During portions of an interview with Bloomberg released on Thursday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that “we have to find an accommodation” with how the U.S. and China treat each other, and while China is awful on security, the economy, and human rights, “we have a shared planet, and we have to work with the Chinese to save the planet, because they’re now, I think, the biggest emitter, if not us, they’re second, and they are part of the solution in all of this.” But we shouldn’t reward China, but have a “mutual discussion about how we can go forward.”
Pelosi said, “China’s a big country, and so are we. And we have to find an accommodation on how we treat each other. But, in terms of the three things I named: Security, China has been a violator of transferring technology of weapons of mass destruction to rogue countries, A. B, in terms of economics, they’ve been — violated almost every trade standard of access, of piracy, of obeying…rules and the rest. And in terms of governance…Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, threat to Taiwan, and the rest. So, we don’t have shared values. But we have a shared planet, and we have to work with the Chinese to save the planet, because they’re now, I think, the biggest emitter, if not us, they’re second, and they are part of the solution in all of this.”
Pelosi also stated [relevant remarks begin around 40:25 of second video] that she has “been a strong critic of China in so many respects, security, economics, and governance. Still, we have to work together in certain areas and we have to find those. I don’t think we find them by rewarding them. I think we find them by mutual discussion about how we can go forward.”
According to Bloomberg, she also said the trade deficit with China was immoral and criticized companies for chasing profits from dealings in China and ignoring human rights.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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