Former president Donald Trump said his administration was not “owned” by communist China, unlike many of its predecessors.
“They owned us. Until I came along, they just owned every president, including the presidents I like,” Trump said about China in an interview with Fox News’s Brett Baier aired on June 19.
The former president pointed to his record of slapping tariffs on hundreds of billions’ worth of Chinese goods and having China sign a trade deal in January 2020. If elected president in 2024, Trump said he would maintain the China tariffs.
“I would keep the China tariffs on,” Trump said. “Absolutely. It is a tremendous power thing.”
Unlike his predecessors, who pursued a policy of engagement with China, Trump decided to confront the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head-on, pushing back against its malign and hostile behaviors.
Trump began hitting China with tariffs after a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) investigation in 2018 found that the communist regime was engaging in illegal practices, including excessive government subsidies and intellectual property theft. Beijing retaliated by slappings tariffs on U.S. goods before the two sides signed a trade deal in January 2020.
The Department of Justice under the Trump administration launched the “China Initiative” program, resulting in a surge in prosecutions against China’s state-sanctioned theft of trade secrets. The program has since been terminated under the Biden administration, though a Republican congressman has introduced legislation to revive the initiative.
The Trump administration also thwarted China’s 5G ambitions, as the United States and many other countries decided not to use equipment made by Chinese telecom Huawei over security concerns. Meanwhile, security and privacy concerns surrounding Chinese apps, such as TikTok and WeChat, started to be made headlines in the United States when Trump was president.
Taiwan
During his Fox interview, Trump declined to reveal whether he would support Taiwan’s independence. The issue is now under scrutiny after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the United States does not “support Taiwan independence” in a press conference after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China on June 19.“We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences,” Blinken said. “We remain committed to meeting our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act, including making sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.”
Baier asked Trump, “Should Taiwan be independent?”
Trump replied, “So if I tell you an answer, it’s going to hurt me in negotiations on the assumption that I win.”
Later, Baier asked, “If China invaded Taiwan, would you go to war to defend Taiwan?”
Trump responded, “I don’t want to say that because that hurts me in negotiations with regard to President Xi.”
China sees Taiwan as a part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to annex the island. Internationally, Taiwan is widely recognized as a de facto independent state with its own military, constitution, and democratically elected government officials.
Washington and Taipei are not formal allies, and the United States has maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity”—meaning that the United States is deliberately vague on whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense.
Blinken’s comment on Taiwan has since drawn criticism from some Republican lawmakers.
“The Biden administration is giving China a green light to increase its intimidation of our ally, Taiwan,” Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) wrote on Twitter. “This is a dangerous display of weakness towards our adversaries on the world stage.”
Rep. Lisa Mcclain (R-Mich.) wrote in a tweet that Blinken “couldn’t be more wrong,” before adding, “We must always stand by Taiwan, especially as they face blatant #CCP aggression.”
