Direct translation
Trump mentioned the CCP 6 times in his speech to Congress. What did he say?
—Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress: What are the topics related to China?
Editor : Li Hua / Source: Voice of America, HK01 / https://www.aboluowang.com/2025/0305/2185211.html
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, 4 March 2025 at 9 pm. EST, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered his first major speech since the start of his second term at a joint session of Congress. In his speech, he said "America is back" and listed the measures and achievements he has made in the first six weeks of his second term. Trump's speech focused mainly on domestic issues, but many of his topics were closely related to China.
Focus on domestic issues
President Trump's speech lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes, the longest speech by a U.S. president at a joint session of Congress since 1964.
President Trump's speech focused mainly on domestic issues, including the investigation and cuts in federal agency spending and layoffs of federal employees by the Government Efficiency Department led by American entrepreneur Elon Musk; strengthening border security controls and large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants, and cutting federal funds for equality, diversity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He also talked about the economy and how to reduce the size and waste of government to eventually reduce inflation and eventually balance the budget.
"As a president who has a campaign slogan of 'America First' and has some neo-isolationist tendencies, it is not surprising that Trump's speech focuses mainly on domestic policy issues," Dean Chen, a professor of political science at Ramapo College in New Jersey, told VOA.
Dr. Luzhong Weng, an associate professor of political science at Sam Houston State University in Texas, told VOA that Trump was able to take so many measures at the beginning of his administration because the power of conservatives gave Trump a lot of support.
"After the Republicans took over the Senate and the House, Trump felt that he had to implement it very efficiently without tying his hands and feet," he said. Currently, the Republicans maintain a slight majority in both the Senate and the House.
Many issues are closely related to China
President Trump did not mention China much in his speech this time, but many of the issues he talked about were closely related to China, and tariffs were one of them.
"The European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada. Have you heard of them? There are countless other countries that charge us far higher tariffs than we charge them. It's very unfair. India charges us more than 100% on cars. China charges us an average tariff twice as high as ours on our products. South Korea's average tariff is four times ours. Think about it, four times higher. And we help South Korea a lot militarily and in many other ways. But that's how it is. (Our) enemies and friends do this. This system is not fair to the United States. It has never been fair." Trump said.
President Trump announced that the United States will implement reciprocal tariffs on all countries starting 2 April 2025. In fact, Trump has twice increased tariffs of 10% on Chinese goods since he took office six weeks ago. In response, China has also imposed tariffs of 10% to 15% on American agricultural products.
When the reciprocal tariffs were announced, the Republicans at the scene applauded, showing that Republicans who once supported free trade have changed their views on tariffs. Li Shaomin, a professor of international business at Old Dominion University in the United States, said that Trump's emphasis on tariffs is a clear signal that manufacturing should be brought back to the United States and that the actual economic activities should be in the United States.
In addition, President Trump mentioned that the United States will open a shipbuilding office in the White House to strengthen the United States' defense industrial base and revitalize the US shipbuilding industry, including commercial and military shipbuilding.
"We used to build a lot of ships. Now we don't build many ships, but we will build them very soon. This will have a huge impact." Trump said.
"This is a veiled attack on Beijing." Professor Chen Ding of Ramapo College in New Jersey said that considering China's current dominance in the global shipping industry. He said that Chinese ships, containers and cranes are shipped all over the world and docked in US ports for various commercial activities, bringing economic disadvantages to the domestic shipping industry in the United States. In addition, many Chinese ships can also be used for military purposes.
Chen Ding predicted that Trump may issue an executive order to instruct more funding and support for the domestic shipbuilding industry to meet these challenges.
The USTR survey noted that China’s share of the global shipbuilding industry has exploded over the past 25 years. In 1999, China accounted for about 5% of global shipbuilding tonnage. By 2023, China’s share of the market will exceed 50%.
According to the USTR survey, China’s policies “burden or restrict U.S. commerce by undermining business opportunities and investment in the U.S. maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding industries; restricting competition and choice; creating economic security risks by creating dependency and vulnerability in industries critical to the functioning of the U.S. economy; and undermining supply chain resilience.”
Meanwhile, President Trump vowed again to take back the Panama Canal in his speech to a joint session of Congress. Here he mentioned China again. He also said that the United States has already done so. He mentioned the purchase of a stake by a U.S. company in a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings that operates the Panama Canal Port.
“We didn’t give the Panama Canal to China, we gave it to Panama, and now we’re taking it back,” Trump said.
Another thing worth noting is that President Trump talked about TSMC's announcement of a $10 billion investment in the United States.
"Just yesterday, TSMC, the world's largest and most powerful chipmaker - with a 97% market share - announced an investment of $165 billion to make the most powerful chips on the planet in the United States. And we won't give them a penny."
He also mentioned that technology companies such as SoftBank, Apple and OpenAI will build factories in the United States, not "in China."
