Xi Jinping is in Southeast Asia to build bonds with countries that also face U.S. tariffs and have come under pressure from Washington to curb the transshipment of Chinese goods.

The Trump administration's tariff war with China is most often seen through the lens of the economy. But to many economists, the bigger threat is that Trump's global trade gambit will erode the United States’ main source of global authority: the long-term geopolitical relationships it has cultivated over nearly a century.