From a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo:
BIDEN: With regard to North Korea, with China, I make it clear that we're going to move our defenses up, as we did before, and we're going to make sure we have the capacity to deal with it near term. I'm going to let South Korea and Japan know we're there for them. We are their nuclear umbrella. We're there for them. And China understands, if you don't want us in your throat, if you don't want us in your face, do something.
CUOMO: Do you stop the trade battle with China? Do you go back to TPP?
BIDEN: By the way, the idea that this trade battle makes any sense, is benefiting anybody, is absolutely ludicrous. And just ask the farmers here or around the world -- I mean, around the United States, and the manufacturers. It's killing us.
What we should do is we deal with China -- I had a conversation with Xi before I -- Xi Jinping before we left. And he said, "Well, you know, remember, they set up their no-fly zone.
I said, "We're not going to pay attention to it."
He said, "What do you want me to do, just withdraw it?"
And I said, "No, but just understand we're just going to fly through. We'll fly a B-52 through it. We are a Pacific power. We're not going anywhere. Understand that's the reason why you have security is because we've allowed stability in the region."
They get it. But what they're doing now is we're not dealing with China's problem, for us. China's problem is they're stealing intellectual secrets.
CUOMO: Yes.
BIDEN: There's cybersecurity. Deal the same way. You say you've got to invest here in the United States. You want to be able to invest here, and you say, "We want to invest in China, but you've got to have a 51 percent owner." No deal, man. Deal for deal.
CUOMO: This administration is fighting that same fight, isn't it?
BIDEN: But they're not. No, they're fighting in trade. Trump thinks it's about trade deficits and trade surpluses. It's not about that. Look, while he's tweeting, China's going to own the 5-G market. While in fact, he -- they're spending billions in artificial intelligence.
What are we doing? They're doing a whole lot of things that make no sense for us to stand still.
Those were some pretty reasonable questions from Cuomo, but Biden's answer is a bit of a ramble. It doesn't seem that difficult to me for the Democratic presidential candidates to articulate a trade policy that is critical of Trump's trade policy, but also critical of past U.S. trade policy, while still supporting a trade policy that is engaged with the world. Some key elements that could work for a Democrat would be: negotiate new FTAs, support the WTO, scale back intellectual property protection and investment protection, push for stronger labor/environment provisions, drop the trade wars (Section 232) with our allies, and work together with those allies on addressing China's trade practices.
