World
Xi Jinping won’t back down on trade. Indonesia rejects Russian military base report. Sudan rival government declared. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Hamas rejects latest ceasefire deal as Israel upholds aid block
Great power rivalry
China: Xi Jinping signalled this week he will not back down in the escalating trade war with the United States, as he paused exports of rare-earth elements, halted orders of Boeing planes and toured South-East Asia to rally support against Donald Trump’s “bullying”.
In an essay published by Vietnamese state media ahead of his visit, Xi wrote: “There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars. Protectionism has no way out.” He later told Vietnamese leader Tô Lâm they should jointly defend free trade and “oppose unilateral bullying”.
Xi’s visit to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia followed his decision last week to match Trump’s tariffs of up to 145 per cent, leaving the world’s two largest economies with crippling reciprocal trade barriers. Trump has imposed a general 10 per cent tariff on all countries but suspended tariffs that apply to individual countries, except China.
Commenting on Xi’s trip to Vietnam, Trump told reporters: “That’s a lovely meeting. Meeting like trying to figure out, ‘How do we screw the United States of America?’ ”
China’s other retaliations include suspending exports of seven rare-earth minerals and magnets in a move that could affect the production of cars, drones and missiles. Bloomberg News reported this week that China has directed its airlines to stop ordering planes and parts from Boeing.
Xi has demonstrated he has a range of weapons to deploy in response to Trump’s tariffs, but the trade war is expected to reduce jobs and growth in both countries. Trump has said he is open to negotiating but wants Xi to request that they talk.
“The ball is in China’s court,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.
“We don’t have to make a deal with them … China wants what we have, what every country wants … the American consumer.”
The neighbourhood
Indonesia: Indonesia assured Australia this week it will not allow Russia to set up a military base in Papua after Moscow reportedly asked to station aircraft in the province, about 1400 kilometres from the Australian mainland.
The approach by Moscow to Jakarta was reported on Tuesday by the military intelligence website Janes, which cited Indonesian sources and said Russia wanted to base long-range aircraft at Manuhua air force base in Papua. The request was apparently made in February 2025 during a meeting between the Indonesian defence minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and Sergei Shoigu, a former defence minister who is now secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council.
The report prompted alarm in Canberra, which sought clarification from Jakarta.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Tuesday: “We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region.”
Richard Marles, Australia’s defence minister, later confirmed he had spoken to his counterpart, Sjafrie, who had said “in the clearest possible terms [that] reports of the prospect of Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are simply not true”.
Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto, a former general, has signalled he is open to closer ties with Russia. Last July, when he was still defence minister and president-elect, he met with Russian president Vladimir Putin. In November, Indonesia conducted its first joint naval drills with Russia, though it simultaneously conducted a major joint exercise with Australia.
But most analysts believe Prabowo’s approach is consistent with Indonesia’s traditional policy of non-alignment and its effort to maintain good relations with all major powers, including the US and China.
Prabowo told reporters in November: “Indonesia takes a path where a thousand friends are too little and one enemy is too much.”
War zone
Gaza: Israel this week proposed a new ceasefire deal with Hamas that would involve an initial 45-day truce and talks on a permanent end to the war, as the United Nations warned the humanitarian situation in Gaza was the worst it had been since the conflict began.
The Israeli offer, its first since it resumed fighting in March, was presented to Hamas via Egyptian mediators on Monday and included an initial truce involving the release of 10 hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
But a Palestinian official told BBC News on Tuesday that Hamas had rejected the deal because it required Hamas to disarm but did not guarantee an end to the war.
Israel continued its military offensive this week, launching air strikes on Wednesday that killed 22 people, according to local officials.
A UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said in a statement on Tuesday that humanitarian conditions in Gaza had worsened in the wake of Israel’s six-week block on the flow of aid and recent strikes on hospitals.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” the agency said.
Spotlight: Sudan rival government declared
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force that has been locked in a brutal civil war with the nation’s military, marked the second anniversary of the conflict this week by declaring the formation of a rival government.
In a statement on Telegram, the group’s leader, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, whose forces have been accused of mass murder, rape, ethnic cleansing and genocide, said the RSF was “building the only realistic future for Sudan”.
His statement followed fighting last weekend in Darfur in which the RSF took over two refugee camps. The fighting left more than 400 people dead and caused 400,000 to flee.
A local resident told BBC News via WhatsApp: “My uncle and my cousin were killed. People are wounded, and there is no medicine or hospital to save them – they are dying from bleeding.”
Another said: “Nothing left… Death is everywhere.”
The country’s descent into civil war began in 2019, when Sudan’s leader, Omar al-Bashir, who had governed for almost 30 years, was overthrown by the military.
The ousting of Bashir prompted hopes that the country would transition to civilian rule and a new era of peace and stability.
But the military abandoned the transition in 2021 and took full control of the country. A year later, the head of the military, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, fell out with Hemedti, his deputy.
For the past two years, the military and the RSF have fought a civil war that has ruined the country and resulted in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, 13 million have been displaced, 25 million face extreme hunger, famine has been confirmed in 10 areas and rape is being used “systematically” as a weapon, according to the UN, which has documented cases involving victims as young as one year old. The US State Department determined in January that the RSF is committing genocide in Darfur.
The United Kingdom this week hosted talks aimed at finding an end to the war. The meeting, including delegates from 15 countries and the UN, pledged US$1.4 billion in aid. But neither the military nor the RSF attended.
David Lammy, the UK foreign affairs secretary, said in a speech that the international community needed to push the warring sides to protect civilians, engage in diplomacy and ensure the country remained united.
“Many have given up on Sudan. That is wrong,” he said. “We simply cannot look away.”
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on April 19, 2025 as "Hamas rejects latest ceasefire deal as Israel upholds aid block".
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