President Donald Trump has lauded his trip to China and other Asian countries, saying it's restored the United States' respect again around the world, but former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it's still too soon to know the true impact of the journey.
"We'll see what China does," Carter, now a director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, told CNN's "New Day" program. "Presidents' trips with Chinese leaders tend to be largely ceremonial and symbolic, so we will have to see overall."
When it comes to North Korea, Carter continued, the United States has been urging China for decades to take action.
"I'm hopeful, always hopeful," he said. "It would be difficult to say based upon historical experience that this is a turning point. You certainly certainly hope so. But the right approach and the one I hope they are saying is one of coercive diplomacy, where you mix the military and diplomat theic in a step by step process trying to get North Korea to first halt and then reverse its nuclear missile developments. That's the path to go."
Carter said he believes generally relations between North Korea and the United States have gotten "steadily worse" over the years, noting he first worked with North Korea in 1994 concerning the strike plan for the then-plutonium program.
"There have been ups and downs," Carter said. "Some have worked for a few years. And that gives you some hope that it would work again. But generally it's gotten steadily worse. It was 2006 when they tested their first underground nuclear explosion and they marched forward consistently since."
North Korea, he continued, will not "simply curl up in its ball and run all by itself in its little Disneyland of a country and not bother anybody," and it will not do safely behind a nuclear shield.
"It will be an unstable situation," Carter said. "That's why it is so important to turn around. We have to step back and say this may or may not work. So deterrence and defense are extremely important."
Trade is also a vital issue and the United States has never been involved in a sustained economic relationship with a communist country like China, Carter said.
"During the Cold War we had a long relationship, strategic relationship with the Soviet Union, but we never traded with them. So they are able to steal intellectual property, suppress the internet and companies operating the internet in their country, engage in any competitive practices that the United States government and most other governments cannot do."
But China is a part of the world that has "greatest consequence" to America's future, he continued.
"It's where half the population of the world lives," Carter said. "It's where half the economic activity is. If we're going to prosper as we need to so that the American dream can continue and our society can move forward, our companies need to be able to do business in Asia."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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