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President Ruto Visits China as Global Trade War Intensifies
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Kenyan Wall Street
April 22, 2025
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President Ruto Visits China
This week, President William Ruto is on a state visit to China at a time when Beijing is engaged in a trade war of attrition with the United States that is bound to have global repercussions.
During the state visit, President Ruto will hold bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping and inaugurate the Kenya Tea Holding Center in Fujian.
He will also deliver a keynote address at Peking University “where he will highlight Africa’s vision for inclusive growth, leadership, and deeper South-South cooperation,” according to a statement from State House.
The timing of the visit is bound to attract attention as Kenya and the rest of the continent try to navigate the global tariff wars while striking a delicate balance between national, regional, and global strategic interests.
President Ruto will be looking to unlock new opportunities in trade, investments, and infrastructure in his meetings in China, including while officiating the Kenya-China Business Forum. While Nairobi may want to focus more on its own relations with Beijing, it’ll be impossible to disentangle the future of that relationship from the latter’s ongoing tit-for-tat trade war with Washington.
“The President will further engage with the Chinese leadership on global and regional matters, advocating for enhanced multilateral cooperation,” State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said in the statement.
Kenya had been negotiating a free trade deal with Washington during Trump’s first term, which was replaced by negotiations for a different trade deal during Biden’s administration. Both were left unfinished at the end of the respective terms, and Nairobi will be eager to find some common ground with Washington during Trump’s second term.
On Monday, China’s commerce ministry, responding to a Bloomberg report that the Trump administration will pressure other countries in tariff negotiations to curb trade with China, said Beijing would take “countermeasures.” Kenya had seen opportunity in the blanket ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, especially since Asian countries that import similar goods to the US were hit with higher tariffs.
Deals with China may not been viewed positively by Washington, but the Asian country is Kenya’s largest source of imports and holds a significant stock of its external debt. Washington, on the other hand, has been a long-term Kenyan ally in security and other spheres. This means Kenya’s president and his team will likely be seeking a delicate balance that does not antagonise either side but provides practical deals for Kenya’s interests.
Stay updated on this and other important news on The Kenyan Wall Street.
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