Western and Australian observers are suggesting that Donald Trump just gave China a free kick to tilt Asia in its favour. Extending this inaccuracy, they broaden the free kick to include Australia’s Pacific family whose interests and cultures are very different to those of Asia.

Perhaps, unconsciously, this inclusion is on the grounds that they are also not European.

The interests of Southeast Asia, be they poor or rich, are different to those of the improvised and until recently, largely ignored islands deceptively described as Australia’s Pacific family.

China does not need a free kick, or a helping hand from ill-considered United States policies, to engage with Southeast Asia. China has engaged the  regions for centurie, long before America was even a glint in the eyes of European conquerors.

The states surrounding China, the kingdoms of modern-day Asia, and Japan, all aspired to emulate the sophistication and culture of China. The evidence of Chinese influence dates back centuries and it continues in many aspects of modern society in these countries. It is not, as some in the West believe, a recent attempt by China to extend a hegemonic reach. It is a historical relationship that reflects the peaceful and harmonious spread of Chinese culture throughout the region.

To imply that China needs a free kick to succeed in Asia shows a deep level of misunderstanding of the history of Southeast Asia.

The disregarded Pacific is another story. These islands, poor in resources, provided left-over pickings for France in the imperial race for colonies. Later they were scraps off the table that came with America’s aggressive destruction of the Spanish Latin America empire. Like Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Oklahoma, the Philippines are imperial war booty.

The so-called “articles of free association” bound the Marshall islands and other powerless atolls to the United States and opened the way for nuclear destruction and contamination of their lifestyles. Marshall Islanders were, and remain, unwilling guinea pigs for the lasting impacts of radiation poisoning. Their superior healthcare serves not their interests, but the interests of military researchers.

As a result of the grandiloquent desires of the United States to again turn these islands into military pill-boxes, they find themselves in a unique position of leverage. Pacific Island leaders are taking full advantage of their location in a contested area where the United States, Australia and China all seek to extend their influence.

China’s involvement in the region does not have an imperial basis. Unlike France, China has no historical imperial or colonial presence in the region. Unlike the United States, China has no post-war empire protectorate to preserve with duplicitous Compact of Free Association.

China’s involvement rests on the policies underpinning its relationship with the Global South which support harmonious working relationships with a wide variety of countries and governance systems. This is not to say that China’s motivations are entirely altruistic.

Pacific Islands’ leaders welcome these foreign interventions because, after years of neglect, they retain or improve services in the region. However, at the same time, this sudden interest is viewed with a high level of cynicism which has been confirmed by the erratic approach to tariffs in contradiction to recent claims of friendship. In this sense, it is a free kick in China’s favour.

Trump’s tariffs on Southeast Asia are not a free kick for China. His tariffs confirm the perception of an increasingly untrustworthy and unreliable United States. Southeast Asia encompasses many Islamic populations, including the largest Islamic population in the world.

They have been aghast at the selective application of the global rules-based order when it comes to the ongoing war crimes committed in Gaza. This is a true American free kick that undermined Western status and moral authority in Southeast Asia. Indiscriminate tariffs add to a growing distrust of the United States, its policies and its intentions. Punitive tariffs are not a free kick for China, but if the relationship continues to be mishandled, they may well be.

Trump’s tariffs on the economically insignificant specks in the Pacific are just one more kick from imperial jackboot colonialism that cares little about rising sea levels.

Those who have little choice simply endure, and if China offers some succour, then it is better than being downtrodden, free kick or not.

China doesn’t need a free kick to succeed, but an American own-goal is always welcome.