US-China trade is entering an era of managed rivalry. Southeast Asian businesses should prepare for it

What happened

Washington and Beijing established new Boards of Trade and Investment, China committed to an initial purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft, and Beijing agreed to buy at least US$17 billion a year of US agricultural products from 2026 through 2028, alongside earlier soybean commitments. The most important change in US-China trade this year is not another tariff headline.

It is the emergence of a more managed, transactional relationship between the world’s two largest economies. President Donald Trump’s May state visit to Beijing produced exactly that kind of arrangement.

Washington and Beijing established new Boards of Trade and Investment, China […] The post US-China trade is entering an era of managed rivalry. The two sides did not resolve their strategic rivalry.