Antony Blinken, US secretary of state nominee, says Trump’s tough approach to China was right but tactics were wrong
- During a Senate confirmation hearing, Blinken says US should have acted sooner as ‘democracy was being trampled’ in Hong Kong
- ‘I’d like to see us be able to take in some of those fleeing Hong Kong, fleeing the repression, for standing up for their democratic rights’
US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be the secretary of state told Congress on Tuesday that China seeks to become the dominant world power and undermine American interests, the latest sign that the Trump administration’s hardline stance toward an increasingly authoritarian Beijing appears set to continue once the new administration begins on Wednesday.
“I think what we’ve seen in recent years, particularly since the rise of Xi Jinping as leader, has been that the hiding and biding has gone away,” Antony Blinken told lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing.
“I also believe that President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China,” he added. “I disagree very much with the way that he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think that’s actually helpful to our foreign policy.”
Blinken’s comments came just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration’s new determination that China was committing crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uygurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.
The Biden campaign had already called China’s actions in Xinjiang a genocide during the presidential campaign.