China's leader, Xi Jinping, is visiting some countries in Asia this week. He wants to talk about free trade. He also wants to show that China can be a source of "stability and certainty" when things are not stable.

While Xi was visiting Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, the U.S. announced that a senior official from the State Department, Sean O'Neill, would travel this week to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Siem Reap in Cambodia, and Tokyo.

China is also showing that it wants to trade with countries other than the US. It does this at different trade shows. At these shows, it presents its big market and shows that it is a strong manufacturer.

Exports helped China's economy grow by 5% last year. This year, the government wants it to grow by about 5% again.

A government spokesperson said that the new taxes will make things a little difficult for China's economy for a short time. But he said that these taxes will not stop the economy from growing in the future. He also said that China now sells less than 15% of its products to the US. Five years ago, it sold more than 19%.

China's economy is strong and has a lot of potential for growth. We are confident that we can deal with challenges from other countries and achieve the development goals we have set.

From January to March, the economy grew by 1.2%. This is slower than the 1.6% growth in the last three months of 2024.

China sold more goods to other countries in March compared to the year before, and also in the first three months of the year. Companies did this quickly because they thought Mr. Trump would add extra costs to their goods. This has helped factories stay busy in the last few months.

Stephen Innes said that this happened earlier because people bought things quickly before US taxes went up.

Making things in factories went up by 6.5% compared to the year before in the last three months. This happened mostly because making machines increased by almost 11%.

The biggest increase was in new technologies, like electric and hybrid cars. These increased by 45.4% compared to the year before. Making 3D printers increased by almost 45%, and making industrial robots increased by 26%.

Even though China's economy grew quite fast compared to other countries, it has been slow to get strong again since the time of COVID-19. This is because problems in the housing market have made more people lose their jobs, and now families are careful with their money.

Prices for things people buy went down a little in the first three months of the year. This shows that people are not buying as much as companies are making. Also, people did not invest much money in houses and buildings. This investment went down by almost 10% compared to last year. This happened even though the government tried to help people borrow money to buy houses.

A problem with taxes on goods is coming. This is bad because China wants companies to invest and hire more people, and it wants people to buy more things.

Economists in companies and the government are still careful because Trump keeps changing his ideas about his trade war.

Because of what happened in the last two weeks, it is very hard to know how the U.S. and China will change their taxes on each other, said Tao Wang and other experts from UBS in a report.

Two big international banks still think the economy will grow by about 4.6% this year.

When Trump became president, he first put a 10% tax on things from China. Later, he made it 20%. Now, the tax on many things China sends to the US is 145%.

UBS thinks that if the taxes on goods stay the same, China might sell much less to the US soon. They also think China's total sales to other countries might go down by 10%. UBS now thinks the economy will grow by 3.4% this year, which is less than they thought before. They think growth will be even slower, at 3%, in 2026.

For the last seven months, China has worked harder to encourage people to spend more money and for businesses to invest more. They gave more money to people who traded in old cars and appliances for new ones, and they gave more money for houses and other businesses that needed help.