US-China relations ‘upended’ by Xi Jinping’s reign, says Bill Clinton

Former US president Bill Clinton said Xi Jinping’s long-term reign had upended US-China relations, and that a more coordinated approach between the incoming Joe Biden administration and American allies was required when dealing with Beijing.

Clinton, who was in conversation with former British prime minister Tony Blair at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, said the US could strengthen its negotiating position with China by enlisting partners, from Europe to Asian nations that were part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact abandoned by President Donald Trump.

Xi has abolished term limits and could rule for years to come. Last month, he laid out an ambition to double the size of China’s economy by 2035 – suggesting he planned to remain in power for the foreseeable future.

“The old Chinese system, which was by no means a democracy, still guaranteed enough debate, and play, and openness because there was a regular rotation of leadership,” Clinton said.

“Now that it appears that a person is in charge of China who intends to stay there for life, in essence, that changes things. But we shouldn’t accept or assume that it’s all going to be bad without working to make it better.”

Clinton noted “clear disagreements” between Washington and Beijing over crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong and the internment of Uygur Muslims in western China, but added there was a “desperate need to work together” on climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said it was clear Biden would work to strengthen the US role in international organisations such as the World Health Organization and Nato. Trump has moved to withdraw the US from the WHO, which he blames for early missteps in handling Covid-19.

“We have got to give the new administration a chance to articulate an approach and then try to achieve, in cooperation with Europe and the United States and the international bodies, a strategic partnership which will enable us to do good things together and try to minimise the bad things that we think will happen if we just walk away.”

US reveals plan to counter China’s ambitions to ‘revise world order’

Blair agreed it was time for the president-elect’s team to take a more coherent, coordinated approach to China rather than relying on the more unpredictable mix of measures – from tariffs to sanctions – pursued by the Trump administration. Those policies often surprised even close allies such as Canada.

“For the new administration in the US, I think the big challenge with China is to get what I would call a strategic framework for dealing with China, rather than a series of ad hoc reactions to whatever the Chinese may be doing,” Blair said.

Trump’s team has previously been reported to be considering a range of hardline moves against Beijing that could impact how Biden’s China policies are perceived. John Ullyot, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said in a statement that “future US presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions.”

Blair said China’s more recent foreign and domestic policies had undermined his belief that Chinese politics would gradually become more open as it joined the world economy. When he and Clinton were in office, there was hope that China’s political system would liberalise as its economy opened up, Blair said.

“That was our hope, and possibly and certainly, it was my actual expectation. You’ve got to say in the last few years, there’s been more external aggression and more internal repression. That’s just a fact,” he said, noting those changes justified a new approach.

“The strategic relationship is very important to define, because you need America and Europe to work together,” Blair said.

“It would be bad if, as it were, Europe is kind of navigating between the US and China. I think that strategic framework has to accept that there will be areas of confrontation.”

Clinton said he thought Biden was being stymied by Trump’s refusal to concede the presidential election.

“I don’t want to say too much right now because over on our side of the Atlantic, the current government in America is blocking a normal transition,” he said.

“The less we say right now, the better, because we want to leave them as much manoeuvring room as possible.”