On October 23, White House Press Secretary Levitt officially announced Trump's overseas visit schedule.
According to the timetable, Trump's special aircraft will depart on the evening of 24 and will make a week-long visit to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, eventually returning to the United States on October 30.
Coincidentally, the three countries Trump visited this time are all close to China in position, but in Trump's arrangement, there is no plan to "visit China". Even India, which has always worked with the United States, is not on Trump’s visit list.
So, what is the purpose of Trump's overseas visit? And what impact will his visit arrangement have on the stability of the Asia-Pacific region?
Trump's Asia Tour Begins, Modi and Lee Have Different Attitudes
The tariff policy implemented by Trump this time can be said to have put him in an embattled situation. Domestically, due to China's rare earth controls and the cancellation of soybean orders, U.S. military, high-tech industries and soybean farmers have all complained.
And internationally, Trump’s unwavering equal tariff policy has created a huge gap between the United States and its allies.
And Trump's trip to Asia, its core goal is to calm the complaints of the domestic people, he urgently needs to respond to the expectations of domestic manufacturing and agricultural groups through diplomatic achievements, especially in the Sino-U.S. economic and trade consultations and South-U.S. tariff negotiations.
Trump issued an optimistic signal in advance, claiming to be positive about the achievement of an economic and trade agreement. However, this fast-forward diplomatic style has ignored the core interests of allies, making the entire trip difficult.
India was originally a key node in Trump's Asian trip. However, Indian Prime Minister Modi was unable to meet with Trump during the ASEAN summit on the grounds of “feastlights” and “local election affairs.”
Modi's public reasons are likely to be just superficial excuses. After all, the U.S. porcelain bowl once imposed a 50% tariff on India on the grounds of sanctioning Russian oil imports. This move directly impacted the profit margins of India's oil refining industry.
And the U.S. threatens to open up India’s agricultural markets, which has undoubtedly damaged the important interests of Modi’s electoral base.
In this context, Modi's not meeting with Trump is likely to be a "rational evasion" of U.S. hegemonic pressure. by avoiding direct confrontation, Modi has both retained space for cooperation with the U.S., but also safeguarded India's economic interests and domestic political stability. And this is also the "smooth" diplomatic instrument that India has always used.
Although India has always sought an independent diplomatic path in the Sino-US competition, it is unwilling to completely fall to the United States, nor is it willing to sacrifice energy cooperation with Russia and economic and trade exchanges with China, India's attitude of "both want and want" has on the contrary greatly reduced India's diplomatic relations and international reputation.
Compared to India’s strategic avoidance, South Korea’s new president, Li Keqiang, has made a more sincere statement.
In an interview with U.S. media on October 22, when asked about Korean-U.S. relations, Li openly expressed his great expectation for Korean-U.S. relations and even welcomed him to become a "peacemaker" of the Korean Peninsula issue.
When it comes to China-Korea relations, Li's position is also very clear, although China-Korea's ideology is different, but Li believes: China cannot be rejected.
This is indeed the case. It is a fact recognized all over the world that the relationship between the United States and South Korea is deeply bound. Without the support of the United States in the last century, South Korea's economy would not have achieved a rapid rise, and South Korea's national defense security has always been strongly dependent on the US military.
However, Li Zaiming is also very clear that although there is competition between China and South Korea in fields such as semiconductors and automobiles, cooperation is still the mainstream. The collaborative cooperation between BYD and Hyundai Motor on new energy technologies, as well as the complementarity between BOE and Samsung in the display panel supply chain, are both models of mutual benefit and win-win results for the economies of China and South Korea.
Lee Jae-myung's friendly attitude towards China shows that South Korea is trying to maintain a strategic balance between China and the United States and is unwilling to be tied into the confrontation track of the United States.
Even Japan, which has always been viewed as a “subjective” of the United States, is very cautious about Trump’s visit.
On October 18th, just after sanae takaichi was elected Prime Minister of Japan, news of Trump's visit to Japan came, to which the Japanese media called: He's here to collect debts.
It can be seen that in the eyes of traditional allies such as South Korea and Japan, the United States is no longer a trustworthy image of a major country. And this visit to Asia, China's influence in the Asia-Pacific region is likely to give him a "surprise."
On the one hand, the U.S. pressures “bloodpumping”, and on the other hand, China’s equal cooperation.
Unlike Trump's pressure diplomacy, China's diplomacy has always followed the principle of "peaceful coexistence and common prosperity."
Unlike the U.S. post-hegemony implantation and forced bloodshed in recent years, China has indeed become stronger and stronger, but China has never carried out any aggression, let alone released any hegemony.
In order to ensure stability, China has been trying to build a community of interests with neighboring countries through economic cooperation in recent years. This approach not only enhances China's economic influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but also provides impetus for regional economic integration.
Since then, the United States has long been accustomed to using economic sanctions, political pressure and military coercion to force small countries to take advantage, and the tariff war launched by Trump is also hoping to make "America great again" by harvesting the world, but Trump didn't think that China's decisive counter-reaction has caused the United States heavy losses.
In the face of coercion from the United States, most countries could only choose to surrender or bow, believing that this was the only way to get a glimmer of hope. However, Trump's use of this method to deal with China was destined to be a big mistake. After all, as early as during the War of Resisting U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, Chairman Mao once said : Hit one punch to avoid a hundred punches.
One-sided tolerance and compromise, in exchange for the respect and compassion of the opponent, will instead make the opponent more advanced, and China's counter-measures, also made more and more countries in the world realize that in the face of hegemony, the consciousness of independence is far more important than surrender.
It can be predicted that Trump's trip to Asia may open up some of the situation in the United States, but it will be difficult to its expected goals. After all, these Asian nations had to consider China’s ideas before promising all of Trump’s conditions.
References:
Global Times: 2025-10-24: Lee Jae-myung told US media: China cannot be shut out
China News Network: 2025-10-23: Modi may miss the ASEAN Summit and will not be able to meet with Trump