Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA / Reporter : Cheng Wen / Editor : Ren Zijun / https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/24/9/30/n14341538.htm / Image : On 15 July 2024, Trump announced that his vice presidential partner would be 39-year-old Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The vice presidential candidates of both parties in the United States have held the only vice presidential debate in the 2024 election cycle on 1 October 2024. The Republican candidate J.D. Vance has made his first official appearance in front of national voters. This article takes a look at what comments Vance has made in the past period on issues such as the U.S. economy, overseas wars, military strength, tariffs, fentanyl, China, Taiwan, big technology companies, and artificial intelligence (AI). From them a glimpse into the style and stance Vance might have taken on in the debate.
Since in mid-July this year, former U.S. President Trump announced Vance—a new U.S. senator born in the 1980s who only turned 40 in August—as his vice presidential running mate. Vance's autobiographical memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" published in 2017 began to go viral in China. A report in Bloomberg said: "Vance's nomination resonates with many Chinese, because the country has about 300 million 'hillbillies'. ... President Xi Jinping's emphasis on high-end manufacturing is leaving them behind."
The rapid rise of American "hillbilly" Vance shows a typical "American dream", which is likely to help Trump win the attention and support of many young American voters. Trump's choice of Vance also seems to have the effect of "killing multiple birds with one stone."
To some extent, if elected, Vance will be an important spokesperson and executor of Trump’s policies and programs during his second presidential term, and even the successor to Trump’s policies in the future post-Trump era.
Vance, who holds a doctorate in law from Yale University, explained matters more clearly and clearly. Let's take a look at what Vance said on some of Trump's key issues.
A strong economy equals strength
Vance believes that a country's strong economy is equivalent to its strong power. He hopes that the United States will become "strong" economically, militarily and culturally.
How to make the United States "strong" again? Vance believed this required re-industrialization within the United States.
On 19 May 2024, Vance said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”:
"Look, the reason Europe is weak is because they have 'deindustrialised'. Why have they deindustrialised? Because they are pursuing a green energy agenda under the Biden administration - which will certainly empower China and Russia.
Vance said that "reindustrialization" will bring much-needed innovation to the United States, saying:
“One of the things I hope we do is to broaden our horizons and think not just about innovation in software, but also innovation in transportation and logistics, innovation in energy — everything.”
“We have this idea that we can separate the making of things from the design of things. … But if you want to build a high-tech, high-dynamic growth economy, you have to have some local manufacturing and some self-reliance. "
Military strength is the result of industrial strength
Vance believed that the U.S. civilian sector industrial base was indispensable to the production of war materials during World War II, suggesting that the strength of a country's military power was the result of the strength of its industrial power.
He said in a June 19 op-ed in The New York Times:
"The most important lesson of World War II is that...military power is downstream of industrial power. At present, we are still the world's military superpower, mainly because of our industrial power in the 1980s and 1990s. But China is now A country that is industrially stronger than us means that in 20 years they will have a stronger military."
Use tariffs to help bring manufacturing back to the United States
Vance supports Trump's broad tariff policy, which he believes will help bring manufacturing back to the United States in the long run. When CBS host Margaret Brennan pointed out on "Face the Nation" on May 19 that tariffs are by definition inflationary, Vance responded:
"I don't necessarily believe the premise of that statement. If you impose tariffs, which is what it is, you're saying we're going to punish you for using slave labor in China and importing these things into the United States. Over time, that punishment It will help insource industry, which is not only in the interest of national security, but will also lower prices for Americans in the long run.”
Vance said he does not like that "China has stolen a lot of American jobs."
Industrial subsidies should be given to American workers, not to China
In September 2023, Vance introduced the "Drive America Act" in the Senate, which would replace electric vehicle subsidies with fuel vehicle subsidies. He said:
"If we subsidize anything, it should be for Ohio workers, not for 'green energy daydreams' outsourcing jobs to China."
Vance also supports the Biden administration's push for the CHIPS and Science Act, which received bipartisan approval from Congress in August 2022 and is worth $280 billion to promote domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing in the United States. , and the reshoring of key industries. Both parties agree that this is a national security imperative for the United States. Vance praised the bill saying:
"This is great legislation and the policy we need to break our dependence on China."
Also scrutinize U.S. investments in China
In addition to scrutinizing Chinese investments in the United States, Vance also seeks to scrutinize U.S. investments in China. In an interview with the American Conservative website on March 15, 2023, when discussing foreign policy, Vance talked about the harm of Sino-US joint ventures to US sovereignty:
"(Sino-US) joint ventures usually take the form of American Company China controls it. We should basically try to prevent such arrangements altogether.”
“[U.S. business executives might say] ‘If the cost of opening these markets to our commerce is a little bit of theft along the way, then that makes economic sense.’ For the United States as a sovereign nation, that simply doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Stop fentanyl, don’t be afraid of a trade war with China
On "Face the Nation," Vance was asked by Margaret Brennan how he would "exercise appropriate influence on Chinese and Mexican drug cartels" to prevent them from exporting fentanyl to the United States. Si replied:
"Well, I think you go to Beijing and you talk to Xi Jinping and you say to him, 'Your whole economy is going to collapse unless you can get into the U.S. market. You need to take this fentanyl issue seriously, or we're going to "You impose harsh tariffs and financial penalties because you don't obey our laws and help us stop the flow of this deadly poison."
