Thread by @tuesdayvodka

To 香港人，台灣人，中國人 and anyone else who believes in 自由民主和普世價值。

Here’s an ongoing collection of articles on why Trump is terrible on foreign policy, terrible for Hong Kong, terrible for Taiwan, and arguably beneficial to China.

Foreword:
Currently, it’s impossible to tell if the growing Trumpism within the Chinese diaspora is a serious phenomenon or simply from a loud minority. It’s hard to identify whether these voices are by real 香港/台灣人
OR by Conservative Chinese Americans,

大紀元disinformation accounts, hellspawns of partisan propagandists like Solomon Yue, and straight up MAGA trolls.

https://twitter.com/platini954/status/1279038342596890624?s=20

For those who are "real":
I do understand 香港人 who’ve embraced Trump out of desperation. Though they are uninformed on US politics, history, and geopolitical strategy; they’ve simply grabbed onto whomever seems the most helpful. And this applies to my fellow Taiwanese as well.

In the end, its hard to fault 香港 and 台灣人 when ~40% of actual Americans are so misinformed that they still support a President that has allowed 176K Coronavirus deaths.

From today: 57% of Republican voters think 176K deaths is acceptable

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1297547642961002497?s=20

So heres some actual evidence to read for those who want to become informed:

From the left:

"Here lies the main reason Beijing may not mind another Trump term: His style of foreign policy—unilateral, personalized, and fixated on dollars-and-cents matters—has severely weakened America’s traditional system of alliances."
theatlantic.com/international/…

From the right:

"Trump’s trade war was an expensive bust. But it wasn’t nearly as costly as his abdication of American leadership and betrayal of American values."

thebulwark.com/did-trump-get-…

From the right again:
"But 'hawkishness' or 'toughness' or whatever word you prefer isn’t an actual foreign policy. Hawkishness is a means, not an ends."
thedispatch.com/p/hawkishness-…

Trump's incompetence has allowed China to take power in UN's Food and Agricultural Organization.
foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/23/chi…

From US National Security/Military experts:
warontherocks.com/2020/07/what-s…

From UK's The Guardian:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Back to the Right real quick:
wsj.com/articles/polit…

The infamous Sen. Bob Dole, well-known Taiwan lobbyist, who is the sole reason for the historic 蔡英文-Trump call?
americanmilitarynews.com/2020/05/fmr-us…

A brief breakdown on China strategy during the Obama years and what we could've had under 👑Hillary Clinton.

Note the focus on security in the South China Sea. As opposed to Trump's WeChat/TikTok bans that do nothing for Taiwan or Hong Kong
#StillWithHer
ft.com/content/92b23c…

Unprecedented: 80+ former Republican National Security Officials from the last 30 years have recently endorsed Biden's presidency. Including Democratic NS officials, this means the entire US NSC establishment supports Biden.
defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-secur…

And here's a breakdown on why these **73** GOP National Security Officials are breaking from the Republican Party.

Again, Republican sources.
thebulwark.com/donald-trump-h…

Throwback to a year ago on 🇭🇰:
Remember Trump currently holds power, Biden does not. It's strategy to keep your cards close to your chest, especially when you are not in the driver's seat. Biden showing his China-hand now, only forces China to respond.

businessinsider.com/trump-weak-hon…

Long read, but still only brief summary on US-China history. How US viewed things, why they were 'friendly' to China, and lukewarm to Taiwan.

- Nixon(R) opened relations with China(good and bad reasons).
- Bush41(R) "overlooked" Tiananmen Square Massacre
csis.org/analysis/speec…

Democratic Presidents started out critical of China, but eventually softened in favor of good economy because that's what voters wanted.
But Dems were the ones who challenged the CCP when they could (more often than Republicans)

Here's badass Nancy Pelosi

https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1136052504742027265?s=20

And here's baddass First Lady Hillary Clinton slapping China in the face on the international stage.

Back to Trump, here's his take on Tiananmen Square.
businessinsider.com/trumpn-tiananm…

And Trump's alleged views on HK/Taiwan based on John Bolton's book. Trump actually views HK/TW as disposable pawns. Whereas, prior administrations viewed us as partners on the South China Sea.
Mismanagement = 打草驚蛇。

Article from 🇹🇼 source.
newbloommag.net/2020/07/12/bol…

Podcast on US-China history with Madeleine Albright.
Hate the CCP all you want, but it used to be a "functional" relationship that did not cross the proverbial red line.
Excluding 六四天安門, which was during the Bush administration. Again, a Republican.
open.spotify.com/episode/5GjAmt…

To those who religiously ingest every tweet by Solomon Yue and now think that Biden & Democrats are communists. Read Bob Tiernan's 2010 letter to RNC on Solomon's Maoist strategies on "spreading misinformation and half truths"
assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/asse…

Read between the lines: 2014 US fracking revolution tanks Russian/Saudi Oil industry. Russia/Saudi survive by selling cheaper oil to China, which saved China's 2015-2016 economy.

Meaning➡️Trump's unilateral approach to China does not work.
vox.com/2020/3/9/21171…

Podcast discussion by national security/foreign policy experts across the political spectrum discussing how our allies view Trump's America. Second half prediction on what happens to America if Trump gets re-elected.
open.spotify.com/episode/1vs2b3…

This piece by respected think tank, Rand Corp, might be the most neutral on Trump's Taiwan-China foreign policy so far. I'd encourage carefully reading through the whole article.
rand.org/blog/2020/08/s…