ExclusiveUS passing Hong Kong human rights and democracy act will only ‘punish the wrong people’: ex-Trump envoy Susan Thornton
- Susan Thornton, formerly America’s most senior diplomat in East Asia, says the bill is a ‘huge mistake’ and reflects misconceptions in the US about China’s rise
- She says stripping Hong Kong of its special status will hurt Hongkongers and have ‘Beijingers dancing in the streets’
In a wide-ranging interview, Susan Thornton, who served as acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said passing the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would be a “huge mistake” that would end up “punishing exactly the wrong people”.
“To me, Beijing would like nothing more than the US to remove Hong Kong’s special status. I don’t really get it. I don’t understand what game they think they are playing,” said Thornton, who retired from the US Department of State in July after more than 25 years of service, referring to lawmakers pushing the bill.
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“I don’t think they think about it much, but they just have this one bill that has Hong Kong in it, and they’re wielding it like a club, and they don’t seem to understand that the club is basically going to whack the Hongkongers upside the head, and the Beijingers will be dancing in the streets.”
Thornton, who is now a senior fellow at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Centre, said that rather than trying to punish Hong Kong, the US should be seeking to act as a “moral compass”. She accused Washington of being “irresponsible and misinformed” with its remarks on the recent unrest in the city, arguing that US officials should express disapproval of violence from all sides.
“Condemning violence on the part of the protesters, rather than cheering them on because they are singing the US national anthem, I think, would be appropriate, but also condemning police violence,” she said. “Basically just saying the right things, which we haven’t been doing.”
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Thornton was the longest-serving senior envoy for Asia under the administration of US President Donald Trump. A formal nomination to become assistant secretary failed due to opposition in the Senate from China hawks such as Rubio. Since leaving the government, she has taken aim at Trump’s overall policy of confrontation with China in areas ranging from technology to trade.
“I think it would be much more productive to try to work with them constructively on that than to try to isolate them, keep them out, block their development and contest what they are doing in the world,” she said.
While acknowledging that the US had legitimate complaints about China regarding market access and intellectual property protection, Thornton said Washington was in denial about the inevitability of Beijing exerting more influence in the world. Her country had resorted to a “dog in the manger” approach to China’s rise, she added.
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“We are kind of delusional about our reality and what we are dealing with, I think,” Thornton said. “China is a country of 1.4 billion people, they opened up their country to the world in order to develop it, and the idea that we were going to stop them is not realistic.”
She said there was a widespread misconception that previous US administrations had squandered opportunities to keep China “weak and poor” by engaging it in diplomacy and cooperation.
“My unceasing desire has been for people to seriously test that proposition by offering something, and seeing what they are willing to do on denuclearisation,” she said.
“But so far, we haven’t really managed to offer anything where people would reasonably say: ‘Oh yeah, well that’s something that’s really important for their economic development, so if they are not willing to do anything on denuclearisation to get that, it’s obvious that they are not willing to do anything, period.’”
“I think what we also have to realise in this diplomatic game is that as China’s influence and weight in the international system grows, it’s going to be harder and harder for countries to justify recognising Taiwan, no matter what kind of dollar diplomacy or other things are happening,” she said. “So the idea that the US is trying to shore up Taiwan’s diplomatic allies is probably not a very strong hand to play in the long term.”
