Trump’s prices give Beijing a golden opportunity with hard allies

President Donald Trump’s radical prices should deeply cut both against the friend and the enemy, but many of the nations who have to suffer the most at the door of China.

Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are on the right track to cope with price rates of 49%, 48%and 45%, respectively.

All three have maintained close economic and political ties with China, which is due itself to face a total rate of 54% – the highest of anywhere in the world. China’s response was rapid: Beijing retaliated against Trump prices on Friday with a 34% rate on all goods imported from the United States.

Only Lesotho, Madagascar and Vietnam, which the United States targets with rates of 50%, 47%and 46%, have to face a level of import tax higher or equal.

Analysts and researchers who study the region have declared to Business Insider that the prices will probably bring the allies of China closer to Beijing, giving the Chinese leader Xi Jinping the opportunity to strengthen his grip on a region that his country greatly appreciates.

“Strategically, the United States is now putting a victory to China in the American competition,” said Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia-Pacific Foundation in Canada.

“If the United States is concerned about competition with China, it gives in the field and loses the influence by essentially making China the only possible alternative for many of these savings,” she added.

The White House, the US Treasury Department and the US State Department did not respond to the requests for BI comments for this story.

Trump punishes links with China?

While many nations at the top of the list of prices have close links with Beijing, the American allies are also struck.

“The traditional American allies such as the European Union, Japan, South Korea and even Australia were all subject to these prices,” said Baogang He, professor of international relations at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

Trump’s prices seem to be linked to American trade deficits with each country, although the president has qualified reciprocal prices at the taxes imposed by these nations.

“The prices concern trade deficits,” said Emily Kilcrease, a senior person who studies the American-Chinese relationship for the Center for a New American Security.

Cambodia export surplus to the United States is $ 12.34 billion, Laos is worth $ 760 million and Myanmar is worth $ 580 million.

Ian Bremmer, the founder and president of the Eurasia group, said at the World Economic Forum in January that he provided that Trump targeting China through third countries Beijing used to make goods to be shipped to the United States.

“The only way in which the Chinese economy succeeds at the moment is that their surplus of exports of $ 1 Billion,” said Bremmer at the time. “And so you see Trump and his team focus a lot on Mexico, India and Vietnam. The other conversations they have bilaterally, one of the main priorities is: take out China to come. It’s very difficult to answer China.”

Bremmer told Bi on Thursday that he was held with his previous comments.

“Absolutely. And the Chinese government has felt the same thing as the United States pushes Mexico to withdraw Chinese trade in the economy,” said Bremmer.

Countries like Mexico, Cambodia and Vietnam have been key players in a manufacturing network known as “China + 1”, which emerged in response to Trump restrictions on Chinese exports during its first administration.

To get around these measures, Chinese companies have diversified their supply chains by sending raw materials to friendly countries and with manufacturing products from host nations instead. The goods could then be exported to the United States at lower costs.

China + 1 at risk

Trump’s prices will probably suffocate China + 1 among the allies close to Beijing.

Cambodia, for example, is largely based on China + 1 for its exports of clothing, sports items, luggage and other products.

“Cambodia has no raw materials. All raw materials, supplies must come mainly from China, even buttons or sons,” said Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian minister working in exile because of his outgoing government criticism.

“In a week, if Cambodia cannot negotiate for the prices to drop considerably, there will be an immediate economic crisis,” she added. She added that if the factories closed or stops production there, more than a million factories could lose their livelihoods.

Vietnam, a major base to make fully entity goods, should try to negotiate its 46% tariff with the United States. Hanoi asked Washington to break the taxes and come to the table, and Trump said he was open to discussion on his prices.

Beijing opportunity

Vietnam balances its ties more uniformly with the United States and China, and its relationship with Beijing suffers from disputes on the Southern China Sea.

Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are much deeper in the Chinese camp.

China works in close collaboration with the Junta Manager of Myanmar and the opposite rebel factions to maintain access to large mineral reserves of rare land in the north of the country. Myanmar is also the only geographic barrier between China and the Indian Ocean.

The Trump administration has shown little interest in extending influence on Myanmar. The United States was absent from the list of parties sending the country after a devastating earthquake hit Myanmar on March 28.

Meanwhile, Cambodia is hosting a naval base built by China on its southern coast – an important installation that would extend the range of China in Southeast Asia and on the side of Taiwan.

The long -term Prime Minister of Cambodia and iron fist, Hun Sen, also benefits from close personal ties with Beijing. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not responded to a request for BI comments.

The CNA KILA said that the incentives to the Chinese allies to seek in Beijing is already on paper.

“We have made mathematics at the rear of the envelope, and it seems that most countries of the world are now faced with a higher rate of the United States than China,” she said. “So, yes, there is a significant risk that these countries come closer to China.”

Beijing is also generally welcomed in Southeast Asia, said Kristina Fong, principal researcher on economic affairs in the region at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

She cited a study of attitudes among more than 2,000 Southeast Asians led by her institute at the beginning of 2025.

“56.4% of respondents in Southeast Asia cited China as the most influential economic power in Southeast Asia. China was the choice for all anase countries,” said Fong.

The ball is in the Chinese courtyard

In the meantime, the ball is in the Beijing court, said Austin Strange, an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong.

“The Chinese government, at least in the short term, can make public relations gains – as in other areas of foreign policy, such as international development – by presenting itself as a stable and reliable partner among the upheavals of American foreign policy,” he said.

Beijing’s state media reported last weekend that its authorities agreed with South Korea and Japan to make a joint response to the American prices. However, Tokyo said that his leaders simply met to share opinions. Seoul said that a team reports were “somewhat exaggerated”.

“But I expect China and other savings to continue to find bypass solutions,” added Strange. “After all, they had months, if not more preparation, because Trump has always been committed to taking radical prices.”