Ted Cruz discusses Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s Choice for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and her embrace of China

After I questioned Linda Thomas-Greenfield this morning about her embrace of China in a Confucius Institute speech, some said her praise of the Chinese Communist Party was a one-off. No it wasn’t. Let’s go to the archives:

In 2006, at the State Department, Thomas-Greenfield said she was not concerned about China’s growing power in Africa.

Question: Are you concerned at the growing importance of China and Africa and would you be looking at other trading blocs and their interest within China?
MS. Thomas-Greenfield: I think —
Question: Within Africa, sorry.
MS. Thomas-Greenfield: Yeah. I think concern is not the word. I think we’re watching it very closely. But there is lots of room for every country to do trade and development in Africa.

On July 24, 2013, Thomas-Greenfield told the Senate, “I do not see us as competing” with China in Africa.

“Ambassador THOMAS-GREENFIELD. Again, thank you. Thank you for that question. I think it is clear to us that democracy and gov-ernance does not end with elections, that we have to be there to continue to support African countries in building the institutions that they need to prosper and succeed in the future. As the Ambassador to Liberia, I worked very, very closely with the Government of Liberia to help them prepare for not just the election, but prepare for moving their democracy forward to the next level. Our USAID programs that support institutions such as the press, support NGOs, support local college students who are looking to go into politics, helping to build the capacity of them to understand how politics work and how they can succeed in being successful politicians, these are all programs that we have to con-tinue to work on, and the Presidents Initiative on African Leaders I think will contribute to that significantly. The tensions with China. I think we have a good story to tell. When you talk to African leaders across the board, they appreciate the support that they get from us, even when that support comes with criticism, because they know that our criticism is constructive. And they know that in the final analysis, that what we offer in terms of our own values on human rights is so much better than what they are getting from outside of the United States. So again, I think I do not see us as competing. I do not even see the Chinese as being an alternative. As I said, African leaders have to strike the best deal that they can strike for their people, and I think they get it. So we just have to do more to help build their capacity, so that they can negotiate in a stronger position with countries that are not raising issues of human rights, as we do on a regular basis.”

In October 2013, she said it again. Here’s video.

In May 2014, Thomas-Greenfield said she was not concerned about China buying its way into controlling Africa, that African leaders should work to get the best possible deal with China, and in fact we were also “working closely with the Chinese.”

And then in March 2019, Thomas-Greenfield again said she did not see the U.S. as competing with China for influence in Africa and with African leaders and that our role was “to ensure that they have the capacity to strike and negotiate better deals with the Chinese.”

See original tweets by Ted Cruz below: