US Secretary of State says Trump was right to take tougher approach on China

Former US president Donald Trump was right to take a tougher approach on China, newly-appointed Secretary of State Tony Blinken has said, reiterating Biden administration’s policy of engaging Beijing from a position of strength. Blinken, in an interview to CNN, commented on Trump’s tough approach on China, saying way Trump went about it, in his judgment, was wrong across board, but basic principle was right one.

“I think in fairness to President Trump he was right to take a tougher approach to China. That was right thing to do.

“But what does this require of us? We have to eng China from a position of strength. And wher it’s adversarial aspects of relationship, competitive ones, or cooperative ones which are re in our mutual interest, we have to deal with it from a position of strength,” he said on Sunday.

Blinken explained that this means having strong alliances. “That’s a source of advant for us – t denigrating our alliances. It means, as we were talking about earlier, showing up again in world, engaging. Because if we don’t, when we pull back, China fills in," he said. During his tenure, Trump, a Republican, pushed aggressively on all aspects of US-China ties, including with his relentless trade war, challenging China's military hold on disputed South China Sea, its constant threats to Taiwan, mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, branding coronavirus as "China virus" after it emerged from Wuhan in December 2019 and Tibet issue.

“It means standing up for our values, t abdicating m, when we see abuse of rights of Uyghurs in Xinjiang or democracy in Hong Kong. It means making sure that we’re postured militarily to deter aggression, and it means investing in our own people so that y can compete effectively,” Blinken said.

“If we do all of se things, and all of se things are within our control, we can eng China from a position of strength,” he asserted.

Responding to a question, Blinken said that President Joe Biden has been very clear that he wants to put, will put and is putting human rights and democracy back at center of America’s foreign policy. “Wher it’s China or any or country where we have deep and serious concerns, this will be something that is front and center, and I think you’ve already seen that play out.

“We have se deep concerns that we will act on but also act on in concert with or countries, with allies and partners who share concerns that we have, particularly, again, about abuse of human rights of Uyghurs, but also abuse of democracy in Hong Kong. China made commitments during handover from United Kingdom to China about Hong Kong, about rights of its people. Those commitments have t been upheld,” Blinken added.

Last week, in its first contact with Biden administration, China asked US to rectify "mistakes" of former president Trump's aggressive policies towards Beijing and flagged Taiwan as most important and sensitive core issue for it. On Friday, Blinken spoke to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

China's official media reported that Yang told Blinken that US should "rectify its mistakes" made over a period of time and work with Beijing to uphold spirit of conflict, confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, focus on cooperation and man differences, so as to push forward healthy and stable development of bilateral relations. Biden, a Democrat, has described China as most serious competitor to US and vowed to confront Beijing on various fronts, including human rights, intellectual property and ecomic policy.