DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 23: Candidates of the United States 2020 Presidential elections have pledged their will to counter China in the global order and to put a halt to its expansionist designs. Human rights, military conquest, and trade were the key talking points at a Democratic presidential debate on Dec. 19 in Los Angeles, California.
Responding to a question on China’s military rise, Former Vice-President Joe Biden said, “We should be moving 60 percent of our sea power to that part of the world. To let in fact the Chinese understand that they’re not gonna go any further, that we are going to be there to protect folks.”
His fellow candidate South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he will isolate China if it repeats a Tiananmen-like crackdown on the ongoing Hong Kong crisis. “The message I will send is that if they perpetrate a repeat of anything like Tiananmen Square when it comes to Hong Kong, they will be isolated from the free world, and we will lead that isolation, diplomatically and economically,” he said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said, “If we want to send a message to the Chinese, we stand with our allies. We stand with them firmly. We have a very clear and coherent foreign policy when it comes to human rights.”
Businessman and first Asian candidate Andrew Yang who has been vocal about China’s rise in the Artificial Intelligence sector and how it has been employed in its surveillance drive said, “They’re in the process of leapfrogging us in AI because they have more data than we do and the government is subsidizing it. What we have to do is build an international coalition to set technology standards and then you can bring the Chinese to the table.” |
