Obama Blames Trump For China’s Rise

During a paid speaking tour appearance in Sydney, former US President Barack Obama criticized his White House successor, Donald Trump, for China’s increasingly hostile behavior. Obama pondered over foreign policy while speaking with former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. He revealed that Chinese leader Xi Jinping depicts a ‘forceful and confident’ demeanor. Obama claimed China’s attitude altered “once I left office”, and its rise became pronounced when Trump entered the White House post his victory against Hillary Clinton, Obama’s preferred candidate.

“With my successor coming in, I think he saw an opportunity because the US president didn’t seem to care that much about a rules-based international system,” Obama remarked candidly about Xi.

Obama said China began to change “once I left office” in 2017 when Trump entered the White House. Since then, Trump actively waged a trade war against China along with implementing steep tariffs on imports. Trump insisted that it was his predecessors, including Obama, who allowed China to become powerful in the first place. Nevertheless, U.S. intelligence officials have now confirmed that China has become the biggest national security threat to the United States. Last week, Xi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where they made deals that cemented their economic ties further.

Obama even predicted that relations between the US and China will continue to be strained and harbors not much hope for a swift resolution either. “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. China`s territorial dispute with many of its neighbors in Asia over the South China Sea has resulted in strained relations between nations. Obama also commented that China claiming all the waters that were previously international waters would undoubtedly create tension for everyone in the long term, including China.

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