By Nicole Wells
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Newsmax on Monday that Beijing may be trying to “play nice” during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit because China “can’t afford” to get on the United States’ “bad side” in the wake of the damage COVID did to its own economy.
“The Chinese economy is not doing well, certainly not as well as people expected,” Esper said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “At the same time, the unemployment rate among young Chinese is over 20% and of course, they have weaknesses in the real estate and banking sectors.
“Look, China can’t afford to get on the bad side of the United States or the Europeans, which is why I think part of this is them wanting to play nice as well, them not willing yet to give lethal aid to Russia, because they know they may face economic and financial sanctions,” Esper continued. “So, they have to tread carefully here in some ways, lest they disrupt their economy, which is key to the Chinese people supporting the Chinese Communist Party, is maintaining that prosperity that they had for at least two decades prior…
