China is our biggest threat, say several Democrat contenders for White House
- Primary debates to choose who wins party’s ticket to stand for US presidency confirm wariness of China’s rise
- Democrats have largely agreed on trade matters with Donald Trump, who has warned Beijing not to hope for a softer stance from a different president
Several Democratic contenders for the 2020 US presidential election have named China as the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States, amid ongoing strategic clashes between Washington and Beijing over trade and technology.
The first of the primary debates for a packed field of Democrats in Miami on Wednesday featured 10 of the 20 candidates and focused largely on domestic issues, but also touched on US foreign policy challenges.
When debate moderators from broadcaster NBC asked candidates what they considered the greatest geopolitical threat to the US, four of the contenders named China: John Delaney, former congressman in Maryland; Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar; Julian Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development; and Tim Ryan, congressional representative from Ohio.
Delaney kicked off the answers by arguing: “The biggest geopolitical challenge is China, but the biggest geopolitical threat remains nuclear weapons.”
Klobuchar said there were two threats: “Economic threat: China. But our major threat right now is what’s going on in the Middle East with Iran.”
Ryan said that China was “without a question” the largest threat to the United States.