Donald Trump, George HW Bush, and China

American Thinker ^ | 12/05/2019 | William R. Hawkins

[SeekAndFind]

On November 22, in a long interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump claimed credit for keeping Chinese forces at bay in Hong Kong. He said that he warned President Xi Jinping that if there was a violent crackdown against the pro-democracy demonstrators, it would have a negative impact on trade talks. China is losing the "trade war" with the U.S. It is vulnerable because it needs exports to keep its factories open and imports of technology, food and capital to expand its capabilities.

Critics derided Trump's claim, but the logic is unimpeachable. There is nothing in Xi's background or character that would hold him back from crushing the Hong Kong uprising that has disrupted the city for six months. Xi is a hard-liner with delusions of grandeur. His "China Dream" and the mandatory propagation of his "thought" in the manner of Mao's infamous "Little Red Book" mark him as a dictator with dangerous ambitions. His virulent campaign against "separatism" hat stretches from the brutal occupation of Tibet to Uyghur concentration camps in Xinjiang to increasing military threats against Taiwan also applies to the former British colony of Hong Kong. That protesters often wave British and American flags raise the specter in Beijing that what is desired is not just autonomy for the marvelous city, but independence.

Major units of the People's Armed Police moved to the Hong Kong border weeks ago.  The PAP was greatly expanded after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 to handle future unrest and was placed directly under Xi's Central Military Commission last year. It is suspected that some have donned HK police uniforms and are active in the city. There is also a military garrison in Hong Kong.

[SeekAndFind]

President Trump's signing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act should remind us of how things have changed in 30 years; and the negative consequences that can follow when a President does not look reality in the face and act accordingly. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush vetoed a bill which tied trade to China’s human rights and economic and proliferation policies. The House overrode the veto (the bill was sponsored by Nancy Pelosi), but the Senate did not.

[Wuli]

Some day a book will be written about the Bush-Clinton-Bush duopoly that mangled U.S. policy toward China, and gave all the advantages of the “relationship” to China, at great expense to the U.S.

[Theoria]

And NAFTA. They all couldn’t wait to sell out America.