Transcript: NPR's Interview National Security Adviser John Bolton

Vice President Pence in a speech about China some weeks ago essentially said that the United States and the West more broadly made a bad bet. The bet was that if Western countries participated in capitalism with China, that its political system would open up, that democracy would follow. He said that bet hasn't worked out, which does seem plainly true. Do you assume that China will never open up?

No, I don't think we should assume that at all. In fact, I think a very important factor in answering that question is do we accept that they will continue to pursue mercantilist trade policies in a free trade environment and use authoritarian practices in their government to maintain control. But it's, I think the vice president was completely correct. I've heard going back years: just let the Chinese economy grow a little bit and you'll see democracy spread all through the country, that you can't have economic openness, ultimately, without having political openness. And on the basis of empirical reality, we know today that connection is far from certain.

What's your new approach then, if you can't just wait for democracy to come, what do you do instead?

Well, I think what we're gonna do, beginning in the next 90 days, as President Trump and President Xi agreed, is see if we can address some of these structural issues in China's economy. I think that would have potentially profound impact on their political structure as well. That's not what we're aiming at. But if the theory is correct, we'll see what flows from it....

NPR
Transcript: NPR's Interview National Security Adviser John Bolton

See also

Business Insider
Trump is losing the trade war with China based on his favorite report card, and it's probably going to keep getting worse

Bob Bryan

See also

Beyond humiliation.

Reuters
Chinese state media says U.S. trying to 'stifle' Huawei with arrest

See also

Reuters
Japan to ban Huawei, ZTE from government contracts: sources