The Republican convention wraps up later today in Cleveland. And while much of the focus has been on speeches and domestic issues, the Republican Party Platform has a lot to say about China. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.
Political conventions often highlight personalities over platforms…but when it comes to Republicans and China, there’s a notable shift in the platform.
Four years ago, there were complaints about China— with some tempered praise. The 2012 platform said China’s “rulers have discovered that economic freedom leads to national wealth”….adding that the Republican Party would “welcome the emergence of a peaceful and prosperous China.” That was written shortly before Xi Jinping took power as China’s paramount leader.
This year, the Republicans’ rhetoric blisters. On China’s leadership: “The liberalizing policies of recent decades have been abruptly reversed, dissent brutally crushed…and the cult of Mao revived.” Since this is a political document, Democrats also come under fire in the platform, which says recent trade dealings with China have been “a virtual surrender.”
On military issues, it says “the complacency of the Obama regime has emboldened the Chinese government and military to issue threats of intimidation throughout the South China Sea.”
As for North Korea, “we urge the government of China to recognize the inevitability of change in the Kim family’s slave state and, for everyone’s safety against nuclear disaster, to hasten positive change on the Korean Peninsula.”
