Apr
25
Hillary on China Policy
April 25, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Kitty XIE Rui (6)
Hillary Clinton is the first presidential candidate to make a public statement to urge President George W. Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies unless China improves human rights.
“I encourage the Chinese to take advantage of this moment as an opportunity to live up to universal human aspirations of respect for human rights and unity, ideals that the Olympic Games have come to represent,” Hillary Clinton said
Actually, Hillary Clinton has criticized Bush’s China Policy for a long time. Appearing at a speech on Foreign Policy at George Washington University on February, she asserted her belief in human rights and democracy and stressed that she had rich experience in dealing with the rising power of China.
Besides, Hillary also sends the message to the public that she has an advantage over her rival Obama because she has a pretty good inside view with her over eight years in the White House and over seven years in the Senate.
It is generally believed that Hillary Clinton will adopt the same tough line towards China during her presidential campaign as Bill Clinton did. Based on some documents, interviews, speeches and debates related to Hillary Clinton, we can conclude some points of her China Policy.
Overall Strategy
It would be a position where we would operate from strength with a coherent policy about what our interests were and what we hope to achieve.
(Q: Should we believe that the U.S. relationship with China under a Hillary Clinton administration would be less one of cooperation and engagement and one more akin to confrontation?)
(Source: 2007 Democratic radio debate on NPR Dec 4, 2007 )
Tibet and Sudan
[We should push] the Chinese to end the suppression of Tibetans and undermining their culture & religious beliefs, and to get more cooperation with respect to Sudan. But the challenge is how do we try to influence the Chinese government? I believe we have missed many opportunities during the Bush administration to do so. In fact, I think it’s fair to say our policy toward China is incoherent and that has not been in our strategic interest. So I would urge the president to not attend the opening ceremonies, and let’s see whether the Chinese government responds because that would be a great loss of face and perhaps we would get more cooperation.
(Source: 2008 Democratic Compassion Forum at Messiah College Apr 13, 2008)
Economy
We have handicapped ourselves because of Bush’s irresponsible fiscal policies, but we’ve also, unfortunately, seen an incoherent foreign policy. I fear that if we don’t start taking steps to demonstrate that we are back in charge of our fiscal destiny, that we do have a coherent diplomatic approach toward China, China will continue to gain leverage over us.
(Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Democratic debate Dec 13, 2007)
We’ve got to get back to fiscal responsibility in order to undercut the Chinese power over us because of the debt we hold. We also have to deal with their currency manipulation. We have to have tougher standards on what they import into this country. I do not want to eat bad food from China or have my children having toys that are going to get them sick. So let’s be tougher on China going forward.
(Source: 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic primary forum Aug 8, 2007)
Human Rights
I think you do have to call them (China) on human rights. I mean, the Chinese respect us if we actually call them on their misbehavior and their breaches of human rights, economic activities and other kinds of problems that we have with them. That’s what I object to about this administration. We’ve gotten the worst of both worlds. We’ve gotten neither the kind of smart enforcement nor the kind of cooperation that might lead to changes in behavior.
(Source: 2007 Democratic radio debate on NPR Dec 4, 2007 )
Actually, Bill Clinton abandoned his firm stance on China after he became the U.S. president. He was the first president to visit China after Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Also, he pushed through legislation to make China’s Most Favored Nation Status permanent.
According to her speech on 2007 Democratic radio debate on NPR, Hillary said she had been deeply involved in being part of the Bill Clinton team in the first Clinton administration and given the best possible advice on Chinese foreign policy.
So Hillary Clinton may follow the similar path as her husband does if one day she is elected as the U.S. president.
