KUALA LUMPUR/HANOI/PHNOM PENH — Chinese President Xi Jinping returns to Beijing on Friday after his highest-profile tour of Southeast Asia; a five-day, three-country visit laced with both symbolism and strategic calculation.
And the timing could not have been more fortuitous for Xi. While Chinese officials maintained the trip to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia had been planned for months, it coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalation of “America First” protectionist policies and Washington’s disengagement from the region.
