One of the Obama administration’s first major Asia policy decisions was to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, a prerequisite for an ASEAN invitation to the East Asia Summit (EAS). One of the first major Asia policy decisions of the Trump administration was the president’s instruction on August 14, 2017 to the US Trade Representative (USTR) to investigate, “China’s laws, policies, practices, or actions that may be unreasonable or discriminatory and that may be harming American intellectual property rights, innovation, or technology development” under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act.³

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