"The president is a shrewd transactional realist who often links business deals with national security, such as his attempt to reach a mineral agreement with Ukraine. How TSMC's huge investment plan will affect the United States' future Taiwan Strait policy remains to be seen." Chen Ding said.
Trump only mentioned Taiwan when mentioning TSMC, but when announcing TSMC's new investment plan in the United States at a White House press conference on Monday, Trump said that it would be a "catastrophic event" if China isolated or invaded Taiwan, but did not further elaborate on what actions his government would take. Just last week, at his first cabinet meeting, he again refused to clarify when asked whether his government would send troops to defend Taiwan if Beijing took military action.
Weng Luzhong believes that since the focus of the United States now is to make America great again, diplomacy must be centered on American interests. "The United States is now very strong abroad, so that other countries can understand what is in the interests of the United States." He told VOA.
Ukraine and the Middle East
Although Trump's speech focused mainly on domestic affairs, he could hardly avoid the topic that dominated last week-the war in Ukraine.
"I am also working tirelessly to end the brutal conflict in Ukraine," Trump said. "Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or injured in this terrible and brutal conflict, and there is no end in sight."
Trump had hoped to announce a new rare earth mineral agreement with Ukraine in his speech. But his quarrel with Ukrainian President Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House last week disrupted that plan.
Instead, Trump returned to his frustration about how much money the United States has spent on the conflict.
But he also responded positively to Zelenskyy's social media post earlier on Tuesday - Trump referred to a letter from the Ukrainian leader - in which Zelensky expressed regret for Friday's quarrel and said he was ready to start peace talks.
"I am grateful that he sent the letter," he said, but did not say when he would try to speak with Zelenskyy again but he said that in the meantime, the United States has held discussions with Russia, and Russia has sent strong signals that they are ready to cooperate.
Trump also mentioned the Middle East in his speech. "In the Middle East, we are bringing hostages back from Gaza. During my first term, we reached one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations: the Abraham Accords. Now we will build on it and create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region."
The Abraham Accords are historic peace treaties or normalization agreements signed in 2020 between Israel and several Arab Muslim countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, brokered by the Trump administration.
Democratic response
President Trump's speech was interrupted by continuous applause and cheers from Republicans, but also boycotted by Democrats. Al Green, a Democratic congressman from Texas, was asked to leave the venue for protesting 4 minutes after the opening. During this period, other Democrats also left quietly or held signs saying "lies".
In addition, female Democrats wore pink to call attention to the Trump administration, which they believed had a negative impact on women and families. Others held signs such as "Musk steals" and criticized Musk's practice of drastically reducing federal agencies by canceling government contracts and firing tens of thousands of federal employees. Male Democrats wore yellow and blue ties to show support for Ukraine.
Image : Democrats wore pink to protest Trump's policies. (Reuters)
After Trump's speech, Elissa Slotkin, a federal congressman from Michigan, responded on behalf of the Democratic Party.
She criticized Trump's economic plan for "not helping" Americans "far from it." She said Americans need to improve government efficiency, but she criticized Musk for blindly firing federal employees en masse and said he was not subject to any supervision. She said: "Would any American feel comfortable letting him and his group of twenty-somethings use their own servers to look through your tax forms, health information and bank accounts?"
Slotkin also said that we all want to end the war in Ukraine but Trump flatters dictators like Putin and kicks allies like Canada. She criticized Trump for abandoning American leadership. She said she would rather have American leadership than China and Russia's leadership.
CCP's Foreign Propaganda
Source : HK01
At night of 4 March 2025, U.S. President Trump delivered a speech to Congress in Washington, which was his first speech to Congress since he took office on 20 January 2025. Unexpectedly, he mentioned China only 6 times in his more than 100-minute speech, including 3 times to name tariff policies against China and other countries, and 1 time to single out China's role in the Panama Canal.
Trump mentioned China for the first time when he talked about tariff policies in the middle of his speech. He said that for decades, other countries, including China, have been imposing tariffs on the United States, so now it is the turn of the United States to start imposing tariffs on other countries.
He then mentioned China again along with other countries, saying that the above situation is very unfair. China's average tariff on American products is twice that of the United States on China, and South Korea's is even twice as high.
He reiterated that he had implemented "reciprocal tariffs" earlier and named "China and other countries". He emphasized: "For decades, we have been deceived by almost every country in the world. We will not let this happen again." Later, when he talked about the impact of the new trade policy on American farmers and industrial policies, although he mentioned China separately, he did not make any targeted or critical remarks.
Finally, when Trump mentioned the Panama Canal in his speech, he said that the United States built the canal at a high cost, and later reached an agreement with Panama to return the canal to them at a very low cost, but now the agreement has been seriously violated. He pointed out: "We didn't give it (the Panama Canal) to China, we gave it to Panama, and now we want to take it back."
Image : U.S. President Trump (front) spoke to Congress on Tuesday. Photo by European News Agency
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