Donald Trump was right to take tougher approach on China: Blinken

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US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, in an interview to CNN, commented on Trump’s tough approach on China, saying the way Trump went about it, in his judgment, was wrong across the board, but the basic principle was the right one, reports PTI.

Former US president Donald Trump was right to take a tougher approach on China, newly-appointed Secretary of State Tony Blinken has said, reiterating the Biden administration’s policy of engaging Beijing from a position of strength, reports CNN.

Blinken, in an interview to CNN, commented on Trump’s tough approach on China, saying the way Trump went about it, in his judgment, was wrong across the board, but the basic principle was the right one.

“I think in fairness to President Trump he was right to take a tougher approach to China. That was the right thing to do.

“But what does this require of us? We have to engage China from a position of strength. And whether it’s the adversarial aspects of the relationship, the competitive ones, or the cooperative ones which are there in our mutual interest, we have to deal with it from a position of strength,” he said on Sunday.

Blinken explained that this means having strong alliances.

“That’s a source of advantage for us – not denigrating our alliances. It means, as we were talking about earlier, showing up again in the world, engaging. Because if we don’t, when we pull back, China fills in,” he said.

During his tenure, Trump, a Republican, pushed aggressively on all aspects of US-China ties, including with his relentless trade war, challenging China’s military hold on the disputed South China Sea, its constant threats to Taiwan, the mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, branding coronavirus as “China virus” after it emerged from Wuhan in December 2019 and the Tibet issue.

“It means standing up for our values, not abdicating them, when we see the abuse of the rights of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or democracy in Hong Kong. It means making sure that we’re postured militarily to deter aggression, and it means investing in our own people so that they can compete effectively,” Blinken said.

Biden, a Democrat, has described China as the most serious competitor to the US and vowed to confront Beijing on various fronts, including human rights, intellectual property and economic policy.