State Department official has a really racist take on U.S.-China relations

"It’s the first time that we will have a great power competitor that is not Caucasian.”

CASEY MICHEL
MAY 2, 2019, 11:22 AM

On Monday evening, a State Department official claimed that the United States can’t focus on human rights if it wants to combat China — and that China presents the first time the United States has faced a great power competitor that isn’t “Caucasian.”

The comments from Kiron Skinner, the State Department’s director of policy planning, came during the New America Future Security Forum in Washington.

Questioned by New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter about the Trump administration’s China policy, Skinner attempted to draw a clear line between American policy regarding the Soviet Union and the United States’ developing policy regarding China.

However, instead of focusing solely on economic competition or Chinese territorial aggression in places like the South China Sea, Skinner discussed how China presents a different “civilization” than previous adversaries like the USSR. According to Skinner, U.S. efforts to highlight Soviet human rights abuses — including the United States’ push for the landmark Helsinki Final Act in 1975, which pledged support for human rights — helped topple the USSR in 1991. However, focusing on highlighting China’s human rights abuses is apparently a futile task.

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