Retired U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel turned political commentator Oliver North called Sunday’s announcement of the Asian-Pacific trading bloc a propaganda victory for China, seeing it as a wedge between the United States and its allies.
“It was first proposed in 2012 as a way to create one of the world’s largest free trade zones, but the partners are now worried about the fact that it may hurt their relationship with the United States,” North said Monday on Newsmax TV’s “The Chris Salcedo Show.”
“And quite frankly, I think that’s exactly what the Chinese want. It doesn’t necessarily hurt or prevent the U.S. from doing business with member states, because U.S. agricultural products are desperately needed around the world. But in the short term, it’s a very valuable propaganda tool for the communist Chinese to say, ‘Oh yeah, I know the Americans are bothered, blaming us for the so-called China virus, or the pandemic, but look, we’re still valuable allies for you.’ So it’s a propaganda tool more than anything else at least in the short term.”
North, 77, a Vietnam combat veteran awarded the purple heart, silver star and bronze star, whose latest book titled “Veterans’ Lament: Is This the America Our Heroes Fought For?” was released last month, says the “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” includes some of the United States’ closest allies.
“It includes…China and 14 other countries, about 2.2 billion people, about 25% of the world’s population,” North said. “It includes American allies, like Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are in it, and India is not – you figure (it’s) the world’s largest democracy and it’s not included.”
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