PCR Interviewed by Press TV on US Violation of China’s 12 Mile Limit

PCR Interviewed by Press TVon US Violation of China’s 12 Mile Limit

October 28, 2015 

PCR Interviewed by Press TV on US Violation of China’s 12 Mile Limit

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/28/435376/US-threats-coercion-China-

China unswayed by US threats and coercion: Former White House official

The United States should not use "threats and coercion" against Beijing because these tactics do not work against “powerful” countries like China, a former White House official says.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.

He was commenting on a statement by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter who said that the United States will continue operations in the South China Sea after a US warship entered the disputed waters, provoking Beijing’s anger.

“There have been naval operations in that region in recent days, and there will be in the weeks and months,” Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits, and whenever our operation needs require it.”

The Pentagon chief made the comments when asked about news reports that the US Navy had sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea late on Monday.

The USS Lassen conducts a trilateral naval exercise in May of 2015.

Dr. Roberts said the United States “doesn’t know how to exercise diplomacy. It relies on threats and coercion, and threats and coercion might work against weak countries but they won’t have any effect on a powerful country like China.”

“So what we see here, again, is a foolish United States government creating ill feelings where a powerful nation that is Washington’s major creditor, a powerful nation which is the host to most of the American manufacturing corporations, who used Chinese labor to produce the products that they sell back in the United States to Americans, and they cause needless trouble for a country on which the United States is so dependent for goodwill and cooperation,” he added. “This is a sign of just amazing foolishness.”

“I suspect the Chinese will make a protest and Washington will find that we need China on some issues; they won’t be there, China won’t be there to help,” the analyst noted.

“So it’s all of a senseless policy, but it has been the policy of the United States’ government in the 21st century,” Dr. Roberts concluded.