HANOI — 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 his nation as a force for stability in contrast with President 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 that it is a “responsible superpower in the way that contrasts with the way the U.S. under President Donald Trump presents to the whole world,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

Although Trump has said he respects Xi, he interpreted the meeting between the two Asian leaders as a sign they were attempting to put the U.S. at a disadvantage on trade.

Talking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said China and Vietnam were trying “to figure out how do we screw the United States of America.”

Xi was greeted on the tarmac by Vietnamese 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.

Although Xi’s trip probably was planned earlier, it has become significant because of the tariff fight between China and the United States. The visit offers a path for Beijing to shore up its alliances and find solutions for the high trade barrier that the U.S. has imposed on Chinese exports.

In Hanoi, Xi met with Vietnamese 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, has brought the world valuable stability and certainty,” the Chinese leader said.

He also met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. The two sides signed a series of memorandums in areas such as strengthening cooperation in supply chains, railroad development and environmental protection, according to Associated Press coverage of the signed documents.

Nhan Dan, the official spokesperson of Vietnam’s Communist Party, said both sides will speed up an $8-billion railway project connecting the two countries in a deal that was approved in February.

Xi’s visit sends a message to the region

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 because the tariffs, if implemented, could complicate their development.

Vietnam is experienced at balancing its relations with the U.S. and China. It is run under a communist, one-party system like China but has had a strong relationship with the United States.

In 2023, it was the only country that received both President Biden and China’s Xi. That year it also upgraded the U.S. 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 against the tariffs from Trump,” said Giang, the analyst, noting that Xi visited twice in the decade after he became president in 2013. But he has visited Vietnam two more times in the last two years.

But the intensification of the trade war has put Vietnam in a “very precarious situation” given the impression in the U.S. that Vietnam is serving as a backdoor for Chinese goods, Giang said. 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 and then Cambodia.

Wu and Ghosal write for the Associated Press. Wu reported from Bangkok. AP videojournalist Hau Dinh contributed to this report.