John McCain
Town Hall Meeting
Youngstown, OH
TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "I have to tell you, if I were President of the United States, the next toy that came into this country from China that endangered our children—it would be the last toy that came in from—from—from that country. So I worry about China [...] in a broad variety of ways. This latest situation with Tibet.
"My friends, you can't repress people. You can't oppress people and expect to be a partner in the world. And what the Chinese have done as regards Tibet, they are paying a price for now. They're paying a price for in the court of world public opinion.
"Now, having said that—and that's why, if I were President of the United States today, I would say, I'm gonna reserve judgment as to whether I go to the opening ceremonies or not.' I think it would be directly related to the Chinese treatment of this Tibetan issue. They've got to give those people some autonomy.
They need to talk with the Dali Lama who is one of the great heroes in the world and they've got a lot of work to do on imagery, but more importantly the Chinese, I think have got to start making progress in democracy, observing of human rights. They are the world's superpower. They are becoming and they are a world superpower and we have to recognize that.
"The contemplation of conflict with China is not imaginable. It's not imaginable, but there's a lot of things that we can do to try to bring about improvement in Chinese behavior and I think many of those are a very firm position on our respect for human rights and progress. I also think that we have to understand that China will be a super power.
"There's a lot of things they have done, which are a laudable. And there's a lot of things such as this Tibetan situation, which are not. So I would try to deal even-handedly with China.
"I would try to bring about as good a—they know it's in their interest to try to improve their image in the world. [...] But, for us to deny that China will not be a superpower in the world, is defiance of reality. [...]
LABEL: JM OH 4-22 (JR#54) GZZ-ClipM
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