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…
"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…
"Q (Inaudible.) South Korea and Japan exports are (inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. South Korea and I have made a deal. They’ve agreed to pay a lot more money toward the United States. As you know, we’ve got 32,000 soldiers on South Korean soil, and we’ve been helping them for about 82 years. And we get nothing. We get virtually nothing. And South Korea and I have made a deal where they’re paying a lot more money, and they’re going to pay a lot more money…
"MR. FARRIS: You recently spoke at the extraordinary event sponsored by Secretary Pompeo, the Ministerial on International Religious Freedom. And I know this has been an important issue for you for many years. Can you tell us what you think the state of the world is on religious freedom — not just for Christians, but for people of all faith?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, first, let me again say how grateful I am that President Trump has made religious liberty around the world a priority…
"Vice President Pence met today with several champions of religious freedom. Joined by Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, the Vice President reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to stand with people of every faith in every country around the world, including in the People’s Republic of China where the administration will continue to call upon Beijing to respect the rights enshrined in China’s constitution to allow Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian believers throughout the country the freedom to practice their faiths."
"Q Mr. President, why the tariffs against China now? And are you concerned about the nosedive the Dow took today as a result?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m not concerned about that at all. I expected that a little bit because people don’t understand quite yet about what’s happened.
We’ve taxed China on 300 billion dollars’ worth of goods and products being sold into our country. And China eats it because they have to pay it. Because what they do is they devalue their currency and…
"Q If China doesn’t fulfill its commitment to buy U.S. agricultural products, what will you do?
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll see what happens with China. I think we’ll do very well with China. We’re already doing very well with China. China has had the worst year they’ve had in 27 years, and we’re having the best year we’ve ever had. The stock market just hit an all-time high. We’re doing the best we’ve ever done. All three indexes — if you look at it — indices…
Joe Biden: "The United States should push back on China’s deepening authoritarianism, even as we seek to cooperate on issues where our interests are aligned. It is inspiring to see the brave people of Hong Kong demonstrating peacefully for the civil liberties and autonomy promised by Beijing. The world is watching; we should all stand in support of democratic principles and freedom.
The forced detention of over a million Uighur Muslims in western China is unconscionable. America should speak out against the internment camps in…
Joe Biden: "The next president will almost certainly inherit a North Korea nuclear challenge that is worse than when President Trump took office. After three made-for-TV summits, we still don't have a single concrete commitment from North Korea. Not one missile or nuclear weapon has been destroyed, not one inspector is on the ground. If anything, the situation has gotten worse. North Korea has more capability today than when Trump began his “love affair” with Kim Jong-un, a murderous tyrant who, thanks to Trump, is…
"THE PRESIDENT: So I just want to tell you the economy is doing fantastically well. We have people over in China right now. We’re negotiating with China. We’ll see what happens. We’re either going to make a great deal or we’re not going to make a deal at all. But a lot of great things are happening, and including with China. [...]
THE PRESIDENT: So the talks are moving very well with China, but they were often with China. But China always makes a new deal…
"And, of course, today, our team returned to China to continue negotiations with a nation that represents half of our international trade deficit.
As you all have witnessed, so far, President Trump has taken a strong stand. We’ve imposed as much as $250 billion in tariffs on China. And I’ll make you a promise: This President and this administration is going to continue to stand strong until China opens its markets and starts treating American workers and American companies the way they deserve to be…
Joe Biden: "When it comes to trade, either we're going to write the rules of the road for the world or China is – and not in a way that advances our values. That's what happened when we backed out of TPP – we put China in the driver's seat. That's not good for our national security or for our workers. TPP wasn’t perfect but the idea behind it was a good one: to unite countries around high standards for workers, the environment, intellectual property…
"In 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement ended more than 3 years of brutal fighting against communist expansionism and tyranny on the Korean Peninsula. On National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, we honor the brave patriots who secured freedom and democracy in the Republic of Korea, and we pay tribute to the more than 23,600 Americans who were killed in action and the more than 103,000 who were wounded in that conflict.
The dedication stone at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., bears the…
"When the wealthiest economies claim developing-country status, they harm not only other developed economies but also economies that truly require special and differential treatment. Such disregard for adherence to WTO rules, including the likely disregard of any future rules, cannot continue to go unchecked.
China most dramatically illustrates the point. Since joining the WTO in 2001, China has continued to insist that it is a developing country and thus has the right to avail itself of flexibilities under any new WTO rules. The United States…
"Look, I look at deals that were done with other Presidents and this country, and it’s a disgrace that our country has allowed this to happen — where China, for years and years and years was making from $300 billion to $507 billion a year, okay? Now we’re taking in billions of dollars from China, and it’s all turning around.
Whether a deal is made — you know, they’re going next week; they have more meetings. Meeting after meeting. I don’t think, personally, China would…
"The World — the World Trade Organization has been a horrible thing for us. That’s what built China. That, and the fact that our former Presidents did nothing about the fact that China was making hundreds of billions of dollars a year. And I guess they didn’t see it. I mean, 25 years, they didn’t see it. But we see it. And right now, they’re paying us billions and billions of dollars, folks. (Applause.) Billions. And they want to — they want to make a…
"We’re also standing up for the persecuted Rohingya people in Burma. While that conflict has fallen along ethnic lines, we cannot ignore the rise of militant Buddhism against Muslim and Christian minorities that’s taken place. A brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya has forced more than 700,000 to flee across the border to Bangladesh. And though the United States has repeatedly urged the Burmese government to hold accountable all those responsible, the government has continued to imprison and harass innocent men and women.
…"Vice President Pence met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters of New Zealand. Vice President Pence expressed his solidarity on behalf of the American people with the people of New Zealand and their leaders for their response to the terror attacks at the two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March. The Vice President and the Deputy Prime Minister also discussed our shared commitment to the Pacific Islands nations and our trade relationship."
"MR. COSTA: You brought up China. If you were elected, would you keep the tariffs on China?
SEN. SANDERS: No. If I were elected, we'd sit down and try to develop trade policies that work for the working people of this country and poor people around the world.
It is no secret--and I say this as somebody who helped lead the effort against NAFTA, PNTR with China, and other trade agreements--that these trade agreements were most often written behind closed doors by corporate leaders. And…
"I could possibly say a couple of things about North Korea. When I took over — when I became President, North Korea was ready to go to war. We were, I think, headed to a war. It would have been very quickly, too. It would have been a very bad war, a very rough war. But I believe we were headed in that one direction. There was no communication. There was no talk. There were nuclear weapons being — and nuclear everything being tested. Constantly…
"You read yesterday where China is down very substantially. They’re having the worst year they’ve had in 27 years. I don’t want to have them have bad years. But we made a deal and they broke the deal on me. The deal was done. It was practically done. It was just like a very short period of time, we would’ve had it finished. And they broke the deal. They decided they didn’t want to do the things that they had agreed to. So I said…
"Previous administrations allowed foreign countries to steal our jobs and plunder our wealth. They stole our wealth. They stole so much, and it was allowed to go on so long. But it’s not going on any longer. You take a look at what’s happening. Look at today’s front page in the Wall Street Journal. You’ll see where China has had its worst year in 27 years. And I’m not looking for that. But we had a deal with China, and they decided not to make…