Elizabeth Warren Praises China’s ‘Long-Term’ Strategy

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) appeared on CBS This Morning on Tuesday and praised China’s long-term strategy, warning that it is “playing everybody” in the world.

CBS host John Dickerson noted that Warren criticized President Donald Trump for not having a strategy for his continuing negotiations with North Korea.

Dickerson said:

There is a North Korean official apparently coming to America. You said the president doesn’t look like he has a strategy, but it looks like his calling off the summit last week seems to have lit a fire under the North Koreans. Three hostages have been released, so maybe there is a strategy.

Sen. Warren responded:

Then it’s been back, and it’s been forth. I want this to work. I want this to work to reduce the threat to South Korea, to Japan, to our allies in the region, to the United States of America, to the entire world, but it really takes a strategy, and I look at the comparison with China.

Look at what China is doing. China’s got the long-term arc, and it’s playing everybody. It’s playing North Korea. It’s playing South Korea. It’s playing the United States of America because it has a long-term whole-of-government strategy that keeps driving towards an end.

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently consolidated his power base in China by eliminating term limits for the country’s president and vice president.

Breitbart News reported that Xi received Mao-era praise as he was installed as the long-term president of China.

The Global Times, a Chinese government publication, noted that various Chinese government-controlled media outlets referred to Xi as the “helmsman of the country” and “guide of the people.”

The People’s Daily, another Chinese-controlled paper, charged, “Practices have proved that Xi is the pathfinder of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era and the navigator in achieving the great dream of national rejuvenation.”

Susan Shirk, former President Bill Clinton’s deputy assistant secretary of state, stated that the move has made Xi a “dictator for life.” Shirk told the Guardian, “What is going on here is that Xi Jinping is setting himself up to rule China as a strongman, a personalistic leader – I have no problem calling it a dictator – for life.”

Shirk added, “It’s hard for me to see how this kind of police state that puts such severe restrictions on civil society and on information and on the educational system is really going to be a successful modern China.”

Shirk concluded, “I expect there is going to be some form of pushback eventually – he’s already lost the intellectuals.”