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Clinton Says Beijing Might Blackmail America Over Taiwan
by Josh Gerstein
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 at 3:00 PM
updated Thu, 13 Dec 2007 at 3:00 PM
When Senator Clinton sat down for a "conversation" with Warren Buffett on Tuesday in San Francisco, there was a lot of discussion from both of them about the dangers and deleterious effects of America's surging trade deficit and national debt, as well as the ownership of much of that debt by foreigners.
Mrs. Clinton chose a striking example to highlight that danger: the prospect that the People's Republic of China might use its holdings of American dollars to, in essence, blackmail America in a showdown over Taiwan.
"We can't remain a leader in the world if we have mortgaged and undermined our fiscal position," Mrs. Clinton said, before launching into her warning about Mainland China and Taiwan.
Mrs. Clinton speculated that if Beijing moved on Taiwan, mainland Chinese leaders might threaten the American economy in order to pressure a future president not to intervene. "So that president says, 'We'll send in the Sixth Fleet.' And some Chinese official says, 'You do that, we'll dump dollars. And we'll dump them massively and, yes, it may hurt us but you're going to have to explain to the American People why interest rates are going through the roof.'"
Technically, Mrs. Clinton was paraphrasing something she said a retired general had said at a Senate hearing. Nevertheless, it was striking that she would speculate publicly about such a nefarious act by the Chinese, particular since Taiwan policy is a minefield where American leaders usually tread very gingerly. She also strongly suggested she agreed that the propsect of such a threat from Beijing was both real and frightening.
Spokesmen for the Chinese Embassy and the San Francisco Consultate did not respond to messages seeking comment on Mrs. Clinton's remarks.
In foreign policy, nuance is everything, so the complete text of Mrs. Clinton's Taiwan comments appears below:
"We can't remain a leader in the world if we have mortgaged and undermined our fiscal position…At an open hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, we were hearing from several retired generals and admirals and one of them said, 'You know in the 90s, when China made a move to try to rein in Taiwan, the Clinton Administration could say, 'Welll we're going to send in the Sixth Fleet.' And the Sixth Fleet went in the straits of Taiwan and everybody backed off and we got to the status quo ante without any kind of ongoing problem. So this retired general said, 'Well, suppose the next president has credible information that China's making a move on Taiwan.' So that president says, 'We'll send in the Sixth Fleet.' And some Chinese official says, 'You do that, we'll dump dollars. And we'll dump them massively and, yes, it may hurt us but you're going to have to explain to the American People why interest rates are going through the roof.' And it's that kind of tradeoff and analysis that has to be put into the mix when we talk about something like trade deficit or currency because it has real world strategic and political implications."
Update: While preparing this post I discovered that, several months back, another (alleged) comment by Mrs. Clinton about possible military action involving Taiwan was semi-successfully swept into the memory hole. Details on that here.
Related Topics: Dem Primary
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