This resource tracked statements, developments, visits, and other interactions in US-Indo-Pacific relations under the President Trump administration. Special focus was given to the comments and activities of President Donald J. Trump; Vice President Mike Pence; United States Trade Representative Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Jr.; former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; former Secretary of Defense James Mattis; and former Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark Esper.
The Trump Administration & US - Indo-Pacific Relations
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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Alec Gartner of KSNT-TV NBC 27 Topeka - China
"QUESTION: Well, thank you obviously for joining me today. We’ll jump right into it. I imagine you’re going to be asked a lot about Chinese tariffs today and all of the trade war or at least back-and-forth with China. Can you kind of give us an update of where we stand? And right now it would seem like there was ramping out recently of tariffs. How is it looking right now?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So I remember when I was a member of Congress I watched…
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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Steve McIntosh of Wichita KNSS - China
"QUESTION: Yeah, and what’s interesting, I just thought of this. You talk with people, some people we’ve got problems with, like Iran maybe and China, and you talk with them. Is there – sometimes do you feel like – because they come from a whole different mindset when it comes to liberty, civil liberties and so forth. Is there sometimes a little block there that they don’t understand what you’re talking about?
SECRETARY POMPEO: It’s the case that this an exceptional nation that we’re privileged…
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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Marleah Campbell of WIBW-TV CBS 13 Topeka - China
"QUESTION: Kansas farmers are worried about tariffs amid the ongoing trade war with China. Is this a long-term strategy? What reassurances can you offer? And what is the greater good to be achieved?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, I remember when I was a congressman from south central Kansas, I’d hear from farmers all the time about how China wouldn’t let them sell their wheat or their corn or their dairy products, whatever it may have been. And President Trump’s taking that on. He’s opening these markets…
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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo with Pete Mundo of KCMO - North Korea
"QUESTION: Well, it’s great to have you back in the state. And I know you obviously have a lot on your plate around the world right now. It’s – there’s never a slow time for you, even though it might be slow for Congress right now. When you look at what is happening right now, Mr. Secretary, with North Korea and some of the missile tests that they are undergoing, it seems like there have been corners of the administration that don’t seem overly concerned…
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Secretary Pompeo's Remarks In Defense of the American Rights Tradition - China
"And frankly, there is far too little agreement anymore on what an unalienable right truly is. Just because a treaty or a law or some writing says it’s a right, it doesn’t make it an unalienable right. Remember where these rights came from.
This confusion – this confusion has opened the door for countless countries that don’t share our respect for human rights to use corrupt understandings of this notion to achieve their evil ends.
Let me give you just one example. Over the past…
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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Lily Wu of KAKE-TV ABC 4 Wichita - China
"QUESTION: And like, kind of talking about along the lines of other countries – Asia specifically – China-U.S. trade obviously is the hot topic. I wanted to kind of hear more about how we’re putting America first, but still trying to position ourselves in a smart position.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah. Well, it’s a great question because it’s been a focus of mine and of President Trump’s as well. I was harkened back to my time. I would travel around the state and meet with manufacturers…
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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Caroline Sweeney, KCTV 5 CBS Kansas City - China
"QUESTION: Let’s talk a little bit about diplomacy. I spent a lot of time, especially being in Kansas City, on both the Kansas and the Missouri side talking to farmers and members of rural communities that are concerned about these tariffs and some of the conversations that they’re hearing about, the future discussions with China. What do you want these people to know about what’s going to happen with them?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah. Look, I remember when I was a member of Congress. I remember…
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Remarks by Vice President Pence at the Lord Mayor’s International Trade Dinner - South Korea, Japan, and China
"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."
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Remarks by President Trump in Briefing on Hurricane Dorian - China
"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…
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Remarks by Vice President Pence in a Press Gaggle - China
"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…
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Remarks by Vice President Pence and Prime Minister Jakobsdóttir of Iceland Before Bilateral Meeting - China
"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."
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Remarks by President Trump at the Announcement of State Opioid Response Grants - China
"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…