China's Xi Jinping is in Vietnam to figure out how to ‘screw' the US, says Trump
Xi Jinping's tour of South-east Asia this week is likely intended to 'screw' the United States, President Donald Trump has suggested, as the Chinese leader embarks on five-day tour of some nations hardest hit by Trump's tariffs.
China's president arrived in Hanoi on Monday, where he met Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, called for stronger trade ties, and signed dozens of cooperation agreements, including on enhancing supply chains.
Reacting to the meeting from the Oval Office, Trump said the discussions in Vietnam were focused on how to harm the US, even though he didn't hold it against them.
'I don't blame China; I don't blame Vietnam,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'That's a lovely meeting. Meeting like, trying to figure out, 'how do we screw the United States of America?''
Vietnam is among a handful of countries in South-east Asia that are reeling from some of the most punitive of Trump's so-called 'Liberation Day' tariffs, hit with a rate of 46%.
A major industrial and assembly hub, the US is Vietnam's main export market, for which it is a crucial source of everything from footwear, apparel and electronics.
In the first three months of this year, Hanoi imported goods worth about $30bn from Beijing while its exports to Washington amounted to $31.4bn
Xi's visit to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia this week, comes as Beijing faces tariffs of 145%, and as other countries seek to negotiate reductions in their reciprocal tariffs during the 90-day reprieve.
Xi's trip to Hanoi offers an opportunity to consolidate relations with a neighbour that has received billions of dollars of Chinese investments in recent years as China-based manufacturers moved south to avoid tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration.
Xi had planned to travel to the region prior to Trump's tariff announcement but the visit was fortuitously timed, with the Chinese leader positing China as a stable trading partner, in contrast to the chaotic policy backflips coming out of Washington.
In an article in Nhandan, the newspaper of Vietnam's Communist party, Xi wrote there are 'no winners in trade wars and tariff wars' and protectionism 'leads nowhere'.
In a later meeting with Vietnam's prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, Xi said the two countries should oppose unilateral bullying.
Chinese and Vietnamese state media reported on Monday that 45 agreements were signed between the two nations, including on rail links, although details were not shared.
Under pressure from Washington, Vietnam is tightening controls on some trade with China and a Trump administration official said the president and Vietnam's Lam had agreed to 'work to reduce reciprocal tariffs'.
Vietnam, and many other south-east Asian countries, are trying to maintain a delicate balancing act between the US and China, amid fears the region could be used as a potential dumping zone for Chinese exports barred from the US.
Escalating tensions between the US and China have fuelled concerns about the 'decoupling' of the world's two largest economies, a fear treasury secretary Scott Bessent has sought to dispel on Monday.
'There's a big deal to be done at some point' Bessent said when asked by Bloomberg TV about the possibility that the world's largest economies would decouple. 'There doesn't have to be' decoupling, he said, 'but there could be.'
The White House had appeared to dial down the pressure recently, listing tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronic products for which China is a major source.
But Trump and some of his top aides said Sunday the exemptions had been misconstrued and would only be temporary.
'Nobody is getting 'off the hook'... especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!' he posted on his Truth Social platform.
After a two-day stop in Hanoi, Xi will continue his South-east Asian trip by visiting Malaysia and Cambodia from Tuesday to Friday.
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Telegraph
41 minutes ago
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China will soon once again be the primary civilisation of the world
In May I had the opportunity to spend a month travelling around China. Many things caught my attention while I was there. In general, I came away with some strong and clear impressions, from what I observed, from interactions with people there and from things guides and others said. The first is that the infrastructure that has been built in the last thirty years or less is simply amazing, not just impressive but jaw-dropping. Most spectacular is the network of high-speed railway lines built since roughly 2005. Currently there are 30,000 miles of such lines, all built in the last twenty years. The total railway network, which has also been massively expanded, stands at 96,000 miles including the HSR lines with the plan being to extend it to 170,000 miles by 2050. According to the best estimates by outside observers, the return on this investment is between six and eight per cent. Since the system has largely been built from scratch, it features enormous brand-new stations the size of airport terminals. The trains, which run at 200 mph, are comfortable and clean and the ride is so smooth that the speed is almost unnoticeable. It is not only trains. There is also a series of airports all over China, most as big as major international ones in Europe. Again, these are brand new. Alongside the railways is a dense network of both long-distance motorways and modernised provincial and local roads. There are 114,000 miles of expressways with the rest of the national highway system amounting to 1.3 million miles (1.9 million kilometres). As with the rail system, this is being constantly extended. The big caveat is that building the infrastructure is one thing (not that Western countries are doing that) but the real challenge is maintaining it. The other aspect of infrastructure that anyone visiting China notices is the urban development. China has seen a dramatic process of urban development in the last two decades, with new cities springing up everywhere and older ones adding millions of new housing units. This takes a distinctive form, which is high-rise and high-density. Chinese cities and towns have grown upwards as much as outwards. Cities feature forests of high-rise towers, typically of thirty to forty floors. The initial impression is of uniformity but on closer examination that changes. Most of the towers are not simple boxes but have decorative features as part of the design and what seems a single mass resolves into grouped clusters of towers with similar styles. At ground level it becomes clear that each cluster is fenced off and forms a single gated neighbourhood, with retail and other facilities