It’s not surprising that Trump’s instincts led him to side with his purported friend Xi against the popular uprising, writes columnist DoyleMcManus.
After China sent tanks and armed troops to crush pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing in 1989, killing hundreds or more, Trump expressed admiration.
His current silence isn’t only about values. It’s also about hard-headed American interests: keeping Asia peaceful, countering China’s growing military might, and maintaining U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Trump’s messaging has been harmful on all those counts. That election-year trade deal with China that Trump has been promising? Even Trump’s supporters may be unhappy if it involves blood in the streets of Hong Kong.
“One lesson of history is that you have to insist on principles of behavior early, or ambitious autocrats will keep asking for more,” Larry Diamond, a democracy scholar at Stanford, told me. “If we don’t confront China’s movement toward dominance in Asia, eventually we’re looking at the possibility of war between the United States and China — or else a series of Munich agreements while we retreat.
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