WASHINGTON - South-east Asia can expect continued tension over trade, and probably a push to bifurcate global supply chains and technology from China, if President Donald Trump wins a second term in office on Nov 3, regional expert Murray Hiebert, senior associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC told ST Asian Insider.

Mr Hiebert, who is also head of the research at BowerGroupAsia, was speaking to Nirmal Ghosh, The Straits Times' US Bureau Chief who hosts the ST Asian Insider video series and podcasts.

If former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden were to win in November, it is assumed that his approach would be more one of engagement and more multilateral, willing to work more closely with groupings like Asean, Apec and NATO, he said.

But there was "almost no chance" that Mr Biden would return the US to the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact from which President Trump pulled out, he said.

Mr Biden in fact has a "Buy American" plan that sounds very similar to what President Trump advocates.

Mr Hiebert was speaking as his book Under Beijing's Shadow, released this month, explores South-east Asia's coexistence with a rising and more assertive China.

That South-east Asia's position is of growing criticality, is underlined by the fact that there are two books out this month on the same subject - Mr Hiebert's, as well as author Sebastian Strangio's "In the Dragon's Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century."

Competition will remain the keynote of America's relationship with China, but within that broad framework, if Mr Biden is President, there would be "probably… a more sophisticated balance," Mr Strangio told ST Asian Insider, speaking alongside Mr Hiebert.

The US would likely engage China in areas where it would be mutually beneficial, he said.

"There will be more continuity than change but we'll see a certain level-headedness and coherence," Mr Strangio said.