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…
"Prime Minister Abe, the First Lady and I are profoundly honored to return to this very beautiful nation as Japan’s first state guests following the enthronement of His Majesty the Emperor. On behalf of the United States, we want to thank the Imperial Family for this gracious invitation and warm welcome. It was really wonderful.
Melania and I are thrilled to be back in the Land of the Rising Sun. It is a true privilege to take part in the splendor of this historic moment and…
"Vice President Mike Pence spoke by phone last night with Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia Scott Morrison, congratulating him on his Coalition’s win in the Australian Federal elections. He reaffirmed the strong bilateral relationship and enduring alliance between the United States and Australia."
"Perhaps the greatest challenge NATO will face in the coming decades is how we must all adjust to the rise of the People’s Republic of China. And adjust we must. For determining how to meet the challenge of Chinese 5G technology, meet the challenge of the easy money offered by China’s Belt and Road Initiative, is a challenge European allies must contend with every day.
Whether we like it or not, the implications of China’s rise will profoundly affect the choices NATO members will face…
"We have a big team over in China right now, and they’re working very hard, dealing with the Chinese. We want very much to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. But the tariffs are bringing a tremendous amount of money to our Treasury. And as you read, of the 21 points — and actually, the number would be 25 now, on the areas that are taxed at 25. China is paying for 21, and we’re paying for 4. So that’s pretty good.
But we’re…
"MARGARET BRENNAN: North Korea. When and where are you going to meet Kim Jong Un?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I won't tell you yet, but you'll be finding out probably State of the Union or shortly before. But the meeting is set. He's looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. We've made tremendous progress. If you remember, before I became president, it looked like we were going to war with North Korea. Now we have a very good relationship. The hostages are back. Okay…
I will be talking a lot about reciprocal trade over the next six years. Hopefully, we’ll have it done in two years or less. And we will see deficits down to a level that would really — you know, we talk about “Make America Great Again”; we have to do these things to make America great again. Because we can’t lose almost $800 billion on trade, like has been done for many years. And it’s been numbers — they varied anywhere from $300 billion to…