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US election: Trump v Clinton
OpinionComment

US presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders provoke chills – and scorn – in East Asia

Niv Horesh and Yumiko Kaneko say watching the US presidential race from afar, many in the region have been alarmed by the isolationist tendencies of some of its leading candidates

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<p>Niv Horesh and Yumiko Kaneko say watching the US presidential race from afar, many in the region have been alarmed by the isolationist tendencies of some of its leading candidates</p>
Niv HoreshandYumiko Kaneko
The success of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders has stoked speculation of intensifying US isolationism in the years to come.
The success of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders has stoked speculation of intensifying US isolationism in the years to come.
The 2016 US presidential campaign has so far managed to upset pundits with perceived non-establishment figures Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders having already won several key states. Both candidates are thought to hold a foreign-policy rationale that is radically different from the ones pursued under either George W. Bush or Barack Obama. For the past two decades, both Republican and Democratic administrations have sought to forge free trade agreements worldwide, yet Trump and Sanders have expressed strong criticism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

What would a Donald Trump presidency mean for US trade and diplomacy within Asia?

The prospect of Trump winning the Republican Party nomination has, in particular, stoked speculation of intensifying US isolationism in the years to come, at a time when Russia and China are ramping up their global leadership aspirations.

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While Trump’s tirade against Fox News broadcaster Megyn Kelly and his statements endorsing punishment for women undergoing illegal abortion have roiled home audiences, East Asian audiences were arguably more disturbed by his calls for Japan and Korea to go nuclear, and to contribute more towards defraying the cost of the US military deployment in the region.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a test of a new engine for a ballistic rocket, in this updated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency. Photo: AFP/KCNA via KNS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a test of a new engine for a ballistic rocket, in this updated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency. Photo: AFP/KCNA via KNS

‘We have tremendous economic power over China’: Donald Trump vows to use trade to punish Beijing over South China Sea

To make matters worse, these remarks came in just when tensions were rising fast over China’s dredging activity in the South China Sea, and as North Korea was preparing to test yet another ballistic missile. The collateral damage to Trump’s campaign may turn out to be very serious, as several long-serving US diplomats have come out to condemn his stance, only days after he called Nato “obsolete”, and four months after he sparked outrage with his calls to ban Muslims from entering the country.

By now, the Republican Party establishment has closed ranks in a bid to foil a Trump nomination. He stands accused of zig-zagging on whether the US was right to invade Afghanistan in 2001, and of wavering when it comes to the need to combat Islamic State in the Middle East.
It is no wonder, then, that South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo dubbed Trump a “top risk for the world”. Nonetheless, a Trump victory was rated less risky than economic slowdown in China, Russia’s actions in Syria and Ukraine, a corporate debt crisis in emerging markets or the spectre of Britain’s exit from the EU.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a conversation on gun violence at the Landmark Theatre in New York. Photo: AFP
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a conversation on gun violence at the Landmark Theatre in New York. Photo: AFP

Asians worried about Donald Trump’s brashness see hope in Hillary Clinton’s nuanced stance on Islam and China

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