It isn’t easy to bring order to Sanders’ scattered thoughts on America’s relationship with China, but here is my best effort, along with some commentary:
1. We’re going to talk about human rights again. No more sucking up to Xi. (A positive change as long as it doesn’t drive everything else)
2. The Chinese government has improved the lives of most of its people over the last thirty years. We need to keep that in mind as we discuss their human rights record. (A welcome bit of nuance, probably due to Bernie’s sympathy for lefties)
3. We need to be able to work with China on climate change. (Absolutely correct)
4. We need to prevent big, bad corporations from moving manufacturing jobs to China and damaging American workers. We’ll continue the Trumpian tariffs, but for a different purpose. (Oh, no! The jobs will just move to Vietnam unless Bernie imposes tariffs on them, too, which would be even worse. The manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back, and consumers will suffer)
5. Let’s cut the defense budget and rely solely on diplomacy to protect our interests and the interests of our allies. (Diplomacy without the threat of force isn’t going to protect the sea lanes to Japan and South Korea. Do that, and Asia turns into a Chinese sphere of influence)
In short, I see lots of ineffectual hectoring about human rights, backed by, well, nothing. The Chinese will get away with anything they want in the South China Sea, supply chains will be further disrupted, and our alliances will suffer as a result. It won’t be pretty.