Trump's Foreign Policy Nostalgia
Trump's Foreign Policy Nostalgia
Trump Tells Taiwan to Pay, “Peace through Strength”, Are Trump's McKinley references simply "Nostalgia for Empire"?
Trump Tells Taiwan to Pay
By GT staff reporters
The latest remarks by former US president Donald Trump, who has officially become the Republican nominee, suggesting that Taiwan island pay the US for its defense, are a slap in the face to the island's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities. These remarks expose the so-called US commitment to Taiwan as an empty promise, and many people on the island have expressed their anger at being coerced into becoming cannon fodder for the US while potentially being charged for it, observers said.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg Businessweek published an interview with Trump, who said that Taiwan island should pay the US for its defense as it does not give the US anything and that the island "did take about 100 percent" of the American chip business.
In response to media inquiry about Trump's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday that "we are opposed to making China an issue in US elections."
Following Trump's remarks, shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) fell by as much as 3.3 percent on Wednesday. According to media reports, Taiwan politician Cho Jung-tai responded to Trump's remarks by stating that the island was increasing its capability to defend itself and that the island and the US have "good relations despite the lack of formal ties.
Trump's remarks sparked controversy on the island of Taiwan. Although the presidential election in the US has not started, some netizens commented on social media that Trump's words are a slap and a "huge frustration" to the DPP authorities, who have touted the so-called firm support for Taiwan from the US.
"Only fools would believe that Americans would fight for Taiwan… Look at what happened to Afghanistan… the US' infamous record is so obvious to see," wrote one Taiwan netizen.
Trump's remarks have also fueled skepticism about the US' so-called promise to Taiwan island. Many people on the island are also angry, viewing these comments as akin to a gang breaking into someone's home, forcing them to buy expensive items, and charging extortion payments for the so-called protection, Wang Wu-lang, secretary-general of the Cross-Straits Peace Forum, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
During former regional leader Tsai Ing-wen's tenure, people in Taiwan island not only spent an exorbitant amount of money on American weaponry, far beyond market prices, but were also forced to import and purchase American beef or pork containing ractopamine, and more. Moreover, a substantial budget was allocated to invite American politicians to the island. All of these actions are seen as a form of paying the "protection money" or "tribute," Wang said.
However, no matter how much "protection money" Taiwan pays, it cannot change the legal and historical fact that Taiwan is part of China, nor can it stop the inevitable historical trend of China's complete reunification, said Wang.
Some observers noted that at this moment, the DPP authorities and those who seek "Taiwan independence" are feeling pressure not only from the mainland's firm advancement of its anti-independence and pro-reunification strategy, but also from the possibility of Trump's return to power.
Trump's statements have revealed what many American politicians think of Taiwan. Wang noted that the DPP's longstanding claims of a steadfast commitment between Taiwan and the US are empty. The DPP authorities worry that Trump might commodify the Taiwan issue, using it as a bargaining chip to secure the greatest benefits for the US.
The DPP authorities have turned Taiwan into a pawn for the US to contain the Chinese mainland, increasing the danger of turning the island into a battlefield. It is the people on the island who will suffer, and those who seek "Taiwan independence" will also face a dead end, analysts said.
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“Peace through Strength”
By Arthur Herman (Hudson Institute)
The world has rarely looked so dangerous. The need for a strong and assertive American foreign policy has never been greater. For that reason, a second Trump term built on “peace through strength” will be welcomed not only by American voters but also by the free world at large.
What will a Trump foreign policy in his second term, look like? As the Biden presidency flounders, that’s the question foreign leaders from the NATO summit this past week to capitals in Africa, Latin America, and East Asia—not to mention dictators in Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran—are asking themselves.
Some have tried to read the tea leaves left from Trump’s first term. However, the world has changed drastically and for the worse since he left office in January of 2021, and America’s strategic position has sharply deteriorated after three and half years of Joe Biden in the White House. We’ve seen the catastrophic abandonment of Afghanistan, Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine, and Hamas and Iran attacking Israel. We’ve seen our southern border collapse thanks to illegal immigration and Mexican drug cartels.
America has been a largely passive spectator to China’s inexorable pressure on Taiwan as well as the Philippines. At the same time, Beijing’s influence in the Global South has gone unchecked—including in our own Latin American backyard.
We’ve seen a Russian nuclear submarine moored in Havana harbor, Iranian missiles attacking shipping in the Red Sea, and Vladimir Putin openly embracing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The possibility of World War III has never loomed larger. How Trump manages to reassert American leadership in a dangerous world will be a crucial part of his second-term legacy.
So, while the just-released Republican Party platform paints Trump’s outlook on the world in broad strokes (“Restore Peace in Europe and the Middle East” and “Strengthen and Modernize our Military”), a more detailed picture is contained in the recent Foreign Affairs article by former Trump National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, who is also a likely choice for Secretary of State. Entitled “The Return of Peace Through Strength,” it advances seven key principles that will guide a new Trump administration.
