Hillary Clinton pointedly undermined President Donald Trump’s approach to North Korea on Monday during a videoconferenced speech to a conference in Beijing.
During her hour-long appearance, the 2016 Democratic nominee for president blasted both the White House and the Chinese government for their increasingly hard-line plan of attack as Pyongyang tries to complete a long-range nuclear missile.
She said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping need to soften their posture instead of relying on ‘bluster’ and ‘personal taunts’ to motivate North Korean despot Kim Jong-Un, according to Bloomberg.
In her keynote remarks during Caijing magazine’s annual conference, Clinton warned of the possibility of all-out nuclear war if the U.S. doesn’t pursue gentler diplomacy.
Hillary Clinton, pictured during a Nov.e 9 speech in Washington, told a Chinese audience on Monday that the Trump administration should go easier on North Korea and practice more patient diplomacy
President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have both adopted hard-line strategies to derail North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions
‘Beijing should remember that inaction is a choice,’ she said.
The Trump administration has said repeatedly that ‘the era of strategic patience is over.’
Trump has mocked Kim as ‘Little Rocket Man’ and warned him during a speech this month to South Korea’s National Assembly that he shouldn’t ‘try’ or ‘underestimate’ the United States.
Kim in September labeled Trump a ‘mentally deranged U.S. dotard.’
Days later the president tweeted that ‘[b]eing nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.’
Both Trump and Xi have avoided direct talks with Pyongyang, instead tightening a noose of economic sanctions designed to force Kim’s dictatorship to come to heel.
Clinton said she hopes Beijing won’t follow the path Trump has set out, replacing subtle diplomatic pressure with ultimatums.
And she wants to see the resumption of denuclearization talks among six-nations – China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. — discussions that were shelved as she took over the State Department under President Barack Obama.
‘The Trump administration came in and retreated from diplomacy,’ she said.
‘It appears they have withdrawn their global responsibility and leadership, which has raised question about stability in Asia-Pacific as well as the state power of the U.S.’
Donald Trump has staked his foreign policy on the idea of brow-beating Kim Jong-Un into submission
Trump blasted Kim in October and said his predecessors had failed to contain him
Clinton also complained about China’s aggressive stance regionally as Xi has consolidated his power at the top of the Communist Party structure.
Xi’s elevation to the same status of Mao Zedong in China’s historical pantheon hsa created ‘anxiety about a more assertive Beijing,’ she said, ‘and worries your neighbors as well as the U.S.’
‘The path to legitimacy and leadership runs through responsible cooperation, not through secret military build-ups on contested islands or bullying smaller neighbors,’ Clinton added.
That’s a reference to China’s effort to build artificial islands in South China Sea waters that are claimed by multiple other nations.
Overall the Democrat framed her losing battle with Trump as a clash between fact and fiction.
‘I was the candidate of reality,’ she said. It just wasn’t as entertaining as the reality TV candidate.’