As Donald Trump’s first weeks in office steal international headlines, is China quietly making diplomatic gains in Asia amid the region’s uncertainty about the return of a transactional US president? In his summit with the new Thai leader, Xi Jinping was reported by China’s CCTV as saying China and Thailand should deepen trust in each other to counter growing global uncertainties. Meanwhile Brunei and China agreed that the world has entered “a new period of uncertainty and transformation” as they announced oil and gas joint development in “mutually agreed areas” of the South China Sea.
