This is quite a leap for former President Barack Obama…he just blamed former President Donald Trump for China’s increasingly aggressive behavior around the globe.
The former president is doing a speaking tour in the Land Down Under, a deal that could pay him about $1 million, while in Sydney he talked foreign policy with former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop.
Obama said Chinese leader Xi Jinping has a “forceful and confident” demeanor. Obama went further saying that China started to change “once I left office” in 2017 when Trump entered the White House after beating Hillary Clinton.
He said that Chinese President Xi didn’t seem to care about a rules-based international system.
“And so as a consequence, I think China’s attitude as well, we can take advantage of what appears to be a vacuum internationally on a lot of these issues,” Obama said.
Trump waged a trade war against China while in office to offset a deficit that disadvantaged the United States. In Trump’s opinion, it was his predecessors, including Obama, who allowed China to become so powerful.
“They took advantage of us for many, many years,” Trump told Fox News in 2019. “And I blame us, I don’t blame them. I don’t blame President Xi. I blame all of our presidents, and not just President Obama. You go back a long way. You look at President Clinton, Bush — everybody. They allowed this to happen, they created a monster. We rebuilt China because they get so much money.”
While in Australia, Obama said that relations between the United States and China are “significantly strained” and predicted that tensions are not “going to go away anytime soon.”
“Nor should they, because I think there are some fundamental differences in terms of how we operate when you look at the South China Sea,” Obama said.
“The fact of the matter is, is that if China starts claiming what had previously been international waters that is going to make life difficult for its neighbors, and for everyone, long term, I don’t even think it’s going to be good for China,” Obama said.
Obama Blames Trump For China’s Rise
Yeah, the guy that said the 1980’s wants their foreign policy back when Romney was talking about Russia should be listened to here. He may have been better at hiding his ties than Biden. https://t.co/G0ahG7oQMa— Jon T Bradshaw (@jtylerb) March 28, 2023