Brennan asked Vance again: "Aren't you worried about the impact on the U.S. economy?"
Vance replied:
"I think we have a strong economy, we have the best workers in the world. If we need to fight a trade war with China, we will fight it, and we will win."
The fentanyl crisis is a personal issue for Vance, who told The American Conservative:
"China manufactures fentanyl and ships it into our country, where it will destroy American communities, jobs and families."
The primary concern is to prevent China from invading Taiwan
The issue that Vance is most concerned about and worried about—more important than any economic goals, global warming, or the Iranian nuclear issue—is the emergency in the Taiwan Strait, because it will directly affect the national security and economic security of the United States. On April 27, 2023, Vance said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation:
"What we need to prevent most - more than anything - is a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That would be catastrophic for us as a country. It would destroy our entire economy, the computer chips in them - many of which are in Taiwan Made...this will plunge our country into a Great Depression.”
We hope to end the Russia-Ukraine war immediately. The United States needs sufficient strength to confront the CCP
In a New York Times op-ed, Vance said he wanted to end the Russia-Ukraine war immediately, "freeze the territorial line closer to where it is now" and provide "some long-term U.S. security assistance." This is not done because Vance hates Ukraine or likes Russia, but because he is a realist who believes:
"China poses the greatest threat to the United States." "Today, the degree of 'deindustrialization' in the United States is too severe to support a strong military to simultaneously confront Russia and deter China."
He said at the Heritage Foundation:
"Now, you know (President) Joe Biden is not going to send weapons to Taiwan - the weapons that we promised the Taiwanese - because we are sending those weapons to Ukraine or elsewhere. Does that make sense?"
“It is difficult for many of us to accept that the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ in World War II (referring to the United States) now makes only one-twentieth of the artillery shells made by Russia. But this is reality. "
In a New York Times column, Vance said:
"These weapons (referring to the "Patriot missile system") are not only needed by Ukraine. If China sets its sights on Taiwan, the Patriot missile system is critical to Taiwan's defense. In fact, the United States has pledged to provide Taiwan with nearly $900 million worth of of Patriot missiles, but delivery of these weapons and other vital resources has been severely delayed, in part due to shortages caused by the war in Ukraine."
On 28 April 2024, Vance said in an interview with Fox News:
"The United States is stretched thin. We don't have the industrial capacity to support a war in Ukraine, a war in Israel, and possibly another war in East Asia if China invades Taiwan, so the United States has to pick and choose. ..."
"You have to ask yourself, will China be more dissuaded because we are beating our chests and acting tough in Europe? Or will it be more dissuaded because we have the necessary weapons to stop them from invading Taiwan?"
“My argument is that China is focused on real strength. They’re not focused on how tough people are saying on TV or how strong our purported resolve is. They’re focused on how strong we actually are — for Strong enough to fight back against China, we have to focus on that now, we are stretched thin.”
On 17 March 2023, after Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin had just signed a declaration that China-Russia relations had entered a "new era," Vance expressed his opinion on the X (formerly Twitter) platform:
"I've heard many people say that the goal of our Ukraine policy is to show China that we are 'tough' and will not be easily pushed around. The Chinese obviously don't care about this."
These remarks indicate that Vance hopes to reduce military assistance to Ukraine to increase the United States' deterrent and deterrent capabilities against the Chinese Communist Party in a possible conflict across the Taiwan Strait. If the Russia-Ukraine war continues, it will be difficult for the United States to completely shift its military focus to Asia.
For die-hard realists like Vance, the West's "determination" or "solidarity" with Ukraine does not have much practical significance in deterring China from invading Taiwan unless there are enough "missile systems, artillery systems and bullets." as a back-up. Therefore, Vance believes that the United States and its allies are not ready to prepare or fight against the CCP.
Will the United States send troops to help defend Taiwan?
If China really invades Taiwan with force, will Vance hope that the United States will send troops to help defend Taiwan?
Vance never explicitly confirmed what practical actions the Trump administration would take in response. President Biden has made it clear at least four times that the United States will send troops to protect Taiwan, but he has also caused controversy for being too straightforward.
In a New York Times op-ed, Vance responded diplomatically: "The honest answer is, we'll figure out what we're going to do if they attack."
Last year, Vance said in an interview with the American Conservative website:
"Look, we may eventually be forced into a war with China. But if we do, God forbid, we need to be more economically self-sufficient."
At the Republican National Convention (RNC) on July 17 this year, Vance said in his speech accepting the nomination for vice president:
"We will send our children to war only if we must. But as President Trump has shown in taking down ISIS and more, when we punch, we punch hard. Attack."
Support open source AI and break up Google
Mainstream media has struggled to understand Vance’s policies on artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Tech.
On the one hand, Vance hopes for "looseer regulation"; on the other hand, he "openly supports open source AI." At a Senate hearing on 11 July 2024, four days before Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential candidate, Vance raised a question:
"A lot of times, it's CEOs — especially CEOs of big tech companies that I think already have a strong position in AI — who will come and talk about the dire security dangers of this new technology and how Congress needs to act as quickly as possible. Act and regulate. I can't help but worry that if we do something under the duress of these incumbents (the dominant corporations), it will benefit these incumbents and not the American consumer."
Vance believes that the regulations promoted by big technology companies with AI advantages will actually only consolidate their own existing advantages and be detrimental to competition.
At the same time, Vance "called for Google to be broken up" and "urged more investment in American (tech) companies to help them compete with China."
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