US Should Adopt Policy of Reciprocity Toward China: Former US Assistant Secretary of State

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, in Washington on June 21, 2022. Matthew Pearson/CPI Studios

The United States should apply a reciprocal strategy in relation to China, says former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell.

“The idea was that until you begin to live up to your commitments to cooperate, we’re going to treat you the exact same way you treat us. So reciprocity was the means, not the end,” Stilwell recently said on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.

“Any relationship has to have benefits for both sides, or it’s not going to last,” he said.

He further elaborated on how the Chinese regime had managed to play a one-sided game to gain an advantage in several areas in its relationship with the United States.

Media

Stilwell pointed to the fact that in 2020, China sent more than 100 journalists to the United States but granted visas to only 30 American journalists to do their work in China.

“So the only people who were allowed to stay there reporting were the ones that PRC determined were more friendly to the regime,” Stilwell said, referring to the acronym for the Chinese regime’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

And for those sent to America, he said, “they work for the government, so they’re not really out there to discern truth.”

He also noted that these Chinese journalists seek to spread their propaganda to the American people.

“In the PRC system ... it’s just as valid to have a journalist here who’s taking PRC language and broadcasting it to Americans, convincing Americans of how things should be, telling us how bad the administration is, botching the [U.S.–China] relationship,” Stilwell said.

The former diplomat highlighted the incident when the Chinese ambassador to the United States was able to place an op-ed in The New York Times, but the Chinese media refused to publish a piece written by his counterpart in Beijing.

“We had Ambassador [Terry] Branstad write an op-ed, a very benign op-ed ... right after [Chinese] Ambassador Cui Tiankai here in the U.S. had done this really inflammatory presentation in the American media space.

“So we drafted an op-ed for Ambassador Branstad to place in People’s Daily. And knowing full well they wouldn’t,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece.

“Not only did they reject [it], but they actually gave us a rejection letter that we then published.”

U.S. President Joe Biden gestures as he meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2021. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Climate

The same holds true with respect to cooperation on climate change, Stilwell said.

Regarding the Paris Agreement, “the regime signed up to continue to increase pollution as their economy grows,“ he said. ”The amount of carbon output is going to increase until 2030, they say, at which point [it begins] to taper and then achieve carbon neutrality in 2060.

“We assume that they shut down all their coal plants and that they’ve all gone solar and all that stuff. ... That isn’t true. This is an information warfare tactic.”

Meanwhile, the restrictions that Washington signed up for in the Paris Agreement were “far more economically damaging than any country,” he said.

And due to the information warfare tactic that the regime is leveraging, he said, “even our allies and friends are pointing to us saying, ‘You guys backed out of Paris [agreement]. You’re not serious about climate.’”

Economic Cooperation

In terms of economic cooperation, Stilwell said that there are about 200 companies from China listed on the New York Stock Exchange that aren’t complying with U.S. audit requirements. The Chinese regime doesn’t permit U.S. regulators to inspect the audit books of China- or Hong Kong-based accounting firms, citing state secrecy.

Meanwhile, he said, “there’s no American company that doesn’t have to meet those audit requirements.”

“Had they done an audit, they would’ve seen that this thing shouldn’t be on the New York Stock Exchange. It doesn’t belong there. It’s not a real, legitimate audit, but we allowed that.”

The retired brigadier general referred to the Biden administration’s hint that to ease inflation the United States might cut the tariffs on Chinese imports that were imposed in 2018 by former President Donald Trump to combat a slew of unfair trade practices by the Chinese regime.

“The tariffs are there because the regime didn’t live up to its end of the bargain to buy this much American agriculture, to buy this many American products, to create access for other American things that they get access to here in the United States. It’s not mutually beneficial,” Stilwell said.

To combat the information warfare, trade warfare, and political warfare deployed by the regime, in Stilwell’s opinion, the United States should revisit its approach toward Beijing.

“We want this to be a cooperative relationship like we have with other countries,“ he said. ”We’ve tried for 40 years to get it to that point.

“But after 40 years, you have to assume that this plan isn’t working and we’re going to have to change direction.”