Esper to Newsmax: China ‘Can’t Afford’ to Get on US’ ‘Bad Side’

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Newsmax on Monday that Beijing may be trying to “play nice” during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit because China “can’t afford” to get on the United States’ “bad side” in the wake of the damage COVID did to its own economy.

“The Chinese economy is not doing well, certainly not as well as people expected,” Esper said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “At the same time, the unemployment rate among young Chinese is over 20% and of course, they have weaknesses in the real estate and banking sectors.

“Look, China can’t afford to get on the bad side of the United States or the Europeans, which is why I think part of this is them wanting to play nice as well, them not willing yet to give lethal aid to Russia, because they know they may face economic and financial sanctions,” Esper continued. “So, they have to tread carefully here in some ways, lest they disrupt their economy, which is key to the Chinese people supporting the Chinese Communist Party, is maintaining that prosperity that they had for at least two decades prior.”

Esper said that he believes “it’s good to talk to your adversaries, your opponents,” as the U.S. is doing with Blinken’s visit this week. However, the former defense secretary doesn’t like how “we seem too desperate, too anxious about having this meeting,” and he fears that “it plays into the Chinese narrative that we are the ones to blame for the tensions.”

“And then, of course, on the backside of this visit, I’m concerned that we will adjust our policies to take the heat off of Beijing for their bad behavior, simply to have a good relationship,” he said. “Look, we all know it’s Beijing … that has done all these bad things, going all the way back to COVID, of course, but recently the spy balloons, the police stations in our countries, the Confucius Institutes, the espionage, the IP theft … it goes on and on and on. Countries around the world, frankly, are concerned about the Chinese Communist Party’s rise.”

When asked if he expects the Chinese to keep their word, Esper said, “I don’t trust them.”

“They’ve been untrustworthy through sequential administrations,” he said. “If we recall, it was Xi Jinping who promised President [Barack] Obama in 2015 or so that they wouldn’t militarize the South China Sea islands, and then, within a year, they did so.

“They don’t keep their promises. Their interest is clear — it’s advancing the Chinese Communist Party. It’s even more important than their people in their country, and so I don’t take them at face value. I think we need to be very skeptical and go back to the old Reagan ‘trust but verify,’ if you will.”

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