Sun, Oct 14, 2018 page1

• US to toughen China stance: Bolton

  ‘TALK TURKEY’: The US is determined to keep global sea lanes open, John Bolton said, adding that tensions would be greatly reduced if China was put back in its proper place

  • Reuters, WASHINGTON
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  White House National Security Adviser John Bolton has vowed to further intensify the tough approach of US President Donald Trump’s administration to China, saying that Beijing’s “behavior needs to be adjusted in the trade area, in the international, military and political areas.”

  Speaking in a radio interview recorded on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Thursday and aired on Friday, Bolton said Trump believed that China had taken advantage of the international order for far too long and not enough people in the US had stood up to it.

  “Now’s the time to do it” he said.

  

  US National Security Adviser John Bolton adjusts his glasses at a White House briefing in Washington on Oct. 3.

  Photo: Bloomberg

  Bolton said Trump’s tough approach toward China, a country that the administration saw as the “major issue this century,” had left Beijing “confused.”

  “They’ve never seen an American president this tough before. I think their behavior needs to be adjusted in the trade area, in the international, military and political areas, in a whole range of areas,” he said.

  “Perhaps we’ll see at the G20 meeting in Argentina next month [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平) willing to come to talk turkey on some of these issues,” he added.

  Bolton’s remarks came amid a series of administration broadsides against China that goes beyond a trade war. These have included accusing Beijing of trying to undermine Trump ahead of next month’s midterm elections and of taking reckless military actions in the South China Sea.

  US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Friday said that Trump would go through with plans to meet Xi at the G20 Leaders’ Summit if it looked possible to chart “a positive direction.”

  However, he said relaunching trade talks with China would require Beijing to commit to taking action on structural reforms to its economy.

  Bolton called Chinese behavior in the South China Sea, where last month a US warship had a near collision with a Chinese vessel, “dangerous” and said the US was determined to keep international sea lanes open.

  “This is something the Chinese need to understand,” he said, adding that allies, including Britain and Australia, were also sailing through the South China Sea to make this point.

  “We’re going to do a lot more on that,” he said.

  “I think we could see more exploitation of mineral resources in the South China Sea with or without Chinese cooperation. They need to know they have not achieved a fait accompli here,” Bolton said. “This is not a Chinese province and will not be.”

  Bolton did not elaborate on his remark about mineral exploitation in the strategic waterway, which China claims almost in its entirety in spite of several rival claimants.

  Bolton said China’s breach of international norms in trade and business had allowed it to gain substantial economic and military strength.

  “If they’re put back in the proper place they would be, if they weren’t allowed to steal our technology, their military capabilities would be substantially reduced. And a lot of the tensions we see caused by China would be reduced,” Bolton said.

  He said that Washington was prepared to take more action to restrict sensitive high-tech exports to China.

  “We did this and continue to do it in terms of dual-use technology that could affect nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or ballistic-missile development,” he added. “I think in cyberspace, we’re entitled to do the same thing... We want to do it in ways that protect our open economy, but deny others the ability to take advantage of it.”

  Bolton said he expected a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “sometime in the next couple of months,” but said it remained to be seen if the diplomatic effort to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons would be successful.

  “The president has held the door open for North Korea,” he said. “They need to denuclearize completely and irreversibly. And if they do that and walk through the door, the future could be very different for the North Korean people.”

  “The future remains uncertain on the president’s diplomacy. He’s optimistic. He presses hard. He does not have stars in his eyes about this. Neither does Mike Pompeo, neither does Jim Mattis, neither do I,” Bolton said, referring to the US secretaries of defense and state respectively.
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