Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Jun 06, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs – especially the ultra-high “reciprocal tariffs” that he says will be reintroduced on July 8 for any country that has not struck a trade deal with his administration – have sent countries around the world scrambling to respond, adapt, and limit the fallout. ASEAN’s ten members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – have been among the most proactive.
Stephen Roach, Senior Fellow, Yale University
Jun 04, 2025
There is an inherent flaw in US President Donald Trump’s trade policy. While it is all but impossible to know where Trump will settle on most issues – from taxes to immigration – two key objectives of his trade strategy are now coming into focus: setting a global minimum tariff, and imposing a special penalty on China. The flaw lies in the combination.
Wang Zhen, Professor and Deputy Director, Institute for International Relation Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
Jun 02, 2025
The Trump administration’s confused and misplaced understanding of its own national “interests” and “threats” will not only fail to help resolve the enormous domestic challenges facing the United States but will lead it further down the wrong track.
Wang Yuzhu, Research Fellow, Institute for World Economy Studies, SIIS
Jun 02, 2025
America’s reindustrialization process relies heavily on China’s industrial system support. In an increasingly competitive global market, China’s full-fledged industrial system emerges as the most cost-effective and competitive option.
Yu Xiang, Senior Fellow, China Construction Bank Research Institute
May 30, 2025
Wall Street’s turmoil is both a crisis and an opportunity. Those who adapt by diversifying into non-dollar assets or betting on emerging markets as wealth and power are redefined could come out ahead.
Warwick Powell, Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Senior Fellow at Beijing Taihe Institute
May 30, 2025
In the week of 25th May 2025, Kuala Lumpur played host to a landmark event: the inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit. It brought together Southeast Asian nations, the Gulf states, and China - three pillars of the emerging multipolar order - in a signal moment of strategic realignment. While headlines may focus on trade, energy, and infrastructure cooperation, the deeper story lies in a quiet revolution in how the world’s fastest-growing economies trade, settle, and invest - increasingly without the U.S. dollar.
He Weiwen, Senior Fellow, Center for China and Globalization, CCG
May 30, 2025
Values laid out by China and the United States — equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit — will keep trade tensions under control through practical results and stabilize the important trade relationship.
Ghulam Ali, Deputy Director, Hong Kong Research Center for Asian Studies
May 23, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump’s unwarranted global tariff war, which began on April 2, 2025, with steep 145 percent tariffs on China, alerted economists to unforeseen global consequences. As China’s economy relied heavily on manufactured goods, and with the U.S. as its largest export destination, the Trump administration believed that imposing tariffs could weaken China and compel it to comply with its terms and conditions. Beijing, well-prepared in advance, proved this belief wrong. China’s resolute response within weeks forced the U.S. to enter negotiations, which took place from May 10 to 12 in Geneva, in which the two sides agreed to suspend tariffs for 90 days. The success of Beijing’s policy relied on several factors.
Ma Xue, Associate Fellow, Institute of American Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations
May 23, 2025
The recent China-U.S. economic and trade talks have helped ease trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Tariffs have been reduced significantly, lifting the pessimistic mood. However, a sustainable trade agreement has not yet been sealed.
Zhou Xiaoming, Former Deputy Permanent Representative of China’s Mission to the UN Office in Geneva
May 23, 2025
The deal will spell the end of WTO’s system of setting tariffs by consensus, which has been in operation since the inception of the world body in 1995. It will usher in a new era in which Washington alone will set tariff rates.