Chinese President Xi Jinping told Vietnam that it should join China in opposing “bullying acts” on trade during the first leg of his tour of Southeast Asia on Monday.
Xi arrived in Vietnam on Monday, where he met with Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, making the case that the two countries “have brought the world valuable stability and certainty” in a “turbulent world.”
“As beneficiaries of economic globalization, both China and Vietnam should strengthen strategic resolve, jointly oppose unilateral bullying acts, uphold the global free trade system, and keep global industrial and supply chains stable,” Xi said, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
President Donald Trump reacted to the meeting on Monday, saying China and Vietnam were trying “to figure out how do we screw the United States of America.”
Xi’s trade discussions with Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia come after Trump’s ramped up tariffs on China to 145%, though the administration has since exempted imported smartphones, laptops and other electronics from reciprocal tariffs.
China responded to Trump’s tariff on Chinese imports by imposing a 125% tariff on all goods coming from the U.S.