Asia Matters for America
America Matters for Asia
Explore US-Asia National and Local Connections
An initiative of the East-West Center and Asia Matters for America partners and stakeholders
The 2020 Presidential Candidates on the Indo-Pacific resource highlighted mentions of Indo-Pacific issues by US presidential candidates and nominees in speeches, campaign documents, and debates.
To view statements by President Trump prior to his June 18, 2019 declaration to seek a second term, as well as members of his Cabinet, visit The Trump Administration & US - Indo-Pacific Relations.
"Kristen Welker: (09:22)I do want to ask you, Vice-President Biden, about China. Let’s talk about China more broadly. There have, of course, President Trump has said that they should pay for not being fully transparent in regards to the coronavirus. If you were president, would you make China pay? And please be specific, what would that look like?
Joe Biden: (09:41)What I’d make China do is play by the international rules, not like he has done. He has caused the deficit of the…
"Q Mr. President, what do you expect out of the China talks on trade this week in Beijing?
THE PRESIDENT: The China talks are going very well. I spoke to President Xi recently. I really believe they want to make a deal. The tariffs have absolutely hurt China very badly. But our country is taking in a lot of money through tariffs. A lot of money. A lot of tariffs; steel-dumping tariffs and others.
But I think China wants to get it resolved. Their economy…
"One of the other things I’d like to mention is I had a very successful meeting, about a month ago, with President Xi in Argentina. The President of China. And he and I had a meeting that was going to be 45 minutes; it lasted close to four hours. It was very successful.
One of the things I asked him to do was fentanyl, if you would criminalize it, because it’s not criminal. And China has very strong criminal penalties. It’s called the death penalty…
"I just got a great letter from Kim Jong Un. And those few people that I’ve shown this letter to — they’ve never written letters like that. This letter is a great letter. We’ve made a lot of progress with North Korea and Kim Jong Un. And Chairman Kim has been — we’ve had a — we’ve really established a very good relationship. A lot of good things are happening.
And I never said speed. Look, it’s been this way for 80-plus years. We had…