Newsweek's piece on Trump

[Diaspora]

I don’t know what to make of this.

I imagine it’s gonna trigger a lot of bias against Taiwanese in USA.

Donald Trump's Taiwan remarks spark fury and concern

[bz]

@Diaspora

I don’t know what to make of this.

It’s Donald Trump in a Fox News interview. For better or for worse, literally every syllable of that conversation is carefully designed to, “spark fury and concern”.

[Charlie_Jack]

A snippet from Trump’s September interview on “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” (from about 32:09 to about 32:47):

[Kristen Welker:] I know you’ve been asked this, but very quickly, if China were to invade Taiwan, have you made a determination–again, since voters are about to go to the polls–would you send the US military into Taiwan if President Xi were to invade? President Biden said he would–

[some brief cross talk]

[Donald Trump:] I, I won’t say. I won’t say, because if I said, I’m giving away–you know, only stupid people are gonna give that [answer?]. I heard the other day, DeSanctimonious said something about he was going to do this or he was gonna do that. I say, “Well, why is he saying the strategy? You can’t say that.” So when you ask me that question, I would never say that, because you give away all your options.

[Kristen Welker:] But you don’t take it off the table.

[Donald Trump:] I don’t take anything off the table, no.

Meet the Press full broadcast – Sept. 17

An excerpt from The Taiwan Relations Act:

Section. 2.

. . .

2. It is the policy of the United States–

. . .

c. to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;

d. to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States;

e. to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character; and

f. to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.

https://www.ait.org.tw/taiwan-relations-act-public-law-96-8-22-u-s-c-3301-et-seq/

[Diaspora]

To Add:

Unless I miss it, I am surprised that no major Taiwanese news media caught this piece except the comment on Ukraine.

[bz]

@Diaspora

no major Taiwanese news media

I did see it being discussed on a store-front display this weekend, but we were just walking by and I didn’t see which channel it was.

[bojack]

@bz

It’s Donald Trump in a Fox News interview. For better or for worse, literally every syllable of that conversation is carefully designed to, “spark fury and concern”.

And it’s been further edited by Newsweek. So yeah, sparking fury and concern by designs (plural).

[zaowangyeh]

The article seemed like a smear piece.

[bojack]

@zaowangyeh

The article seemed like a smear piece.

Yes, and there will be plenty more to come. In fact, I suspect Trump will enjoy a steady diet of smear pieces even after he’s dead and buried.

I take his (possibly clumsily made) point to be that he will not rule “anything” out because ruling things out in the press could make China’s decision-making re:Taiwan more straightforward.

[zaowangyeh]

@bojack

I take his (possibly clumsily made) point to be that he will not rule “anything” out because ruling things out in the press could make China’s decision-making re:Taiwan more straightforward.

That is a perspective that didn’t cross my mind. I have simply interpreted this as not disclosing true intentions in order to keep the adversary guessing.