Meanwhile, China's President Xi Jinping is on what's been called a charm offensive across Southeast Asia, visiting Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. It comes as companies in China say they could be badly hit by the ongoing trade war with the US. The Trump administration put tariffs tariffs of 145% on most Chinese imports earlier this month.
Beijing later responded with its own 125% tariffs on American products coming into China. Our Beijing correspondent Laura Bicker reports. They even make shoes by the roadside in the factory of the world where family income is measured by how many heels you can make in an hour.
Here they are feeling the effects of an economic war. Workers live from contract to contract. They need orders.
If not from the US, then who? But some have been lucky. This group of workers make shoes to sell within China.
The Americans are tricky. We don't trust them. Very few people are in the export business now.
No one wants to trade with America. We have 1. 4 billion people in the domestic market.
That's enough. Guangjo is hosting one of the world's biggest trade fairs as the world's two largest economies wage a trade war. Everything here is for sale and some of these goods should be making their way to American households.
Instead, we're told orders from the US have been cancelled. Firms who once sold to America are in limbo as they wait and hope for talks to end this crisis. What do you think of Donald Trump?
He's crazy man. He's crazy crazy Trump and I believe he always change his mind. I believe maybe one month or two months he will change his mind again.
In the past were there buyers from America. Yeah. Like last year Apollo uh like 20%.
This year zero nothing nothing for the US market. Many companies we've spoken to who sell to the United States have told us they are now looking for alternative markets. The reality is China's economy is still exportdriven.
Around half of its growth in the last year has come from selling goods abroad. Beijing also needs its neighbors to stand firm with them. President Xi is on a charm offensive in Southeast Asia, urging them to resist what he calls US bullying.
China remains defiant, a show of pride as it starts to feel some pain. Goods once bound for the US are piling up in these ports. This country can withstand Donald Trump's onslaught of tariffs, but it doesn't mean it won't hurt.
Laura Bicker, ABC News, Guangj.
