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.
"Democrats will take aggressive action against China or any other country that tries to undercut American manufacturing by manipulating their currencies and maintaining a misaligned exchange rate with the dollar, dumping products like steel and aluminum in our markets, or providing unfair subsidies. Unlike President Trump, we will stand up to efforts from China and other state actors to steal America’s intellectual property and will demand China and other countries cease and desist from conducting cyber espionage against our companies. And we will take immediate…
"U.S. Leadership in the Asian Pacific
We are a Pacific nation with economic, military, and cultural ties to all the countries of the oceanic rim and treaty alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand. With them, we look toward the establishment of human rights for the people of North Korea. We urge the government of China to recognize the inevitability of change in the Kim family's slave state and, for everyone's safety against nuclear disaster, to hasten positive change on the Korean…
“Mike Pence: (32:06): They have a $2 trillion version of the Green New Deal, Susan, that your newspaper, USA Today, said really wasn’t that very different from the original Green New Deal. More taxes, more regulation, banning fracking, abolishing fossil fuel, crushing American energy and economic surrender to China is a prescription for economic decline. President Trump and I will keep America growing, the V-shape recovery that’s underway right now will continue with four more years of President Donald Trump [crosstalk 00:32:37] […]
Kamala Harris…
"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…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We are close friends with Singapore and with Prime Minister Lee, and we’ve gotten to know each other very well.
And we’re signing a memorandum of defense — really, an understanding. And it’s a very strong understanding. We know where we are. We have an extraordinary relationship with Singapore and with the Prime Minister.
And we’re going to be — there’ll be a lot of — a lot of trade involved in our agreement today. We’re going to…
"Q Mr. President, after your last meeting with the Prime Minister, you offered to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. And since then, the situation has gotten more complicated, and India continues to deny our access in the region. So where does the offer stand now on (inaudible)?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It would always stand. If I can help, I would certainly do that. And it will be dependent on both of these gentlemen. One without the other doesn’t work, if you’re going to do…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We’re pleased to be with President Moon of South Korea. We have a long-term friendship, and we are making a lot of progress. We are working on tremendous trade deals. We — as you know, we’ve completed a trade deal, and that’s working out very well for both countries. That deal is completed now, and it’s been in existence for — solidly in existence for six months. And it’s been very good.
And we intend to do some…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. As we just said, we signed a very important agreement having to do with defense and mutual defense, and I guess you could say mutual offense, also.
But we — we’re now going to talk about trade. We do tremendous amounts of trade with Singapore. And the Prime Minister — highly respected. One of the truly most respected men anywhere in the world. And he’s been my friend for a long time. And we’re doing very well. But…
"Q Mr. President, did Sheldon Adelson or any other Republican donors ask you to tone down your trade dispute with China just because they’re concerned about the economy or the impact?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, we’re doing very well with China. We are way up. Our stock market is up many, many, many trillions of dollars, and our country’s worth is up many trillions of dollars. And China is down many trillions of dollars.
If my opponent had won the election, China’s economy would have surpassed…
"This is a very special occasion. Today, we celebrate the extraordinary economic partnership between our nations and we proudly declare that Pratt Industries and this great, great state of Ohio is open for business. (Applause.) Open for business.
And Pratt has pledged, as I said, to invest many billions of dollars in the United States. It’s okay if you come back to Ohio. You know, you can keep coming back here. Do you — I think we want him back. He’ll do another couple of…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Prime Minister Morrison, Mrs. Morrison: Melania and I are immensely honored to host you and the entire Australian delegation for a State Dinner in the historic Rose Garden. I want to thank America’s magnificent First Lady for this truly exquisite evening. Thank you very much to Melania. She worked hard. Thank you. (Applause.) Great job.
Tonight, we celebrate more than a century of loyal and devoted friendship between the United States and Australia. Both of our nations are blessed by the uncommon courage…
"Q Mr. President, will you be asking Australia to do more when it comes to China?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it. What?
Q Will you be asking Australia to do more when it comes to China?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re talking about China all the time. And Scott has very strong opinions on China. And I think I’d let him, maybe, express those opinions. Maybe you do it right now. You’re not going to get a better audience than this. (Laughter.)
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: We —…
"Q Did Chairman Kim invite you to North Korea in that (inaudible)?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t want to comment on that.
Q Okay.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: The relationship is very good, but I don’t want to comment on it.
Q Would you be willing to go there?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I just don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment.
Q Would you be willing to go to North Korea?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Probably not. I don’t think it’s ready. I don’t think we’re ready for that. I…
"On October 16, 2018, my Administration notified the Congress that I intended to initiate trade negotiations with Japan on a United States-Japan Trade Agreement. As stated in that notification and subsequent consultations with the Congress, my Administration proposed pursuing negotiations with Japan in stages. I am pleased to report that my Administration has reached an initial trade agreement regarding tariff barriers (the “agreement”) with Japan and I intend to enter into the agreement in the coming weeks.
Accordingly, pursuant to section 103(a)(2) of the Bipartisan…
"I will tell you, we’re doing very well with China, because China would like to do something. We’re taking in billions and billions of tariffs. And they’re eating the cost. This is not being borne very much by us. They’re eating the costs. But we’re taking in billions and billions. Money flowing in. We’ve never taken in 10 cents from China. And they want to do something because their supply lines, their supply chains, are being broken like toys. And people are leaving, and people…
"And since we took office, the President has pursued an ambitious trade agenda built on the principles of free and fair and reciprocal trade. We made a new trade deal with South Korea. We reached an agreement in principle with Japan for a free trade agreement. We’ve put China on notice. We ended the era of economic surrender by using the power of the United States economy. And this morning, we announced that negotiations on a new trade deal with China will resume in October."
…"Q Sir, if this storm stays on track, going through Georgia and the Carolinas —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — it will hit farmland. Many farmers are already having problems there. What do you have in place to help them if there is devastation —
THE PRESIDENT: Good question.
Q — as there has been in the past?
THE PRESIDENT: We’re very well prepared for that. Last time, if you remember, when it hit Mexico Beach, we — wiped out a large, large farm areas…
"VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: [...] And we’re also grateful, with China’s increased activity and efforts to make the economic investments in the region, that, so far, Iceland has declined the Belt and Road Initiative.
And we also spoke today — and perhaps we can again — about the United States’ concerns about 5G and our desire to work with Iceland and other freedom-loving nations to find alternatives to essentially China’s state-based 5G operation."
"Q Mr. President, back on China. Before you even became President, the relationship with this nation and China was complicated. And now, tensions have escalated with a war of words.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think it’s complicated, April. I think it’s very simple. We can’t be ripped off by China anymore. You know, I think he understands that. I actually think our relationship now is much less complicated than it was previous to me, when they were ripping off our country.
Q So here’s the…
"Q What action should be taken to address China and Russia in the area? Which steps should be taken? What action?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, first, let me begin by saying what I told the Foreign Minister today: The United States is grateful for the stand Iceland took rejecting China’s Belt and Road financial investment in Iceland. We truly believe that it is essential that we strengthen the ties that bind nations across this region of the world. And for Iceland to take that stand…