Asia reacts: Trump's last days
19 January 2021
The whole world is watching the United States again this week, most hoping for a peaceful transition of power between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
What is Asian media reporting about Trump’s last days in office? Check out our updated roundup.
YouTube bans Trump for another week over inauguration violence concerns | CNA
YouTube said on Tuesday it was extending a one-week ban on outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump uploading videos or live-streaming to his channel for at least an additional seven days. This is due to ongoing concern about the ongoing potential for violence.
High Noon in America? I New Straits Times
What we do to others shapes what we become. This is the take of Asma Barlas, a retired professor of politics in New York, on why America is what it is. She thinks Americans should not be shocked by the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan 6 because this is what it did elsewhere. True, President Donald Trump made the America we see today. But so did America make him and others who have gone before.
The Trump lesson: Democracy is frail I The Jakarta Post
In 2020, Dharma Djojonegoro wrote an opinion piece predicting Trump's defeat in the US presidential elections. It happened and Joe Biden is about to be inaugurated as the 46th president of the US. Djojonegoro writes that this is a good time to consider what Indonesia can learn from Trump's presidency.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused China of “genocide and crimes against humanity” for the country’s treatment of Uygur Muslims in its far-western region of Xinjiang using his last full day as America’s top diplomat to issue a final blow against Beijing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo makes the determination in a blow to Beijing just one day before Joe Biden takes office.
Trump's legacy: Big policy changes that often got lost amid the din and scandal | CNA
President Donald Trump may be best remembered for his use of Twitter as a bully pulpit to stoke controversy or browbeat opponents, but the noise his tweets generated often distracted from the big policy changes he made over his four-year term. On Trump's final day in office, Channel News Asia looks at the big policy changes we might have missed while Trump was distracting the world with tweets.
Trump orders assessment of security risks of Chinese-made drones | Rappler
Forty eight hours before his presidency is up, Donald Trump has signed executive orders to direct all US agencies to outline security risks posed by the existing government drone fleet from drones built by Chinese companies or by other countries deemed "foreign adversaries".
Chaos at the US Capitol was a Trumpian farce, with shades of Mao | South China Morning Post
Sensing a disconnect between elites and the masses, a populist leader losing his grip appeals to the grass roots to save the country. Sound familiar? While there are parallels between today’s US and Mao-era China, it’s not clear America will heed the warning. This is Biden’s biggest challenge, says an opinion writer for SCMP.
Donald Trump: From the American dream to American nightmare | Deccan Herald
Trump, who promoted himself as a one-off "genius" able to do what no other president could, turned out to be the one leaving carnage. So when Trump looks down for the last time from his helicopter over the White House lawn on Wednesday, the wreckage of his presidency will be "inescapable" writes Indian newspaper Deccan Herald.
China sanctions US lawmakers and officials over Hong Kong/Taiwan moves | South China Morning Post
China has announced sanctions on US officials and lawmakers in response to similar US action last week over the political crackdown in Hong Kong and Washington’s efforts to forge links with Taiwan. Under outgoing president Donald Trump, the US has strengthened ties with Taiwan, including through arms sales and official visits, despite protests from Beijing that it has sovereignty over the democratic island. In a online meeting, US ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen that the US would always stand with Taiwan.
Trump, in wave of Tuesday pardons, so far not planning to pardon himself: Report | CNA
Donald Trump at this point is opting not to issue a pardon for himself as he prepares an expansive list of more than 100 pardons and commutations for release on Tuesday (Jan 19).
Trump’s whiplash diplomacy on Taiwan | Japan Times
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft was scheduled to visit Taiwan on Jan. 13 to meet with her counterparts for what would have been the first official interaction at that level since the Republic of China was replaced in the U.N. by the People’s Republic of China in 1971. The trip has since been canceled due to the “upcoming presidential transition.” It is unclear what took place with the whiplash-like turnaround. Those close to the incoming Joe Biden administration had said that it “will rightly be unhappy that a policy decision like [the lifting of the restrictions] was made in the final days of the Trump administration.” Perhaps the cancellation was related to this unhappiness, or interference by the PRC.
How Asia will view Trump’s legacy | Straits Times
In this 16-minute podcast, Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at NUS, Professor C Raja Mohan from NUS' Institute of South Asian Studies and Mr Ankit Panda from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace discuss how the Asia region will remember Trump’s past four years.
The inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris on Wednesday (Jan 20) will look very different from the nation's past ceremonies, as the pandemic and heightened security threats mean that crowds will be drastically smaller and celebrations curtailed.
As preparations get under way for the inauguration of a new president in the United States, the South China Morning Post looks at the legacy left by Donald Trump and the challenges created for Joe Biden. In the first of two articles we look at how US-China ties changed under Trump and investigate how the two nations might get their relationship back on track.
Will Trump's mishandling of records leave a hole in history? | CNA
The public will not see President Donald Trump’s White House records for years, but there’s growing concern that the collection won’t be complete, leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies. As president, Trump reportedly ripped up documents before tossing them out, putting the legal requirement to preserve records in jeopardy. What might Trump have done that never saw the light of day?
Trump slams Huawei, halting sales from Intel and others: sources | Nikkei Asia
The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company. The action -- likely the last against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trump -- is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat.
Trump’s Legacy in Southeast Asia | Bangkok Post
With a few days remaining before the new administration comes in, it is important to analyse US-Southeast Asia relations and the Trump administration's legacy in the region. This article, from Thailand, goes back to the region’s surprise of Trump’s election in 2016 right through to his final efforts to influence civil discourse in his last days in office.
- Asia Media Centre
