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…
"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 Second to that, do you believe that China is sincere about what it said this morning?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.
Q Or do you think that they are just trying to calm the markets and play for time? Because our sister network, the Fox Business Network, has been told by Chinese sources that they have no plans on going back to where they were in terms of the negotiations this spring on intellectual property, forced technology transfer, ownership. So —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll see, John.
…"Q Do you still believe that the EU treats the U.S. worse than China on trade, after your discussions?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think the European Union — and I’ve said this openly; I say it with respect — I think they’re as tough as China. I really do. I think they’re very tough. The United States has been not treated particularly well over the years. And I’m not saying that as — it should have been the other way around, but it wasn’t. I congratulate…
"Q Mr. President, are your allies pressuring you to give up the trade war with China?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Not at all. I haven’t heard that at all, no. I think they respect the trade war. It has to happen. China has been — I can only speak for the United States. I can’t say what they’ve been doing to the UK and to other places. But from the standpoint of the United States, what they’ve done is outrageous that Presidents and administrations allowed them…
"THE PRESIDENT: We’re going to France. We’re going to have a good few days. I think it will be very productive seeing a lot of the leaders, who are friends of mine, for the most part. I wouldn’t say in a hundred percent of the cases, but for the most part.
And I think we’re doing very well. Our economy is doing great.
We’re having a little spat with China, and we’ll win it. We put a lot of tariffs on China today, as you…
"THE PRESIDENT: So, we’re doing very well with China. We’re talking to China. We’re not ready to make a deal, but we’ll see what happens. But, you know, we’ve been hurt by China for 25, 30 years. Nobody has done anything about it. And we have no choice but to do what we’re doing.
It’s working out very well, as you know. We called them on manipulation and they brought their numbers back, and they brought them back rapidly. And they were able to do…