In recent weeks, major industries in Los Angeles — textiles and fashion — have had to re-evaluate supplies and trends as news emerged that Vietnam, a major supplier, had been reliant on China for goods reportedly produced by imprisoned Uyghurs, an ethnic minority whose maltreatment in China has been heavily documented.
“There are real challenges in this relationship,” Tai said of the United States and China. “The People’s Republic of China’s growth and development over the last few decades have been phenomenal, but the impacts, and especially the negative impacts on other economies — including ours — are having consequences that we cannot ignore.”
She added that the United States has to clearly define what the problem is between it and China, and how to focus on it. Missteps in characterizing the points of disagreements between Asian nations and the United States historically have been costly, not just for foreign relations but also for the safety and respect of Asian American and Pacific Islander residents in the United States.
“We can fiercely defend what is ours, and also fiercely embrace our different roots and upbringings,” she said. “We know too well what happens when we fail to do this the right way.”
Offering examples of violent backlash amid rising international tensions, Tai mentioned the U.S. imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the 1982 killing of Vincent Jen Chin, a Chinese American who was attacked by white autoworkers at a bar. At the time, Japan was beginning to lead in auto manufacturing.
“That is why one of my priorities, as the U.S. Trade Representative, is to lift up historically excluded voices in a world where large corporate interests too often dominate the conversations around trade policy-making,” Tai said. We are bringing diverse perspectives to the table and incorporating their priorities.”
Garrett told Tai that USC is home to the largest population of international students of any university, a growing population of first-generation college students and many transfers from community colleges. “Your words resonate very deeply on this campus,” he told Tai.
Guest speaker Jaeson Ma asked Tai what the next steps are to create a trade partnership with Asia. He said that since the Trans-Pacific Partnership fell apart under the Trump administration, he wondered what the Biden administration’s next move is.
“Everybody’s anxious because we’re not sure what it’s going to lead to,” said Ma, a CEO, investor, and advisor who founded brand strategy and investment and incubator firm East West Ventures and co-founded a music company, 88rising, focused on working with Asian American artists.
He also is a strategic advisor and financier of the social music video app Triller, and a co-founder of blockchain companies such as OP3N and EST Media.
Tai responded that the United States and its counterparts have one thing in common: growing economic inequality.
“GDPs keep going up but what we know about this version of globalization is, that prosperity isn’t widely shared,” Tai said. “It’s not trickling down.”
Tai also advised that prosperity, even if it is achieved, does not guarantee peace. “We saw that when [Russian President] Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine. That was not an economic or market-based decision,” she said. “It was bad for the Ukrainian economy and if you look around us, it was bad for all of us.”
Tai said that the United States is pursuing trade policies to continue to be a reliable trade partner. “We know we have to do it differently,” she added, noting the pandemic created extraordinary stressors and forced decisions that have had long-term impacts on the world economy.
The United States needs an Indo-Pacific framework that engages on trade, addresses issues with supply chains, decarbonization, infrastructure, and good governance, and promotes higher objectives that achieve “economic resilience” and sustainability, she added.
Tai emphasized a distinct, Biden administration point-of-view on the U.S. role in international relations and globalization that contradicts the prior administration’s nationalism and protectionism.
“In the midst of all this, the vision is very much that the United States remains connected with the rest of the world,” she said.
