China's leader continues the charm offensive
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That's T-H-U-M-A dot C-O slash P-O-D-K-A-T-Z. The Chinese president's charm offensive across Southeast Asia continues. Live from the BBC World Service, this is the Marketplace Morning Report. I'm Luke Wilson in for Leanna Byrne. Good morning.

China's leader, Xi Jinping, is continuing his week-long tour of Southeast Asia, arriving in Malaysia tonight, which has been hit by a 24% American tariff. Among those welcoming the Chinese delegation will be Malaysia's Trade Minister, Zafrul Aziz. He's been speaking to the BBC's Nick Marsh, who joins me now from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Hi, Nick.

Hi, Luke. What's the mood where you are? Well, there's a lot of apprehension. Uncertainty, actually, is the word that I'm hearing quite a lot because obviously we're in uncharted territory. Things are changing day by day. Countries here in Southeast Asia were hit by some pretty hefty US tariffs until that 90-day pause occurred.

was announced and you know if you're a government official like Zafrul Assis, the trade minister of Malaysia who I was speaking to yesterday you're going to be thinking well you know what is the game plan when things are changing so quickly and also you know how on earth am I going to get these tariffs removed when I go to Washington whenever that is and in fact you know the first thing I asked Mr Zafrul was whether he ever imagined finding himself in a situation like this.

No. Short answer to that, no. But it is what it is. We have to deal with it. I must say it caught us by surprise to the extent of it. We understand the concerns of the US. We disagree. We believe that

the information that they have is not accurate. So President Xi arrives in Malaysia where you are later tonight. It was a pre-planned visit, but it couldn't have come at a more crucial time. Exactly. And now this is presidency's chance to really go on a charm offensive in this region. You know, we're talking about the best part of 700 million people in Southeast Asia. It's a really crucial

crucial economic region that's long been caught between two economic superpowers. On the one hand, you know, China has invested very heavily here in infrastructure, in factories. So countries need China very much economically. They also export a lot to China. It's the biggest trading partner for every country in this region. But you can never ignore the United States, can you? America is the number one export market for companies here. So the question is,

What side do you go for in this tussle between economic superpowers? And I actually asked that to Mr. Zafrul, and this is what he had to say. I think we can't choose, right? And we will never choose.

One cannot not deal with both. Just these two economic powers contribute close to 50% of the world's GDP. And for Malaysia, even for ASEAN, these are the two top trading partners, the top two investors. Both countries are very important to our economy. So as you can hear,

It's a real conundrum for countries in this region. You know, during President Trump's first term, Southeast Asia actually did quite well because Chinese companies just started manufacturing in places like Vietnam and Cambodia to get round the tariffs he imposed. So it was pretty good for them. This time round, it's much more serious because the region is now directly in the tariffs firing line, both in terms of those direct U.S. tariffs and

but also in terms of this flood of cheap Chinese goods that might pour in from China because they can't be sold to the US, which is going to obviously be bad for local manufacturers here and workers here. Nick Marsh, our business correspondent in Kuala Lumpur, thanks for joining us on Marketplace.

Thanks very much.

As countries wait to hear what Donald Trump is going to do next on tariffs, South Korea has agreed to pump an extra $5 billion into its semiconductor industry. The US president said on Sunday he will soon be announcing tariffs on chips imported into the United States. Seoul and Washington are due to begin trade negotiations next week. The BBC's Jean McKenzie reports. South Korea is one of the world's leading chip makers, and many of its semiconductors go straight to the US.

Seoul's economy relies heavily on exports, especially of chips and cars, two industries which stand to be hit hard by tariffs. The government is also rushing to prop up its carmakers. Though overnight, Mr Trump suggested he might temporarily pause tariffs on cars

This caused stocks in Seoul's leading car company Hyundai to surge by 4%. The BBC's Gene McKenzie. Meanwhile, Nissan is considering cutting Japanese production of its top-selling US model, the Rogue SUV, according to the Reuters news agency. The car company hasn't confirmed the report, but told the BBC it's committed to adapting to changes in the market, adding its approach will be thoughtful and deliberate to deal with both immediate and long-term effects.

Staying with Japan, and the country's population of Japanese nationals fell by a record amount last year, reflecting its declining birth rate and ageing society. Excluding foreign residents, the population of the world's fourth largest economy fell by almost 900,000 in 2024 compared with the previous year. The BBC's Celia Hatton reports. Japanese families aren't having enough babies to replace the numbers of older people who are dying.

And Japan hasn't loosened its strict immigration rules to allow its population to expand through external means.

Last year, the numbers of Japanese nationals dropped at the sharpest rate since record-keeping began in the 1950s. The one group that's expanding? The number of people in Japan over the age of 65, reaching almost a third of the entire population. Celia Hatton reporting there. That's all from us this morning. I'm Luke Wilson with the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

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