ASEAN’s U.S.-China Balancing Act Is Getting Much Harder (opens in new tab)

This balancing act is becoming substantially harder, as two opposing forces, which have hardened over the past year, are reshaping Asia’s economic landscape. The first is the Trump administration’s tariff and economic security agenda, which has become a central instrument of its foreign policy. For Southeast Asian economies that spent the past decade positioning themselves as alternatives to China in global supply chains, the message has been stark: Their very success as export platforms had ...