In a few days it will be voting day in the US presidential election, which candidate do the Taiwanese want to support? What are the topics they care about? What are the factors that influence their decisions? Voice of America interviewed thirteen voting-eligible Taiwanese-Americans by phone and in writing to find out their voting intentions and opinions.
Among the thirteen Taiwanese-American citizens, seven support or are inclined to support Trump, or 54 percent of all respondents; three support Biden, or 23 percent of all respondents; and three have not yet decided who to vote for, including one who has already said he will not vote, or 23 percent of all respondents.
Due to the outbreak, some voters have already completed their ballots through early voting or mail-in voting. In cases where respondents did not want to be named, the Voice of America described the Taiwanese diaspora by last name, area of residence, industry, or other means. (Also note: Taiwanese Americans in the Chinese interviews addressed Trump as “Trump”.)
In an interview with the Voice of America, Mrs. Chen, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said this is her first time voting this year, because she was not keen on politics, and often returns to Taiwan in the fall to take care of her family instead of being in the United States.
She said that when Trump first announced his candidacy for the presidency, she “hated him”, that he “has no leadership style”, “nonsense”, “trouble everywhere”, to a month ago, she still holds this view, but later she put his first vote to vote for Trump.
“I’m afraid to tell my family,” Mrs. Chen said she was afraid to tell her family to vote for Trump because her children, who were born and raised in the United States, don’t like him and think he “has no social justice, speaks nonsense, doesn’t admit mistakes and is unfair to minorities”.
Mrs. Chen said, “Democratic diplomacy is weak, especially the rise of the Chinese Communist Party in the past few years, it is a terrible regime”, but compared with Biden, Trump’s attitude towards the Chinese Communist Party is much tougher.
Mrs. Chen, who has been in the U.S. for more than 30 years, said she began to pay attention to politics only after her children grew up, and only after she returned to Taiwan did she understand the serious threat the CCP poses to the world by watching Taiwanese political commentary programs.
The first is that he is tough on the Chinese Communist Party’s policies. Mrs. Chen said that Trump has taken concrete actions against China’s serious “red infiltration” and implemented them seriously, “if we let China continue to infiltrate, American democracy will be in jeopardy”; secondly, because she comes from Taiwan and cares about the future of Taiwan. “Taiwan’s system is close to America’s democracy and freedom, unlike China’s,” but the Democrats didn’t talk about China policy during the debate, just glossed over it, “He Jinli (Kamala Harris in Chinese) even said Xi Jinping is better than Trump, which is ridiculous (Absurd)!”
She said that although she doesn’t like Trump and thinks he is narcissistic, arrogant, and offends people all over the world, “but compared to the Communist Party being evil, seeing the terror of the Communist Party’s ideas in world history”, especially when Xi Jinping took over and went against Deng Xiaoping’s direction, going back to Mao Zedong’s old ways, “crushing the people even more”, no freedom of religion, and no freedom of speech, all of which allow her to overlook Trump’s personality traits and other flaws, but after getting to know things better she “has a reason to support Trump” because “the CCP cannot be allowed to destroy the democratic system”.
Like Mrs. Chen, Mr. Liao, who lives in New York State, is torn about who to vote for. He told VOA that he was “in a dilemma” about who to vote for.
On the one hand, I can’t wait for the narcissistic and egotistical Trump to be kicked out of the White House and prosecuted for all his misdeeds, such as paying women for sex, payroll violations and tax fraud,” he said. But on the other hand, Biden would certainly at least undo all the things that the Trump administration has done to encircle China technologically, militarily, etc.,” Mr. Liao said.
A Virginia citizen of Taiwanese descent who hasn’t voted yet said in an interview with the Voice of America that her husband and close family and friends mostly support Biden, believing that his policies are more immigrant-friendly, and that she personally has no political stance, “was prepared to vote for Biden in the hope that the U.S. president would be someone else to do it,” but then word got out that Biden and his family might be involved in some issues that made her change her mind, and she is now inclined to support Trump.