on the lower floors of the towers. The new cities thus have a high-density modular structure. The other feature of Chinese urban development is how green the cities are. There are trees and green spaces everywhere with most of the trees clearly planted in the last thirty years. The expressways and major roads have ivy growing up the sides of supporting pillars and boxes of flowers and plants along their lengths, all maintained. The pattern is what is known as a 'sponge city' with threads and 'holes' of greenery and open space between the high-rise neighbourhoods and the older low-rise ones and the very high-rise commercial centres. This pattern is far less car-centric than its American equivalent and although there are many cars, they are not at present the primary means of transportation. That is the electric scooter with swarms of them zooming around all of the streets, supplemented by both public transport and walking. Another difference between Chinese cities and many Western ones is their orderliness. There are no homeless people or beggars and although the cities are lively and dynamic you do not see or find anti-social behaviour. Public spaces are spotlessly clean, partly because of a veritable army of street cleaners (most of them older people) but also because littering simply does not happen. One reason for this is a low-key but pervasive police presence: each small neighbourhood has its own attached police officer with photographs of them displayed along with that officer's mobile number for contacting them. Police are highly visible. However, the evidence suggests that the police are simply backing up strong social norms of public behaviour, which strongly disapprove of anti-social conduct. The darker side of the orderliness is the degree of control. There are security checks at all transport terminals and most major historical sites or public buildings. Visiting many places requires photo identification, passports for foreigners, ID cards for locals. There is an important qualification to this though: while the security checks and ID system are uniform and national, the well-known social credit system is not – it varies considerably from one province or locality to another. This reflects a major feature of the Chinese state which is its relative decentralisation. The Party is not uniform and monolithic. Although there are national strategies and policies, each provincial or even city level Party has a great deal of autonomy and can pursue its own strategy to a great extent. As a result there is considerable variation in details of policy and strategy from one part of China to another. This is not novel – it reflects a system of governance found throughout the history of the Chinese state all the way back to its formation in 221 BC. This reflects one of the most surprising observations I made, the persistence and even reassertion of older Chinese ways of thinking and living. Although the cities and infrastructure are impressive, the striking feature is the prosperity and success of the countryside. Across most of China, rural towns and villages have new, modern housing, often funded by private savings. Alongside the network of major roads is a dense system of smaller paved roads and paths that connect the countryside to the national system. This is coupled with both near-complete electrification and internet provision. The pattern of agriculture is very traditional and strikingly different from the Western model. The rural landscape (and much of the open space around and within cities) is one of very small fields, more like allotments. What is practised is traditional Chinese intensive permaculture with regular rotation of crops and mixed farming, a pattern of agriculture that is very efficient in terms of yields but which does not rely on high energy inputs. It is however still very labour intensive but this is changing with urbanisation. However, there are still very strong connections between countryside and city, with many who have moved to the city retaining a connection with and responsibility contract for portions of rural land, which they still farm. The farming is very intensive – not a square inch of land suitable for farming is left idle no matter where it is. Agriculture is only one of many ways in which old China persists and re-emerges. Traditional ideas, such as the polarity of Yin and Yang are as strong as ever. Among the young there is a clear revival of traditional religious belief and observance, notably of Buddhism, but also of Taoism and Confucianism. Buddhist temples are crowded with young people, particularly women, who come not as tourists but to pray. The Party is comfortable with this and in many regions actively encourages it, rebuilding Buddhist temples and even Confucian ones. (That is surprising because of Confucianism being the official philosophy of imperial China.) In fact, the impression gained is that the ideological basis of the state is slowly but steadily shifting, to a hybrid one that owes as much to the historic traditions of Confucianism and Legalism as modern thought. The cult of Mao, while officially as strong as ever, is slowly fading not so much because of ideological repudiation as the simple passage of time. Mao is becoming simply another major historical figure, similar in many ways to his own role model, the First Emperor Ch'in Shi Huang Ti. The current system still has strong legitimacy but the Cultural Revolution is regretted. For middle aged people the figure who is admired is Deng Xiaoping, credited with the opening of China to the rest of the world and the transformation of the economic system from a command economy to a dirigiste market one. Another revered figure is Sun Yat Sen, the founder of the Republic in the 1920s. 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One form this takes at a personal level is commitment to physical fitness and health, with public exercise classes being a major feature of urban life. This is coupled with a powerful work ethic. All of this faces challenges. It is not clear how long the ethical collectivism and work ethic will survive the impact of modern cellular communications and social media. There is concern, getting close to panic in official circles, about the below replacement birth-rate but, as elsewhere, there is no sign that the pro-natalist policies of the state are having any effect. The ageing population poses a massive challenge going forward but the current acute problem, as everywhere in the world, is housing costs in major cities – Shanghai has costs comparable to major metros in North America or Europe. 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NBC News
43 minutes ago
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He invented a viral watch-cleaning device. Now he says the American dream has been 'ripped out of my hands' by Trump tariffs.
