US president’s address avoided direct accusations against Beijing for problems including Korean peninsula nuclear crisis, bilateral trade and investment
In a speech to the United Nations defined by a threat to “totally destroy North Korea”, President Donald Trump struck a mixed tone on China.
Trump avoided naming Beijing as an enabler for what his administration considers to be the most pressing global security threat. The same went for other problems including bilateral trade an investment. Trump mentioned China specifically only to thank the country’s leaders for their cooperation on North Korea.
Instead, the president spent much of his time focusing on his policy of “principled realism”, which recognises the right of other countries to follow whatever governing principles they want, provided they align with the wishes of their populations and don’t threaten the security of other countries.
“Most of the speech should be welcomed by countries like China and Russia, which see sovereignty and non-interference as principles that they’re endorsing internationally,” Sarah Kreps, a peace and conflict studies professor at Cornell University, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
“He wasn’t judgmental about China’s domestic policies. There’s a recognition that they have common objectives,” added Kreps, who authored Coalitions of Convenience: United States Military Interventions after the Cold War, an Oxford University Press publication.
Donald Trump threatens ‘total destruction’ of North Korea over nuclear programme during UN address
Analysts said Trump’s speech may signal the beginning of a more coherent foreign policy compared to the ad hoc, situational approach he had taken since the presidential campaign and his first months in office.
In July alone, Trump went from berating China on trade, (“So much for China working with us”), to raving about “an excellent meeting” with China’s president Xi Jinping on trade and North Korea, and then back to excoriating China with the accusation that “they do NOTHING for us on North Korea”.
While not yet a “doctrine”, Trump’s foreign policy was made at least marginally clearer at the UN, according to Elizabeth Economy, director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World.
Getting to grips with North Korea in 15 graphics
Trump identified what he considers to be the greatest threats to the US – North Korea, Iran, and “radical Islamic terrorism”, in particular – and emphasised his government’s willingness to cooperate internationally and within the framework of the UN on these issues and others. The caveat being that a lack of cooperation would lead to the “destroy North Korea” path.
