Republican White House hopeful Jon Huntsman called on Monday for the US to forge trade deals with Taiwan and Japan and said that, if elected, he might use force to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
“I cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran. If you want an example of when I would consider the use of American force, it would be that,” the former US ambassador to China said in a campaign speech laying out his foreign policy vision.
Huntsman said the US “should pursue trade agreements with Japan and Taiwan” — a step likely to anger China.
A top US diplomat in July ruled out a US-Taiwan free-trade agreement (FTA) for now amid a dispute over beef imports, but supporters of such a measure say it could pave the way for Taiwan’s neighbors to seek closer economic ties.
Negotiations between the US and Taiwan on a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, often a precursor to a full-fledged FTA, have been dormant since 2007.
A Huntsman aide said his goal was “not formal diplomatic relations” with Taiwan, but “to develop more robust economic ties.”
Huntsman vowed to take a tougher line on Pakistan, charging it has a “fractured military that sponsors terrorism,” while seeking closer ties to India — including by backing its bid to become a permanent UN Security Council member.
Huntsman also pushed for the US to “end nation-building” as a tool of statecraft and called for a swift withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he said was no longer the epicenter of Islamist extremist threats to US targets.
“We must right-size our current foreign entanglements,” the former Utah governor said at a university in the key early-primary state of New Hampshire.
Huntsman, who said two weeks ago that he would sign legislation that aims to punish China for its alleged currency manipulation, added that the measure “in practice would be bad, because it would result in a trade war.”
At the same time, he said he would use the bill, which was expected to clear the US Senate yesterday, as “leverage” to get China to let its yuan appreciate “just a little bit faster and a little more aggressively.”
Huntsman also assaulted his former boss’ handling of world affairs, charging that US President Barack Obama’s “policies have weakened America and thus diminished America’s presence on the global stage.”
“We must correct our course,” said the former diplomat, who is seen as a long shot for the party’s nomination to take on Obama in the November 2012 elections.
Huntsman said the US military must become more agile — not — and said that when it comes to Afghanistan “it is time to bring our brave troops home,” while leaving an unspecified number of counterterrorism, intelligence and special forces assets there.
“Afghanistan was once the center of the terrorist threat to America. That is no longer the case,” he said.
“We must be prepared to respond to threats — from al-Qaeda and other terrorist cells — that emanate from a much more diverse geography, including Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Pakistan and the Asia-Pacific,” he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The