A prominent American critic of President Donald Trump has backed his plans to “recalibrate” the United States’ economic dealings with Beijing, saying US policies toward China had been “misdirected” for a long time.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who is on a short visit to Beijing, said US policy needed a rethink and she did not fear tariffs being implemented on Chinese goods.
President Trump has proposed implementing tariffs on Chinese goods amid claims that Beijing systematically misappropriated American intellectual property.
Warren said the US government was waking up to Chinese demands for US companies to give up their know-how in exchange for access to its market, after years of assuming economic engagement would lead to a more open China.
“The whole policy was misdirected. We told ourselves a happy-face story that never fit with the facts,” Warren told reporters on Saturday.
“Now US policymakers are starting to look more aggressively at pushing China to open up the markets without demanding a hostage price of access to US technology,” she said.
Warren discussed trade issues and North Korea with senior Chinese officials, including Liu He, the vice premier for economic policy, Yang Jiechi, a top diplomat, and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.
China ‘failing on human rights’
She said she told officials she met that Americans cannot support a more integrated economic system with China if it “fails to respect basic human rights”.
China’s ruling Communist Party has tightened controls on society since President Xi Jinping assumed power, from online censorship to a crackdown on activists and non-governmental organizations, though Chinese officials routinely deny accusations of rights abuses.
Warren also made stops in Japan and South Korea, and she said that US allies in Asia were having trouble understanding Trump’s “chaotic” foreign policy.
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Trump had earlier exchanged insults and veiled threats of war over North Korea’s tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but the US leader made the surprising announcement last month that he was prepared to meet Kim.
Warren said the US needed to get a commitment to discuss verifiable steps to reduce North Korea’s nuclear threat, which would require careful negotiations from a State Department whose role has been vastly diminished under Trump.
Trump’s efforts to “take the legs out from underneath our diplomatic corps” were a “terrible mistake”, she said.
– with reporting by Reuters
Detainees in Guantanamo can be kept indefinitely without trial. Suspected terrorists are kidnapped and sent by special CIA renditions to secret torture sites around the world, because it is illegal to do so in the US. Prisoners in US jails are overwhelmingly Afroamericans and Hispanics. US cops killed unarmed black people with impunity.
By the same reasoning, Chinese cannot support a more integrated economic system with the US if it “fails to respect basic human rights”.
It is "fair exchange" to seek technology transfer in return for market access, the foreign party can always refuse and the home market can turn to others to gain the same or even it takes more time develop one’s own technology… Marcos did the same though he did not survive the retaliation of the U.S., other Tiger Economies did the same and survived and grew because the U.S. tolerated them to build them up against the encroachment of the Soviet and Chinese blocs then… but the U.S. can’t do that to China now so either they get out and lose the largest market in human history of shut up and take it….
Blockheads such as E Warren using the " human rights " mantra, will get the US nowhere.
US " human rights " includes being shot by guns, being invaded, regime change, being bombed, being poisoned, etc.etc.
The dumb and dumber. China is obviously taking the lead, instead of blocking,the best to do is what European is doing: joined adventures taking advantage of vast human resource and market. But there are elections to win, and fools to fool …
Oh no, not human rights again. How about speaking up on Palastinian massacre and slaughter in Yemen by U.S. backed Saudi Arabia/
It is a bit late for the US to stop the fast moving train. Looks like its the US that need China more then the other way round. The anxiety expressed by the US is very real. It is for once facing very real near peer competitor. It is bogged down in endless wars, mounting debts, middling educational system, dwindling middle class, very tired military, a population divided and a dysfunctional Government . It could hardly muster the will and resources to move forward to compete in the world.