Trade Representative Katherine Tai talks being tough on China, without the racist rhetoric
As the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants, Katherine Tai didn't realize until later in life that it wasn’t until she had left home for college that
As the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants, Katherine Tai didn't realize until later in life that it wasn’t until she had left home for college that she regularly ate dinner with a knife and fork.
“On reflection in adulthood, [I] realize how different, maybe, some of my experiences were from many of my classmates. … I’m a bicultural kid,” says Tai, who was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris in March 2021 as U.S. trade representative — the first Asian American, and first woman of color, to hold the post.
“A lot of children of immigrants, I think, grow up in kind of bicultural environments where we spoke one language at home, but every day, I’d go to school and speak a different language,” she says. “I would eat at home with one set of utensils, and for lunch every day, I would eat with a different set of utensils.”
Tai spoke Tuesday at a White House Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month event along with the president and vice president, noting that “just two days before I was sworn in, a gunman in Atlanta killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women.”
In a nod to Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Tai — who rarely talks about her personal background — opened up in a conversation with NBC Asian America about how her heritage informs her work as America’s top trade negotiator.
Rating: 5