becoming major beneficiaries. India, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and other sourcing nations have also been among the winners.
Asian exporters now fear that any Trump-Xi stabilization could slow that momentum or push some sourcing back toward China’s larger industrial ecosystem. Since President Trump’s last state visit to Beijing in 2017, the stakes have become much higher for the region, as U.S.-China geopolitical friction intensified, including economic hostility marked by threats of reciprocal tariffs of up to 140 percent on Chinese goods. The last two days appear to signal a possible change in tone.