Checkbook Chronicles Anthony Mendoza, a veteran Army major and father of two daughters, saw his invention as a pathway to entrepreneurial success, That dream is hanging by a thread. June 15, 2025, 8:04 AM EDT By Rob Wile President Donald Trump's April 10 announcement that he was raising tariffs on China to 145% left Anthony Mendoza shattered. The 41-year-old Phoenix resident, father of two and veteran U.S. Army major had stumbled onto an invention that allows amateur antique watch aficionados to gently rinse a timepiece's components. He named it ChronoClean, and the device began to go viral. By last winter, Mendoza had sold out of his first 500 units. Yet with a single social media post, the president seems to have dashed Mendoza's plans for the future of his business. 'I really felt like my American dream had been ripped out of my hands,' Mendoza said. 'And that our own president and government was letting it happen.' Business breakdown The ChronoClean had gained traction online among a fast-growing amateur community of antique timepiece tinkerers, especially abroad. Unable to locate an affordable manufacturer in the United States, Mendoza had turned to Chinese producers, which allowed him to sell the device for $150 each. 'I tried to get it built here — that's what I wanted to do initially,' Mendoza said of manufacturing the product in the U.S. 'But I went to several companies, and every one I went to said, 'No way, we can't do that, it would cost $300 each just to make it for you.' So it was totally out of the realm of possibility.' A boost from a popular YouTube account in the timepiece community helped. After accounting for costs, Mendoza estimated that he earned about $60,000 in profit. Tariff troubles After selling out of his first batch of 500 units last winter, Mendoza said he had dialed up another 500 on Valentine's Day for production. Two weeks later, Trump's tariff escalations began. The president first imposed a total of 20% duties on exports from China in early March. Over the next several weeks, the level would steadily rise until it hit a high of 145% in the second week of April. At that point, Mendoza thought he'd have to abandon the ChronoClean entirely, just as the second set of products was ready to ship. The duties would stay at that three-figure level for about a month more, shaking global markets and keeping Mendoza awake at night. Having recovered from a devastating divorce and still unable to find steady work after retiring from a 20-year career in the Army, Mendoza had pinned his entrepreneurial hopes on the success of ChronoClean. Finally, on May 12, the Trump administration announced a breakthrough after trade talks between the U.S. and China in Geneva. That agreement brought the duty level back down to what was initially announced as 30%. Mendoza jumped, telling his Chinese liaison to immediately ship the units. Even at the newly lowered tariff level, Mendoza's shipping costs doubled from $1,100 on the first batch of ChronoClean devices to $2,650 for the second. Looking ahead To this day, Mendoza must grapple with the uncertain environment Trump's on-again, off-again tariff pronouncements have created. As a backup plan, Mendoza says he has routed some orders directly to the U.K. to avoid the U.S. duties. But it's an expensive hedge: Mendoza said it cuts into his bottom line. He remains anxious about further escalations from Trump. 'If it goes back to 145%, I won't be able to import my next shipment into the U.S.,' Mendoza said. He has a lead time of about five months, and has to be able to make decisions with certainty. 'Because they are selling so well, I need to start working on my next order now,' he said. A closer look at this moment in time Mendoza describes himself as having 'strong political feelings.' 'I don't like the way things are right now,' he said. 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'Then here comes your own government to shatter that dream, so big businesses and Elon Musk can get richer," Mendoza said. "To me, that's not the American dream. It's small business, middle America, everyone should have a good chance at this. [The tariffs] will potentially put me out of business, it's hard to wrap your head around it.' Rob Wile Rob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Trump, in reversal, may exempt farms and hotels from immigration raids
President Trump said in a social media post on Thursday that he is willing to exempt the agriculture and hotel industries from his nationwide immigration crackdown. The surprise move came after executives in both industries complained to Trump about losing reliable, longtime immigrant workers in immigration raids and struggling to replace them. 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' Trump wrote. 'In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs," Trump added. "This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!' The New York Times reported the following day that a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official had ordered a pause in immigration raids of agricultural businesses, meat packing plants, restaurants and hotels. The senior ICE official also advised agents to stop arresting undocumented people who are not known to have committed a crime. Instead, agents were told to investigate and detain undocumented people with criminal backgrounds, according to the New York Times. In response to a question from NBC News regarding Trump's pause, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not dispute it. 