Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Susan E. Rice
Contributing Opinion Writer,
New York Times

In President Trump’s notes used at the March 19 White House news briefing, “Corona” was replaced with “Chinese” in a reference to the coronavirus.
There is a long history of American presidential candidates using China as a campaign cudgel — from Bill Clinton blasting President George H.W. Bush in 1992 for dealing with a Chinese premier known as the “Butcher of Beijing” to Donald Trump’s 2016 attack that the Obama administration had allowed China to “rape” the United States while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. This election year, China-bashing will reach a new level, as Mr. Trump seeks to capitalize on high voter disapproval of China, Beijing’s failure to contain the coronavirus and persistent bilateral tensions between our countries.
Desperate to obscure the reality of more than 90,000 American deaths and 36 million unemployed amid Mr. Trump’s utterly incompetent handling of the pandemic, Republicans have no better strategy than to play the China card. The Republicans are executing a 57-page campaign memo that recommends branding opponents “soft on China” and reveals their rationale for repeated refrains of the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan lab.”
For Mr. Trump, attacking former Vice President Joe Biden on China serves three purposes: to dampen turnout among populist Democrats; to deflect blame for his deadly mishandling of the coronavirus for which he takes no “responsibility at all”; and most cynically, to try to turn his own blatant weakness on China into a political weapon. Mr. Trump’s penchant for projecting his personal failings onto others is one of his most familiar and dishonest ploys — whether the subject is corruption, nepotism, sexual assault or Russian interference in the 2016 election, as with so-called Obamagate.
To preserve his prized “Phase One” trade deal, which failed to change China’s unfair trading practices after a costly tariff war, Mr. Trump downplayed the risk of the coronavirus and heaped praise on President Xi Jinping. Fifteen times in January and February, Mr. Trump lauded Mr. Xi’s leadership on Covid-19. He fawned, “on behalf of the American people, I want to thank President Xi,” and insisted that “they are doing a very professional job,” despite strong evidence of China’s deceptive handling of the virus. Since early in his presidency, Mr. Trump has repeatedly kowtowed to Mr. Xi, gushing about his becoming “president for life” and proclaiming that his “respect and friendship with President Xi is unlimited.”
More dangerously, Mr. Trump’s policies have strengthened China at America’s expense. By antagonizing our Asian and European partners, he has lent impetus to China’s longstanding goal of rupturing our alliances, which constrain China’s global ambitions. By withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, Mr. Trump has left friends and foes alike to doubt American resolve, while ceding to China the mantle of steadfast global leader.
Mr. Trump’s refusal even to criticize China’s egregious abuses, including against the Uighur minority and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, along with his attacks on the American press and failure to condemn China’s expulsion of American journalists, have combined to grant Mr. Xi a free pass on human rights violations and spotlight Mr. Trump’s abandonment of American moral leadership.
By undermining the United Nations system, Mr. Trump has left an international leadership vacuum that China is rushing to fill. Witness Mr. Xi’s announcement on Monday at the World Health Assembly that China will provide $2 billion to help nations confront Covid-19 and share any vaccine it develops. By contrast, Mr. Trump tweeted a letter slamming China and threatening to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
On strategic imperatives, Mr. Trump allowed China to ease pressure on North Korea and failed to counter China’s cyberaggression and expansionism in the South China Sea. Yet, he saved the Chinese pariah telecom firm ZTE because American sanctions might cause “too many jobs in China” to be lost. Mr. Trump also eagerly enlisted China to serve his personal interests, most notably by pleading for China’s help in the coming election and allowing his daughter Ivanka to pocket plenty of Chinese trademarks.
Given such a self-serving and shameful legacy, it will take some truly Trumpian Houdini tactics to tar Joe Biden with being weak on China. In reality, the opposite is true, and Mr. Biden can use the president’s dismal record against him.
Starting in January, Mr. Biden warned starkly of the dangers of the coronavirus and in February insisted that China be more transparent and admit U.S. scientists, stressing that (unlike Mr. Trump), “I would not be taking China’s word when it comes to the coronavirus.” As vice president, he advocated for American journalists in China and made the case for human rights even while on Chinese soil. Further, Mr. Biden directly confronted Mr. Xi, stressing that U.S. warplanes would flout China’s unilaterally declared air defense zone and back America’s Asian allies against Chinese pressure. Mr. Biden also effectively pressed Chinese officials to halt cyber and intellectual property theft, increase pressure on North Korea, to float its currency and reduce barriers to U.S. trade and investment.
Lacking any sense of irony or decency, Mr. Trump will run his standard play — trying to deflect responsibility for his monumental failings by dishonestly projecting onto Mr. Biden his own weakness on China. Mr. Trump seemingly will do anything to win in November, and his China gambit may prove to be the least of it.
Still, campaigning on China, while a well-worn strategy, is particularly dangerous in these tense times when it fuels anti-Asian hostility at home and anti-American sentiment abroad, makes governing more difficult and raises the prospect of a costly Cold War — or worse.

Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser from 2013 to 2017 and a former United States ambassador to the United Nations, is the author of the memoir “Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For.”  @AmbassadorRice

Hi, everybody. Congratulations to H.B.C.U. class of 2020. Michelle and I are so proud of you.
Graduating from college is a big achievement under any circumstances. And so many of you overcame a lot to get here. You navigated challenging classes, and challenges outside the classroom. Many of you had to stretch to afford tuition. And some of you are the first in your families to reach this milestone.
So even if half this semester was spent at Zoom University, you’ve earned this moment. You should be very proud. Everybody who supported you along the way is proud of you — parents, grandparents, professors, mentors, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins, cousins who you aren’t even sure are cousins. Show them some gratitude today.
Now look, I know this isn’t the commencement any of you really imagined. Because while our H.B.C.U.s are mostly known for an education rooted in academic rigor, community, higher purpose — they also know how to turn up. Nobody shines quite like a senior on the yard in springtime. Springfest at schools like Howard and Morehouse, that’s the time when you get to strut your stuff a little bit. And I know that in normal times, rivals like Grambling and Southern, Jackson State and Tennessee State, might raise some eyebrows at sharing a graduation ceremony.
But these aren’t normal times. You’re being asked to find your way in a world in the middle of a devastating pandemic and a terrible recession. The timing is not ideal. And let’s be honest — a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. We see it in the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog, and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.
Injustice like this isn’t new. What is new is that so much of your generation has woken up to the fact that the status quo needs fixing; that the old ways of doing things don’t work; and that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; that our society and democracy only works when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.
More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.
If the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you. With everything suddenly feeling like it’s up for grabs, this is your time to seize the initiative. Nobody can tell you anymore that you should be waiting your turn. Nobody can tell you anymore “this is how it’s always been done.” More than ever, this is your moment — your generation’s world to shape.
In taking on this responsibility, I hope you are bold. I hope you have a vision that isn’t clouded by cynicism or fear. As young African Americans, you’ve been exposed, earlier than some, to the world as it is. But as young H.B.C.U. grads, your education has also shown you the world as it ought to be.
Many of you could have attended any school in this country. But you chose an H.B.CU. — specifically because it would help you sow seeds of change. You chose to follow in the fearless footsteps of people who shook the system to its core — civil rights icons like Thurgood Marshall and Dr. King, storytellers like Toni Morrison and Spike Lee. You chose to study medicine at Meharry, and engineering at NC A&T, because you want to lead and serve.
And I’m here to tell you, you made a great choice. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve got more road maps, more role models, more resources than the civil rights generation did. You’ve got more tools, technology, and talents than my generation did. No generation has been better positioned to be warriors for justice and remake the world.
Now, I’m not going to tell you what to do with all that power that’s in your hands. Many of you are already using it so well to create change. But let me offer three pieces of advice as you continue on your journey.
First, make sure you ground yourself in actual communities with real people — working whenever you can at the grass-roots level. The fight for equality and justice begins with awareness, empathy, passion, even righteous anger. Don’t just activate yourself online. Change requires strategy, action, organizing, marching, and voting in the real world like never before. No one is better positioned than this class of graduates to take that activism to the next level. And from tackling health disparities to fighting for criminal justice and voting rights, so many of you are already doing this. Keep on going.
Second, you can’t do it alone. Meaningful change requires allies in common cause. As African Americans, we are particularly attuned to injustice, inequality, and struggle. But that also should make us more alive to the experiences of others who’ve been left out and discriminated against.
So rather than say, “What’s in it for me?” or “What’s in it for my community? And to heck with everyone else,” stand up for and join up with everyone who’s struggling — whether immigrants, refugees, the rural poor, the L.G.B.T. community, low-income workers of every background, women who so often are subject to their own discrimination and burdens and not getting equal pay for equal work; look out for folks whether they are white or black or Asian or Latino or Native American. As Fannie Lou Hamer once said, “nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
And on the big unfinished goals in this country, like economic and environmental justice and health care for everybody, broad majorities agree on the ends. That’s why folks with power will keep trying to divide you over the means. That’s how nothing changes. You get a system that looks out for the rich and powerful and nobody else. So expand your moral imaginations, build bridges, and grow your allies in the process of bringing about a better world.
And finally, as H.B.C.U. graduates, you have to remember that you are inheritors of one of America’s proudest traditions. Which means you’re all role models now — whether you like it or not. Your participation in this democracy, your courage to stand up for what’s right, your willingness to forge coalitions — these actions will speak volumes. And if you are inactive, that will also speak volumes. Not just to the young folks coming up behind you — but to your parents, your peers, and the rest of the country. They need to see your leadership — you’re the folks we’ve been waiting for to come along.
That’s the power you hold. The power to shine brightly for justice, and for equality, and for joy. You’ve earned your degree. And it’s up to you to use it. So many of us believe in you. I’m so proud of you. And as you set out to change the world, we’ll be the wind at your back.
Congratulations Class of 2020, and God bless all of you.
Former President Barack Obama gave the virtual commencement address at a ceremony for graduates of HBCU schools on Saturday May 16th. In the two-hour event, “Show Me Your Walk H.B.C.U. Edition,” Obama celebrated more than 27,000 students from 78 schools. OTP will run his address to the nation’s 2020 high school graduates next week.