Secondly, by imposing heavy tariffs on other South East Asian countries including Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, it has 'slammed the door shut' on how China rejigged its supply chains to get around the tariffs imposed on Beijing during Trump's first term.

To be sure, it is still early days in the second Trump administration and its effects on the nature of U.S.-China asymmetric competition in Southeast Asia. Nonetheless, it will be critical to monitor the evolving dynamics in this space through several lenses rather than one dominated by the dizzying set of developments occurring in Washington, D.C.