My Take | For China, the only thing worse than Trump would be Hillary Clinton as president
- Clinton had worked and thought hard about how to treat China during her tenure as secretary of state and with her experience in key branches of the US government, she would make a formidable opponent; with Trump, China may yet come out on top
Many mainland observers have expressed disappointment that the US presidency of Donald Trump has turned out to be the most virulently anti-Chinese in decades.
They are wrong: a Hillary Clinton White House would have been worse because she would be much more subtle, disciplined and effective.
After all, you don’t talk to your own allies like a schoolyard bully, and broadcast it to the world. Even if they are lapdogs, they don’t want to look like one to their own people.
Lately, Washington has threatened Germany that it would cut off intelligence sharing if the latter allows Huawei to build its 5G networks in the country. It has threatened Italy, which is ready to join China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”.
Last year, it temporarily pulled its ambassadors out of El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, and the charge d’affaires out of Panama, after the three countries broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan for mainland China.
But wasn’t that exactly what the United States did in 1979 by switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing? It was a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do”.