Clinton adviser quits over China rhetoric

A top expert on China has resigned as an informal adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign in the wake of the candidate's increasingly harsh anti-China rhetoric.

Richard Baum, a political science professor at the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA, resigned in light of what he called “grossly misguided accusations” made by Clinton about China.


“As a lifelong Democrat, it saddens me that Sen. Clinton has chosen to take the low road in her effort to gain our party’s presidential nomination,” Baum said in an e-mail to Politico.

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Politico.

Clinton recently has ratcheted up her anti-China sentiments, criticizing the country on everything from its human rights violations to its undervalued currency.

“I’m the only candidate who isn’t just talking about cracking down on China but I have a specific plan on how to do it,” she told union members at the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades National Legislative Conference on Wednesday.

“China should be our trade partner, not our trade master.”

Baum was part of an informal advisory group of East Asia specialists formed by the campaign in January.

Led by Susan Shirk — who served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2000 — the group of a dozen or so advisers has given the campaign input on issues affecting U.S. foreign policy in Asia. Shirk now directs the University of California’s system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. She could not be reached for comment.

Over the past three or four months, Baum said, the group held several telephone conferences with the campaign. During those calls, a few members advised Clinton to avoid what they considered “gratuitous China bashing,” particularly on inflammatory issues such as human rights violations, the trade deficit, currency valuation and the loss of American jobs to China.

“Our reasoning was that while China certainly bears a share of responsibility for these (and other) problems, much (if not most) of the blame, at least on the economic issues, lies elsewhere,” Baum wrote in an e-mail. He attributed the problems, at least in part, to America’s high level of consumption, deficit spending and selective trade protectionism.

On the question of human rights, Baum said he and others in the advisory group believe the Chinese leaders respond better to persistent advice than “self-righteous finger-pointing aimed at publicly shaming and humiliating them.”

Clinton, however, took a different approach.

In early April, she urged President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, citing China’s recent violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters and refusal to condemn the genocide in Darfur.

That sounded some alarm bells for Baum and other members of the advisory group, who felt that a presidential decision to boycott the ceremony could have long-term diplomatic ramifications.

“Calls for a presidential boycott should not be opportunistically injected into Democratic Party politics during a heated presidential primary campaign,” Baum said.

A week later, Baum felt that Clinton crossed a line. At an appearance April 14 at a trade forum in Pittsburgh, she called for punitive trade sanctions and retaliatory measures against China. That’s when he decided to resign.

Since then, she’s continued to hammer China on a host of issues.

“I will get tough on China,” she said on Wednesday during the speech in Washington. “Because right now, China’s steel comes here, our jobs go there. China’s exports, our jobs across the economy are sent there. We play by the rules, they manipulate their currency. We get tainted fish, lead-based toys, polluted pharmaceuticals.”

Her stance is particularly curious given her husband’s historic support for China.

Then-President Bill Clinton made his first visit to mainland China in 1998, making him the first president to visit since troops crushed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

At the time, Republicans in Congress attacked Clinton for his decision to be welcomed by China’s president, Jiang Zemin, in Tiananmen Square.

“I believe that leaders of vision and imagination and courage will find a way to put China on the right side of history — and keep it there,” he famously said during that visit.

On Friday, The Huffington Post reported that the former president has earned $1.25 million for six speaking engagements for Chinese businesses and forums since leaving the White House. He also pushed for more open economic relations between the U.S. and China.

Of course, not all China experts agree with Baum’s strong stance.

Every president since Nixon, after getting into office, has moved toward greater engagement with China, said Kenneth Lieberthal, a professor at the University of Michigan’s business school and former special assistant to President Clinton on Asia-related issues.

Lieberthal, who declined to comment on his relationship with the Clinton campaign, has said he would advise against boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

“I thought [Clinton’s speech] reflected what unfortunately tends to happen in political campaigns, which is that there is an effort to tell the story that fits well with the preconceptions of the audience,” he said.

Beth Frerking contributed to this report.