Bolton: China Is ‘the Biggest International Issue We Face’ in the 21st Century

National Security Adviser John Bolton discussed China’s role in the Venezuelan political crisis and North Korean denuclearization with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily.

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Bolton said Venezuela has “the largest proven oil reserves in the world, larger even than Saudi Arabia,” so “the Chinese are all over Venezuela with loans and efforts to get control.” He noted Russia and Cuba have become deeply involved in Venezuela for similar reasons.

On North Korea, Bolton said it is clearly in China’s interest to help the United States with denuclearization, but Beijing has been reluctant to use the full extent of its influence with Pyongyang.

“China is obviously North Korea’s dominant trading partner,” he pointed out. “Over 90 percent of North Korea’s external trade is with China. We continue to press China to enforce all the sanctions against North Korea.”

“China has always said, going back over 20 years now, they don’t want to see North Korea with nuclear weapons. I think they have good reason not to want to see North Korea with nuclear weapons because China ultimately doesn’t want to see Japan get nuclear weapons. So China could really hold the key to this here, if they press North Korea hard enough,” he said.

Bolton held out hope that China could become more engaged with denuclearizing North Korea after its trade dispute with the United States has been resolved.

“We’re in the middle of a big trade negotiation with China now. The president is determined to do something about the imbalance in trade, the unfairness of China stealing our intellectual property over the years,” he said.

“Those negotiations have been proceeding since the beginning of December when the president met with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, at the G20 meeting. We could be getting closer to a conclusion. I think we’ll know more next week,” he predicted.

“That’s the big issue on the trade front, but we’re worried about China’s ability to affect democracy in this country, to engage in surveillance and cyber warfare,” Bolton added.

“Vice President Pence made a very important speech a couple of months ago at Hudson on the threat that China poses in that regard. This is a very big issue, how to deal with China in this century – probably the biggest international issue we face,” he said.

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