U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and their partners meet at the Vice President’s residence in Washington, DC, the United States, Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
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If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the White House, she is likely to prioritize confronting China and strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, US political scientist La Dorsey said.
As experts speculate on what a Harris administration might look like, the recently released Democratic National Committee policy platform has attract attention For putting Europe first in the foreign affairs chapter.
However, Dorsey warned against interpreting the platform as a hub from the Indo-Pacific region to Europe in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.
“People shouldn’t read too much into the order in which things appear on the platform… If you look at Vice President Harris’ record as a senator and as vice president, it shows a pretty deep level of investment, engagement, engagement and involvement.
On Sunday, the Democratic National Committee released its 2024 Policy platform document Convene meetings in advance. But the file is write and vote It included multiple references to a “Biden second term” before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
To gain insight into Harris’ stance on the Indo-Pacific, Dorsey suggested considering policymakers’ past work there.
“She pushed for some of the most important legislation for China,” he said, highlighting her co-sponsoring of legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
He noted that Harris has spent a lot of time traveling to the region over the past four years and “met with nearly every Asian leader during her time as vice president and senator.”
These leaders include Current Taiwan President Lai Ching-te In January, when he was still Vice President Chinese President Xi Jinping Later that same year.
Harris also held meetings with other regional heads of state, e.g. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.., Vietnamese President Nguyen Phuc and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) after speaking during a joint session of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, April 11, 2024.
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Dorsey said it’s also important to consider Harris’ involvement in the Biden administration’s foreign policy agenda.
“(That administration) spent four years being deeply engaged in the Indo-Pacific and had probably the strongest Indo-Pacific agenda of any administration in decades,” Dorsey said.
The political scientist said the agenda places a particular focus on building partnerships and alliances.
Examples include AUKUS (a trilateral security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom) and Quad (a diplomatic partnership involving Australia, India, and Japan). The partnership is seen as an effort to counter China’s power and influence in the region.
Dorsey and other experts said the Biden-Harris administration has also adopted partnership-focused economic and trade policies aimed at competing with China.
Various experts have previously told CNBC Former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump took a more unilateral approach to implementing most of his hardline policies toward China.
