William Hagerty, a Republican senator from southern Tennessee and former U.S. ambassador to Japan, was recently interviewed by Voice of America on Capitol Hill about U.S.-Japan relations, Japan’s post-war reconstruction, U.S.-China relations, and the future of democracy in China.
Hagerty, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, assumed the post of ambassador to Japan in 2017. Two years later, Haggerty resigned as ambassador and returned to his home state of Tennessee to run for the U.S. Senate. He won the 2019 election with 62.2 percent of the vote.
Haggerty, 61, currently serves on the Senate Foreign Affairs, Appropriations and Banking and Regulation committees. Prior to being appointed ambassador to Japan, Haggerty was active in business and finance and served in Tennessee state government.
Four years ago, when he was sworn in as ambassador to Japan, Haggerty said he would face the challenges facing the United States head-on. Four years later, in an interview with Voice of America on Capitol Hill as a U.S. senator, Haggerty was asked how the challenges facing the United States would change four years later.
Haggerty said, “It seems to me that the challenges we face have gotten tougher, particularly from China. What we’re witnessing is an ongoing Chinese offensive in the military, diplomatic, economic, and also in science and technology.”
Japan is a major U.S. ally, and despite the bitter conflict between the two Pacific military powers during World War II, today the U.S.-Japan relationship is of unique importance, both in terms of international strategy and democratic structures.
Senator Haggerty said, “After World War II, our efforts were unprecedented. General MacArthur led a team into Japan that pushed and led the reconstruction of the Japanese economy. When I was the U.S. ambassador to Japan, my residence was the same residence that General MacArthur had when he was in Japan. I even found some of General MacArthur’s handwritten letters in this residence. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics put Japan on the world stage with a new look. Since then, Japan’s manufacturing and technology industries have grown significantly. The relationship between Japan and the United States has certainly played a critical role in this. Today, our two countries continue to cooperate in the area of trade, but also need to continue to deepen their strategic alliance, from military to economic to diplomatic. In fact, we are moving in that direction in parallel. Our alliance, and our partnership, is critical to the peace as well as the prosperity of the entire region.”
While Japan is currently pivotal in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, Haggerty emphasized that it is equally vital and more important for democracies in the Asia-Pacific region to be united.
Haggerty said, “Now that we are developing further relations with India, Australia, and perhaps some other countries, I hope that we can all come together and I hope to demonstrate the democratic values that we hold and the benefits that free market principles can bring to societies and to people, and that is precisely the best strategic fundamental point.”
Speaking of China, Senator Haggerty said, “Their institutions and foothold are very different from ours, and we need to see that. We must consistently resist China’s aggressive posture, make sure that China acts in accordance with the principles of a free market economy, and make sure that China recognizes that they are dealing with more than a democratic country, a democratic system. We will be consistent in the future as well, acting on the spirit and the basic points of the institutions of a democratic state.”
Haggerty said the United States will continue to focus on China’s human rights abuses and will not stop pressuring them.
He said, “Next, I think you’re going to see the United States continue to look at the Chinese government’s abuses, its crackdowns, and make them known to the world, whether it’s Xinjiang or Hong Kong. They are completely suppressing the people’s demand for democracy in Hong Kong. The result of their doing that, in my opinion, will only serve to alert other countries in Asia and prompt those countries to want to move more toward our model. That’s my expectation.”
The current relationship between Japan and the United States is very different from the period just after World War II when General MacArthur was in Japan. Does the U.S. still have the resources and political will today to invest in the Asia-Pacific region and help move the Asia-Pacific community forward? Haggerty addressed these questions by saying, without thinking, “The answer is that [the United States] has every resource, every will, and I personally will do everything I can as a U.S. Senator to make this happen.”
During the interview, Senator Haggerty also spoke about his views on a number of China-related issues. He was asked if he could imagine a democratic China in the future and if he thought democracy still existed and had potential in China under a one-party dictatorship.
Haggerty said, “We have to first realize and see that China is effectively a communist-led regime at the moment. An authoritarian regime is incompatible with the concept and institutions of democracy, and they are trying to eradicate democracy in Hong Kong at the moment. We need to support the people of Hong Kong, we need to stand up, we need to stand up against and resist the Chinese government’s oppressive behavior internally and externally. We, namely the United States, have done that, and other countries have seen us do that, and I think they will join us.”
To the Chinese public, Haggerty said, “I hope the Chinese public will see this as well. It’s not the Chinese people that make me uneasy, it’s the Chinese Communist regime that is suppressing them that makes me uneasy. I have a great deal of sympathy for the Chinese people, and the massive controls that the Chinese government is now imposing on society as a whole, using new technologies, are deeply troubling.”
Despite the partisan divide in the U.S. Congress on many issues, Haggerty said there is more bipartisan consensus on China issues.
On this issue, there is a cross-party consensus among Senate colleagues to strongly insist on standing up for long-held American values and working together to defend against the many, many acts of domestic and international bullying by the Chinese government,” Haggerty said. In the United States, we are in common agreement on this point.”
As for whether the American public is sufficiently informed about these issues or willing to meet this rather daunting challenge?
Senator Haggerty said, “I think the people of Tennessee, and indeed the people of every state in America, value freedom above all else. We expect not only our own country to be free, but we expect the people of China, the people of other countries, to live in a free society as well. I think the people of my home state are fully capable of seeing how the Chinese government treats its people at home and will not support the abuses and repressive actions that the Chinese government is taking at the moment, both at home and in other parts of the world.”
U.S.-Japan relations
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is the first foreign leader to visit the White House since President Biden took office. Haggerty believes the Japanese prime minister’s visit to the United States is significant.
He said, “It not only underscores the importance that the United States places on the U.S.-Japan strategic alliance, but it also underscores the importance of that region to the United States and to the overall security of the world.”
Senator Haggerty also said that there is a great consensus among his colleagues in the U.S. Senate on the issue of the U.S.-Japan alliance, as there is on policy toward China. He told VOA that just before Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan arrived in Washington, he himself, along with Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey and chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, drafted a resolution honoring the U.S.-Japan alliance. Also signing on were Senators Chris Coons (D-NY) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), among others.
On areas where the U.S.-Japan relationship could be strengthened even further, Haggerty said, “We need to work as closely as possible. One thing that needs to be clear is that we need to pay very close attention to the supply chain (of products, technology). Japan, like the United States, is experiencing intellectual property theft from the Chinese side. The U.S. has put a number of Chinese companies on a sanctions list that prohibits the sale of equipment to China that would help the semiconductor industry. What I want to emphasize, and make sure, is that the Japanese side understands that.”
Haggerty said he noted the movement of some Japanese manufacturers in exporting semiconductors and other related technology products to the Chinese side. He stressed that the U.S. and Japan must be in step in this area. “Japanese manufacturers should never demolish our backstage.” He said that since the U.S. and Japan are in a strategic alliance on the point of jointly defending against threats from China, they should behave like a strategic alliance.
The senator, who served as U.S. ambassador to Japan, also said, “We have more troops in Japan than we do anywhere else in the world. I will do everything in my power to make sure that we give strong support to our military posture in Japan and to make sure that there is the greatest possible operational coherence between our forces and the Japanese forces.”
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