Taiwanese-American entrepreneur Andrew Yang (楊安澤) on Thursday night said that US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would handle foreign policy issues very differently from his Republican rival, US President Donald Trump, adding that there would be a re-evaluation of the traditional democratic approach to relations with Taiwan and China if a new president takes office next year.
Yang made the remarks in a speech at a virtual forum hosted by Taiwanese online news outlet Storm Media and Yangmingshan Future Studies to discuss issues relating to technology, social changes and the US presidential election on Tuesday.
Yang, who was one of the 24 candidates in the Democratic presidential primary, has joined Biden’s campaign after suspending his own in February.
During the question-and-
answer session, Yang was asked about his opinion on a poll by British data analytics firm YouGov that showed Taiwan is the only country in Asia that favors Trump over Biden in the election, as well as the perception in Taiwan that Biden would be soft toward China.
“During the last four years, there has been an evolution in the way that many people view the US-China relationship. I am not sure if it would be natural for the new administration to somehow revert to the previous administration’s approach to China, given the changes in the last four years. I think that there would be a desire for a reset, as the US-China relationship became very fraught in some dimensions. I would ask people who were focused on this set of issues to wait and see what Joe’s approaches look like, and they may see that something has shifted from the last democratic administration,” Yang said.
Another panelist asked Yang if he thought a Biden win would help reduce tensions between the US, China and Taiwan.
“I believe that Biden-led America is going to be very engaged in international issues in a very different way from the Trump administration. Joe was very distraught with what he sees as America’s receding place in the world. He wants to invest a significant amount of energy in changing the dynamics, and hopefully that is positive for reducing the level of tension in the Taiwan Strait,” Yang said.
“Taiwan has to try to make itself felt in American politics regardless of the party in charge of the administration. There is going to be a re-evaluation of the traditional democratic approach to the relations with Taiwan and with China in 2021. That is an opportunity for Taiwan,” he said. “It would be truly awful for one of the democratic success stories in the last number of decades to somehow change, and that perspective even transcends the US-China relations. That speaks to the fundamental principle of what America is and what it stands for.”
As an Asian American competing in the Democratic primary for president and an advocate for a universal basic income scheme, Yang added that he saw his rise to the national political scene as “an enormously positive thing” for the Asian-American community in the US.
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