She said a friend of hers criticized Trump for being “disrespectful to women, arrogant and uneducated,” but she believes he is a “cannon” personality who is straightforward and doesn’t beat around the bush, “message”. ) clear” and “can do things and act,” unlike many “lawyer-trained” politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, who ran for president in 2016, who use only “Fancy words”, “a sentence that goes round and round and is specious”, and although they are all “elitists”, “well read books don’t necessarily mean… Will do things.”
“Leaders must lead the country MOVE FORWARD (forward) not stand still.” The woman said Trump is a “man of action”, unlike the Democrats who just offer beautiful political ideas and “promise you a rose garden but only give you a rose).”
The woman, who works in the real estate industry, also questioned Biden, who has been in politics since 1973, when he was elected as a federal senator from Delaware, “What has a 47-year politician done?” She argued that Trump hasn’t been able to do much in his first term because it’s been four years of fumbling and the next four years will make a difference. But she also said that because her position is different from that of her friends and family around her, she and her mother’s family and other relatives do not talk about the election, and she and her husband try to avoid mentioning Trump or Biden “to avoid a fight”.
In the case of Trump’s or Biden’s policies towards Taiwan or China, the woman, who has been in the United States for decades, said she has no particular position on the matter because no matter which president or party is in power, it will always be the national interest of the United States that comes first, “If the United States wants to be the world leader, it doesn’t matter who we elect.
A Maryland male resident told the Voice of America, Asian immigrants in the United States belongs to the minority, the general position will be more biased towards the Democratic Party, but in the election battle between Trump and Biden, himself is a “single issue voter” (single issue voter), or because “who supports Taiwan will support whoever”.
” China’s performance in the Taiwan Strait and Xi Jinping’s strongman regime can not be guessed, there will be a sense of anxiety in the heart.” The first-generation immigrant said that his next generation of children have different ideas, because “do not see the urgency of the issue, do not know that this election is different from the next election, (the president) change of people Taiwan is not necessarily dangerous,” but his parents and family are in Taiwan, Taiwan’s security for themselves is a The issue of “urgency”.
But the man, who works in computers, also said that although he and the next generation born in the United States are “very different in direction,” parents can’t stop their children from making their own choices.
Although some people feel confused about who they should vote for, but there are people who have already made up their minds.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Grace, who lives in Missouri, said she went to the polls two weeks ago after receiving her ballot in the mail, because “I’m looking forward to this, I really hope to quickly replace Trump”, “Trump is not re-elected is my mood right now. ” and she also hopes “not to see any news from him for the next four years.”
Grace says she’s not interested in politics and hasn’t studied it, and while she doesn’t like Biden and “hasn’t seen any great things or good policies from him,” she thinks “at least he’ll do better than Trump on the epidemic I think, with the masks and all.” Now she “just wants to replace Trump, and then we’ll see what Biden can do.”
She said she doesn’t necessarily think the same way as the people in Taiwan, but most of the people around her have similar views, although there are some who support Trump, but everyone tries to avoid talking about politics.
Mr. Lin, who lives in New Jersey, said briefly that while he had received his mail-in ballot, he hadn’t decided who to vote for “because both candidates have their issues.”
Mr. Chen, who came to the United States in the 1980s to study and then stayed to work and live, told the Voice of America that he had voted early on for the Alabama absentee ballot, and their family’s four votes were for Trump, “mainly because he saw that Trump is the rare president who ‘does what he says he’s going to do,’ and in three years has let more than 10 million people left social welfare (social welfare), especially his team paid special attention to the security of Taiwan.”
Mr. Zheng, a New York resident who is currently human in Taiwan, said he would not go to do not vote, “choose Trump although rude, the epidemic is inevitable, but Biden’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party’s enterprises do not explain also not clear, the team and individual reaction is abnormal, vote down.”
Mr. Hsu, another New York resident who has already voted early, also told Voice of America that he chose Trump because “basically he fulfilled his 2016 campaign promises and managed to strengthen American power while taking a tougher stance against China.”
Mr. Hsu added that his New York friend, Mr. Huang, also voted for Trump because he “appreciated that Trump ran the campaign trail as a one-man operation and got close to the people,” while Biden was “all Democrats for him alone.”
