China continues to take strategic steps to assert its dominance in the region amid a trade war and tensions with the United States. This time, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, expressing a clear desire to maintain close economic and political partnerships with Southeast Asian nations.
Shortly after arriving in Hanoi on April 14, Xi Jinping said he hoped to use the meeting as an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with Vietnamese leaders on the current state of relations and strategic cooperation between the two countries and the two sides, as well as on common regional issues.
Beijing has been strengthening economic partnerships with Vietnam for the past decade, and China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner. Vietnam is an important trade destination for China, given that Chinese products enter the United States through Vietnamese territory. Last week, the US imposed 46% tariffs on Vietnam, but Trump gave Vietnam, like all other countries except China, 90 days to negotiate.
While President Donald Trump is pressuring Washington’s allies, mainland China is focused on building a high-tech “global navy,” according to Zhou Bo, a former officer in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Taiwan issue could be a potential flashpoint, but it is not the only issue driving Beijing’s military buildup — especially its navy. In addition to Taiwan, there are tensions in the South China Sea, where Chinese defenses and Philippine ships have clashed. Tensions with the Philippines are over its U.S. alliance, resource wealth, and disputed islands.
On April 1, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China began joint exercises without warning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 naval and coast guard vessels, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around the main island of Taiwan. The exercises continued the next day, in the central and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait, where they practiced damaging key ports and energy infrastructure. In response, the following day, the United States expressed its full support for Taiwan and other partners “in the face of China’s intimidation tactics and destabilizing behaviors.”
As Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said, given that Trump last commented on the Taiwan issue in February, China continues to simply watch the United States and wonder how far it can go.
Experts say China is bolstering its naval forces in the Indo-Pacific to send a clear message of primacy to its regional neighbors, but also to test the thinking of its larger rival, Donald Trump.
