The State Of U.S.-China Relations Under Trump

Welcome back to morning joe it’s 8 37 here on the east coast now to our series on the biggest foreign policy challenges that will face whoever wins the presidential election NBC news senior international correspondent kier Simmons joins us now with a look this morning at china here good morning hey willie good morning to you you only had to watch last week’s debate to know that whoever is elected next week America going forward will be tougher on china a challenging it’s mercantilism its militarization and its lack of democracy that really isn’t the question on china for voters next week willie the question is what’s the right approach to put it simplistically is it trump’s trade wars or is it Biden’s proposal to lean into the post-war for deterrence alliances in the region with countries like Japan and South Korea for voters to make that kind of decision you really need to understand what china has done and

what it’s doing when America looks at china it often sees a billion people all marching instead but not unlike America powerful forces have been gaining ground inside Chinese politics extremists nationalists even some of its diplomats called wolf warriors named after a pair of Chinese nationalist film blockbusters for aggressively criticizing America at the height of the turmoil following the killing of George Floyd this summer the state department criticized china’s human rights record in hong kong a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman responded in a tweet I can’t breathe those who criticize china are targeted UCLA china expert professor Michael berry has been bombarded with online abuse and

death threats simply because he translated Wuhan diary a book by well-known Chinese author fang about the early days of coronavirus in Wuhan I’ve probably gotten close to a thousand private messages of hate and threats but what do they say I’m going to effing kill you I’m going to effing kill your son I’m going to kill your mother it’s almost a kind of psychological terrorism in Washington 2 opinions have hardened towards china on both sides of the aisle this is not a republican democrat issue this is an American issue and it is the issue uh of the 21st century i really do believe that one of the most defining questions of the next uh 20 30 years will be what is the united states relationship with china systematic usage for years the British ambassador Karen pierce has watched Chinese diplomacy for decades it focused on economic growth pulling millions out of poverty but now she says you see a rather different china

that’s determined to have a place on the world stage china that wants to reset the rules of international affairs to its own advantage that says they collaborate with the multinational system they contribute to peacekeeping they’re now a major donor so it’s very much a mixed picture over what it said 15 years ago president trump has played good cop bad cop with china railing against china on the 2016 campaign trail we’re going to have a very very great relationship making friends with president xi over chocolate cake at mar-a-logo but now they haven’t spoken for months the disagreements piling up Huawei tik-tok hong kong human rights currency devaluation and now the controversy surrounding coronavirus has poured gasoline on the fire look at what happened with the china virus look at what they did by not keeping that

within the confines of China, they should have kept it in the confines of china look what they’ve done to 188 countries all over the world trump now entertaining the idea of the world’s two largest economies nobody truly knows what’s next we’re likely to be in a prolonged global recession I don’t see how china escapes from that and therefore that will impact china’s foreign and economic policy but we do know China has been flexing its muscles fusing civil and military decision-making modernizing its massive navy air force and army a total of 2.8 million troops senator jeanne shaheen sits on the senate’s foreign relations and defense committees they have continued to do a build up in the south china sea in ways that increase the chinese sphere of influence in that area as you point out there are rumblings that

continue to threaten taiwan they have gone back on their agreement not to interfere in hong kong in a way that has protected human rights and democracy there that has been totally undercut china’s human rights record continues to undermine its standing on the world stage it’s been repeatedly accused of detaining a million uyga muslims in concentration camps they call them vocational retraining centers designed to combat extremism china this year elected to the united nations human rights council but with its lowest votes ever while a second term president trump will likely continue his anti-china america first rhetoric a potential biden administration says it will rally america’s regional allies biden will have a very different approach to managing china he understands the value working

with other countries china’s too big and too powerful to for any country to try to manage on its own but both approaches likely mean relations with china will remain or get more tense in the years ahead this month taiwan’s foreign minister called china quote a hostile country american and chinese confrontation has led to hostilities before on the korean peninsula and in vietnam a lot of people even talked about is this going to lead to a new cold war that is absolutely not the case if we don’t want it to be we it is not inevitable that we end up having a new cold war or competition to that level with china the two economies are intertwined to the tune of more than 700 billion dollars meaning millions of american and chinese jobs depend on each other that may be the best deterrent to confrontation the stakes for america’s next president couldn’t be hired