China and ASEAN Quarterly Q2 2025

We present to you the newest issue of our China & ASEAN Quarterly magazine. These are highly volatile yet exciting times in the financial markets, and we are here to share our insights and assist you in making sense of the rapidly changing economic headlines.

The US has waged an all-out tariff war that punishes its trading partners, particularly China, with record-high duties on their exports. Negotiations are underway as of press time, which has led to a drastic reduction in duties for the next three months. We believe this is a good first step to avoid deep economic scars from these trade disruptions.

Here, we discuss why we see Asia remaining a bright, highly investable region despite the global tariff war. The Chinese and Southeast Asian markets are agile in searching for growth drivers and alternative markets to keep their momentum going. Within ASEAN, economies are looking from within to prop up growth. For example, Malaysia seeks to expand its halal industry, Thailand plans to deepen its digital economy, while Indonesia targets to raise additional revenues through carbon trading.

Chinese assets remain attractive despite being caught in Trump’s crosshairs: we view China’s economy as coming from a position of great strength and leverage. While its manufacturing sector is taking the beating from the sky-high tariffs set by the US, the Chinese government has been quick to respond with additional state support where needed and in redirecting exports to other markets. We maintain our overweight risk rating towards Chinese assets and continue to advise our clients to take position in this region.

Finally, we also take this opportunity to share the news that our Lundgreen’s Invest–China Fund received the Best Equity China Fund Over 5 Years award for the Nordics at the 2025 LSEG Lipper Fund Awards. Our long-held optimism towards China is the very reason behind this victory: our fund has delivered strong returns and has outperformed other investment instruments in the region, showing how our upbeat view towards China has translated to solid results.

Together with our Founding CEO Peter Lundgreen and our contributors from all over the region, we hope that these articles provide insight as you make your investment decisions. We welcome any feedback that you may have.

Melissa Luz Lopez
Chief Economist for ASEAN