China is a foreign adversary with the intention and capacity to displace the current U.S.-led world order. Both parties agree on that now; however, the two presidential candidates’ approaches will differ.
Former President Donald Trump hinted at reigniting the trade war, suggesting he may impose more than 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. The Trump-centered Republican platform also pledges to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status, which grants it free trade benefits with the United States, and phase out imports of essential goods such as electronics, steel, and pharmaceuticals.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump (L) and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris during an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2024. Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly said that her priority is to ensure “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.” She has also emphasized derisking, not decoupling, with China. In short, she has indicated no sign of divergence from the Biden administration’s China policies.
The then-Sen. Harris (D-Calif.) supported cutting the defense budget in 2020: “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the defense budget and redirecting funding to communities in need.”
More recently, she said the United States’s air and space supremacy is essential to ensuring global peace and security, and the Biden administration has kept defense spending steady.
Trump emphasizes maintaining peace by showing military strength. During his term, he focused on modernizing nuclear weapons and stopped the trend of cuts to the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
Related Story
On Taiwan, Harris said in September 2022 that the United States would “continue to oppose any unilateral change to the status quo” and “continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense, consistent with our long-standing policy.”
Trump has recently sparked controversy by saying Taiwan should pay the United States for its defense.
On fentanyl, Harris called the drug a “scourge on our country” last month. Without mentioning China, she pledged, “As president, I will make it a top priority to disrupt the flow of fentanyl into the United States.”
Trump said that if he were reelected, he would call Xi and ask the Chinese communist leader to give death penalties to Chinese fentanyl dealers. According to Trump, he had a “handshake deal” with Xi on that issue while he was in office.
Xi had previously promised Trump to rein in Chinese fentanyl traffickers and added more than 1,400 known fentanyl variations to the list of narcotics under Chinese state control in May 2019. However, the Trump administration saw no large-scale Chinese law enforcement actions to reinforce the regulation.
Similarly, the Biden administration’s U.S.–China counternarcotics cooperation program has resulted in only one arrest by China.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have been vocal critics of human rights abuses in China. In 2020, Harris told the Council on Foreign Relations that China’s “abysmal human rights record” must be prominently featured in U.S. policy toward the country.
While facing criticism for publicly praising Xi, Trump has also presided over several milestones in terms of Chinese human rights.
On its last day, the Trump administration declared that the Chinese regime had committed ongoing “genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.”
Trump was also the first U.S. president to meet with a Falun Gong practitioner, along with other survivors of religious persecution from China and elsewhere. The CCP perceives Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa—a spiritual practice that follows the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—as one of the top threats to its rule, along with Taiwanese independence, Tibetan independence, Xinjiang “separatists,” and the Chinese democracy movement.
The Biden administration continued the policy, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken imposing visa restrictions on another Chinese communist official for “arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs.”
—Terri Wu
BOOKMARKS
Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled details of her “opportunity agenda for Black men” ahead of an already-scheduled Oct. 14 rally in Eerie, Pennsylvania. The plan features forgivable small-business loans and increased research into sickle-cell anemia, a disease that primarily affects Black men.
Canada and India expelled each other’s diplomats on Monday following an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that accused some Indian officials of being responsible for homicides and organized crime in Canada. Indian government officials responded that the Canadian government has “consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”
The U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, has warned Americans to flee the country immediately as the Israel-Hezbolllah conflict is reaching a boiling point. The warning comes after an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Lebanon on Monday and a Hezbollah drone strike on an Israeli military base the day before.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declined to give a full endorsement of the Kids Online Safety Act that passed the Senate earlier this summer, saying some parts of it are “very problematic” and would need reworking to pass the House. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) agreed, saying the bill could be used to give “more power to the Biden administration over censorship “ and to oppose “conservative organizations, like pro-life groups.”
Former President Donald Trump proposed a 10 percent pay raise and a $10,000 retention bonus for all border patrol agents during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, over the weekend. The announcement came two days after Vice President Kamala Harris’ revelation, also in Arizona, that she intends to form a bipartisan advisory council if elected.
—Stacy Robinson
