Chinese President Xi Signs 45 Cooperation Agreements With Vietnam
Delegations from China and Vietnam during the signing of cooperation agreements, April 15, 2025. X/ @SpoxCHN_MaoNing
April 15, 2025 Hour: 9:42 am
China is ready to receive more Vietnamese products and to encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Vietnam.
On Tuesday, Vietnam and China signed 45 cooperation agreements during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Hanoi. Xi departed for Malaysia to continue his tour of Southeast Asia.
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Xi and Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Southeast Asian country, witnessed the signing of the 45 agreements on the eve of his departure. Xi’s visit to the neighboring country is highly symbolic and comes as both sides explore options in response to the tariff attacks launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Beijing is already facing U.S. tariffs of 145%, to which it responded with 125% tariffs, while Vietnam is negotiating reductions to the 46% tariffs that were announced and later temporarily suspended by Washington.
During his meeting with Vietnam’s communist leadership, Xi stated that China—Vietnam’s top trading partner—is “ready” to receive more Vietnamese products and to encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Vietnam.
The Chinese president emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation in supply chains and expand collaboration in technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and clean energy, though no further details were disclosed on how this will be carried out.
For his part, To Lam proposed making digital transformation one of the pillars of the relationship between the two countries and called for strengthened cooperation in critical technology sectors and the attraction of high-quality Chinese investment in Vietnam.
Their meeting takes place as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on semiconductors, with Vietnam now established as a regional chip hub.
China’s declining appeal to some investors due to trade tensions with the U.S. during Trump’s first term (2017–2021) turned Vietnam—with its strong economy—into a favorite alternative as a production center for major tech companies such as Apple and Google.
Considered one of the winners of that initial trade friction between the world’s largest economies, Vietnam could now pay the price for hosting Chinese factories that relocated there to avoid tariffs at the time. China’s offshoring contributed to a surge in Vietnam’s trade surplus with the U.S., which last year reached a record US$123.5 billion—surpassed only by China, the EU, and Mexico.
On Monday, Trump claimed that the meeting between Xi Jinping and To Lam aimed to explore ways to harm the U.S. in the context of the ongoing trade war initiated by Washington.
“I don’t blame China or Vietnam. I saw today’s meeting, and it’s wonderful. It’s a lovely meeting—I mean, it’s like trying to figure out ‘how do we hurt the U.S.’,” he said from the Oval Office at the White House.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