Karen, who lives in the Washington suburbs, said in an interview with the Voice of America that she had gone to the ballot box early to vote for Biden because she thought Trump had “messed up the United States,” and she voted for Clinton four years ago because she “didn’t like the arrogant and discriminatory words Trump used in his speech, very disrespectful to women, very disrespectful to the underprivileged,” and she thought Trump was a “very standard profit merchant,” not a person who could lead the country.
She said that although Trump said that he wants to make the United States strong, the economy should be better, immigration policy should be restricted or it will bring down the U.S. welfare system, “these are all true, but he uses a very violent and discriminatory means and words to do these things”, which makes her very disapproving, because for her who is also a minority, Trump “Raising the consciousness of white racist superiority is actually a very bad thing for the majority of our non-white race.”
Karen said that the black riots that have been brewing since the beginning of the year have resulted in poor policing across the U.S. “While none of us encourage riots, it’s unacceptable when the police can’t extend their public power for the underdog and they use it to bully the underdog instead.” In addition, she also believes that Trump’s lack of preparedness and neglect of life has made her even more disgusted with him and has made her miss President Obama’s emphasis on ethnic equality and social peace.
Karen, who has been coming to the United States for nearly 30 years, said that Trump wants to make the U.S. economy strong and launch a trade war against China, “and it’s the right thing to do,” but she decided to vote for Biden after her antipathy toward Trump increased from epidemic preparedness and black riots, “but it’s not necessarily true that you can say how good Biden was “, the problem is that that’s the way democracy works, “we only have a choice between two people” and “whoever is better I just don’t want him anyway.”
Although the Trump administration has taken many actions to support Taiwan, but Karen said that Trump “just use Taiwan as a pawn in the U.S.-China confrontation”, support Taiwan is only to ask Taiwan to buy U.S. weapons, she hopes that Taiwan to be objective, rational, calm, not too early to choose sides, do not “when the Other people’s pawns” and don’t get involved in wars, China’s economy helps Taiwan, and Taiwan shouldn’t be so anti-China that “picking sides too early is likely to be sacrificed.”
Ms. Tseng, who lives in Maryland, said in an interview with the Voice of America that she has voted for Trump, mainly because Trump’s “policy is correct, conservative, anti-communist”, she has family in Taiwan that should support Trump rather than “pro-communist” Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris, because they will “sell out Taiwan” after the election.
Taiwan is the last bastion of democracy,” said Ms. Tseng, who paused for a few seconds and then said she was “a little bit excited” but said she hoped voters from Taiwan, whether or not they had family in the country, “should stick to their guns”. Front, we must be anti-communist.”
“We are anti-communist not to deny the Chinese culture, but mainly because of its communist connection, hoping that the Chinese people will wake up and know that it is wrong that they are in this system right now, because they are completely incapable of free thinking, and are completely brainwashed very badly by their communism.”
Ms. Zeng said that when she traveled to China last October, she saw signs on the streets and speeches by tour guides saying that the Communist Party was good, and that life seemed rich and glamorous on the surface, but that “culture and other aspects have not kept up with the level that they should be” and that with the slogans “Be proud of the Party” and “Keep the original heart and serve the Party” all deeply rooted in the people’s hearts, the Chinese people felt that as long as they lived a good life, they did not need to care about politics or demand change.
Ms. Tseng, who has been in the U.S. for 30 years and claims to be a native Taiwanese, said she hopes Trump will be re-elected, “If Trump doesn’t succeed this time, I think it will be hard to exterminate the CCP in the future, because this is a really good opportunity.” She said she is anxious every day about whether Trump will be re-elected because many of the steps Trump has taken, such as the trade war, are to address past injustices.
For his part, John, who also lives in Maryland, told Voice of America that he supports Biden, “The reason is pretty simple, because I think life in the United States has been rather unsettled lately, and our current president has caused us a lot of volatility, and we want to get back to our old quiet life and less controversy about race, and that’s the main reason. “
John said he believes that the different camps are now manipulating various issues for the election, such as epidemics and racial controversies, which are simple issues but are being used to manipulate different ethnic groups against each other, resulting in many impacts on people’s lives, and he believes that “perhaps Biden is better suited to bring us back to a more normal life. “
She said that Taiwan is “the only country in Asia that mostly supports Trump. There’s no way around it, the Chinese threat is a matter of life and death.”
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