'We will follow the president's direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America's streets," McLaughlin said in a statement. An immigration crossroads The potentially significant change in the administration's approach to immigration comes as Trump faces a political crossroads. Immigration raids in Los Angeles sparked days of violent protests there and helped fuel sweeping anti-Trump protests nationwide on Saturday. At the same time, Trump repeatedly promised his supporters during the 2024 campaign that he would deport a million people a year, the largest mass deportations in U.S. history. To meet that goal, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller demanded last month that ICE arrest at least 3,000 undocumented people a day. Three former DHS officials told NBC News that ICE officials will have to significantly increase raids of large workplaces nationwide to meet those goals. Those sites include farms, meat-packing plants, hotels and restaurants — the industries that Trump appears to have exempted. One former ICE official said that only raids on 'construction, dairy [and] meat processing facilities, carpet mills' would result in the large number of detentions Miller has demanded. 'It's these low-wage jobs, that is where you get the numbers,' the former official said. During the 2024 campaign and since taking office, Trump has dismissed warnings from experts that such large-scale deportations would lead to worker shortages in the industries he is apparently exempting now. But groups that support Trump's crackdown expect him to keep his promise. 'They should be going after them,' said Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that supports a crackdown on undocumented workers. ' I don't think there is going to be a huge swath of the country that will be upset if they bust these companies, if they are employing illegal immigrants and passing on the cost to everyone else.' Targeting slaughterhouses For years, slaughterhouses have been one of the industry's best known for relying on newly arrived immigrant labor, in part, due to the difficult and dangerous nature of the work. And many slaughterhouses are located in red states scattered throughout the Midwest and Southeast. Texas alone has almost 500 meat and food processing plants, according to USDA data. Earlier this week, ICE agents raided a locally owned slaughterhouse in Omaha, Nebraska and arrested at least 80 undocumented workers, according to local Hartmann, a spokesperson for Glenn Valley Foods, said in a statement that federal agents searched the company's facility 'for persons believed to be using fraudulent documents to gain employment.' He said that the company strives to operate within the law, that it is cooperating with agents and that it 'is not being charged with any crime.' But so far large slaughterhouses have not been consistently targeted by ICE around the country. Since Trump took office in January, ICE's workplace enforcement raids appear to have largely targeted smaller businesses such as a roofer in Bellingham, Washington, a Mexican restaurant in Harlingen, Texas and a small equipment manufacturer in South Dakota. One of the largest workplace raids to date — which yielded more than 100 arrests —was of a construction site in Tallahassee overseen by a privately-owned Florida-based construction company. Larry Stine, an employment attorney who represents some of the largest meat-packing plants in the Southeastern United States says his clients are 'terrified' of a possible raid and have been actively conducting audits of their employees' paperwork. Few construction industry raids Trump did not mention an exemption for the construction industry, which also employs large numbers of immigrant workers. So far, though, the construction industry has experienced relatively few ICE raids, industry officials said. Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs for the Associated General Contractors of America, said that to date, he is only aware of sporadic reports of construction-site raids, such as one in Tallahassee on May 29 where more than 100 allegedly undocumented individuals were detained. The contractors' association continues to prepare members for how to respond if the pace of enforcement actions increases. 'We've been reposting compliance information now that it's a bit more real,' Turmail said. Turmail said he remains confident that the president is sensitive to the needs of the construction industry, whose decades-long workforce shortage has only grown more acute in recent years. It's one reason why construction costs have been surging, he said, something that, in turn, has resulted in construction spending declining year on year for the first time since 2019. 'Between higher labor and higher material costs, it's putting developers on the sidelines because projects don't pencil out anymore,' Turmail said. Members of the contactors' association remain hopeful that the administration's promises to reorient more of the workforce toward vocational skills will turn into federal spending to do so. Turmail predicted that worker shortages will persist and likely worsen if the immigration crackdown continues. One way the administration could help address them, he added, would be creating ways for construction workers to enter the country legally. 'Even if we got all the funding we wanted, we'd still need to also find some temporary lawful pathways for people to come in and work in construction,' Turmail said. Democrats say Trump's campaign promises of millions of mass deportations are hitting economic realities. John Sandweg, who served as ICE director during the Obama administration, said that to maintain its 3,000 arrests per day quota, the Trump administration would have to raid factories owned by large corporations. 'No doubt some Fortune 500 will get hit,' he said.