The first is there will be no more apologies for promoting American strength and national purpose, which remain the single greatest sources of peace and stability around the world. O’Brien writes, “As [Trump] proclaimed to the UN General Assembly in September 2020, the United States was ‘fulfilling its destiny as peacemaker, but it is peace through strength.’”
The second is rejecting the globalist agenda that has animated too much of U.S. foreign, defense, and trade policy. That agenda has not only enabled China’s ambitions for global hegemony but opened the floodgates to millions of illegal immigrants.
“Trump has never aspired to promulgate a ‘Trump Doctrine’ for the benefit of the Washington foreign policy establishment,” O’Brien explains.
“He adheres not to dogma but to his own instincts and to traditional American principles that run deeper than the globalist orthodoxies of recent decades.”
The third principle concerns China.
While President Biden and his team talk of expanding cooperation with the most dangerous threat to U.S. interests since the USSR, a Trump administration will return to pushing back against Beijing on everything from trade and Taiwan to refreshing and expanding our alliances in the Indo-Pacific. It will mobilise a strategy for checking Chinese influence in Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
In short, what was the hallmark of the first Trump administration—standing up to China—will be even more important in the second.
Fourth, Trump will reapply maximum pressure on Iran in order to halt its support of terrorist groups across the Middle East, from Hamas and Hezbollah to the Houthis, and to neuter its nuclear weapons program. The Biden policy of reversing Trump’s successful sanctions on Iran and appeasing Tehran will come to an end. At the same time, Trump will increase U.S. support to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to contain Iran’s influence.
As for Europe, a new Trump administration will pursue a policy that both constrains Vladimir Putin and strengthens NATO while working to end the war in Ukraine.
“Although critics often depicted Trump as hostile to traditional alliances, in reality, he enhanced most of them,” O’Brien writes. “His pressure on NATO governments to spend more on defense made the alliance stronger.”
The sixth key principle is rebuilding America’s military, including investment in high-tech weaponry and procurement reform—goals that are as important to our allies as they are to our own national security. Both policies will open the door to working with trusted allies on an “Arsenal of Democracies” for the twenty-first century akin to the Arsenal of Democracy that won World War II—and which will be an optimal way to strengthen strategic partnerships in Europe and Asia, including Japan, South Korea, and India.
Finally, a Trump administration will seek out stronger links with free-market-oriented democracies around the world (e.g., Hungary, Poland, Argentina) and support dissident and democratic movements in totalitarian countries (e.g., China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran). The populist revolution currently sweeping Europe, of which the Trump first term was a harbinger, offers opportunities for the United States to forge a new global partnership based on free markets, individual freedom, and economic growth instead of the dictates of globalist elites.
The world has rarely looked so dangerous. The need for a strong and assertive American foreign policy has never been more imperative. For that reason, a Trump second term built on “peace through strength” will be welcome not only to American voters but to the free world at large.
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J.D. Vance says China can't build middle class at America's expense
Trump's Republican running mate warns allies: 'No more free rides'
MILWAUKEE -- J.D. Vance, former U.S. President Donald Trump's running mate for November's election, told the Republican convention on Wednesday night that their administration would commit to workers, not Wall Street, and that American interests will be the top foreign policy priority.
Vance, a senator from Ohio, said that China must not be allowed to build its economy to the detriment of Americans, and that allies must do their part for global security.
His acceptance speech for the vice presidential nomination hinted at the future foreign policy of the Republican Party. The 39-year-old freshman senator, who came from humble beginnings, argued that the people he grew up with in Ohio suffered the consequences of trade decisions made by the ruling class in Washington.
"When I was in fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico," he said, referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, one of many jabs at the incumbent president.
"When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good American middle class manufacturing jobs," he said, pointing to the permanent most-favoured-nation status the U.S. granted China in 2000, which paved the way for Beijing's accession to the World Trade Organization the following year.
"When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq and in each step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio or next door in Pennsylvania or Michigan and states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas, and our children were sent to war," he said.
"We're done importing foreign labor," Vance said. "We're done buying energy from countries that hate us," he continued.
The U.S. must "stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens," he said, adding that the U.S. needs to make sure allies share in the burden of securing world peace. "No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer," he said.
On war, America will send troops overseas "only when we must," although he tempered his isolationist message by saying that when provoked, the U.S. would "punch hard."
Kenneth Weinstein, Japan chair at the Washington think tank Hudson Institute and an attendee at the Milwaukee convention, said Vance introduced himself to the American public and the world as a man who will never forget his roots in Middletown, Ohio. "In making a powerful case for Trump's America First policies, his acceptance speech marks the transformation of the GOP from an internationalist, country club party to a working-class one," he said.
Vance did not mention Ukraine or Israel in his speech and barely touched on international issues. His focus was on the travails of forgotten Americans. "But the implications are clear," Weinstein told Nikkei. "Our allies need to do more for their own security and need to bring greater reciprocity to the table regarding trade."
Trump, with a bandage on his right ear after Saturday's assassination attempt, nodded in approval as he watched his vice presidential candidate make their case.
Vance concluded his speech by returning once again to his origins. "To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and every corner of our nation, I promise you this. I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from."
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