Two Chinese Communist Party-controlled newspapers have published "an indirect warning" to Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton not to criticize the regime during her White House campaign,
the Washington Free Beacon reported Tuesday.
A commentary published last week in the People's Daily and the Global Times predicted that the former secretary of state "won't be nice to China, at least during her campaign."
The piece chided Clinton for an array of comments that were critical of the Communist regime. It quoted from
her book, "Hard Choices," in which Clinton called on Asian countries to form an anti-Beijing alliance and criticized the regime's censorship policies.
Clinton angered Beijing in 2010 when, as secretary of state, she declared that the United States has a national interest in demanding freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims as its territorial waters.
The commentary suggests that Clinton heed the advice of former Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson, an outspoken advocate of a more docile U.S. approach toward the China.
The Global Times report said one of the "thorniest" issues for Clinton will be her past links to Chinese money, quoting a July joint investigation by
the Washington Examiner and Judicial Watch.
Their investigation found that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, "gave four speeches in China or to Chinese-sponsored U.S. entities for a total of $1.7 million. The Clinton Foundation also received donations of between $750,000 and $1.75 million from groups with interests in China," the Free Beacon said.
During the late 1990s, President Clinton also become embroiled in the so-called "Chinagate" scandal involving a covert Chinese influence campaign targeting the Clinton administration.
Illegal campaign contributions involving Chinese agents were detailed in the 1998 book
"Year of the Rat," by Edward Timperlake and William C. Triplett II.
"When we were writing 'Year of the Rat' about illegal contributions to the Clinton campaigns by Chinese military intelligence in 1998, we were following the trail to Bill Clinton but we kept running across lines to Mrs. Clinton," Triplett said.
"When the Clintons joked about their time in office as a dual effort, that extended to the illegal campaign contributions as well," added Triplett, a China expert who formerly served as chief Republican counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Global Times "also noted Clinton’s close relationship with Chinese-American fundraiser Norman Hsu," who was a bundler for her 2008 presidential campaign.
The campaign returned $850,000 in campaign contributions raised by Hsu, according to the Free Beacon.
In 2009,
Hsu was sentenced to 24 years in prison for fraud and campaign finance violations.
"There is no doubt Clinton has the ability to raise whatever she needs without crossing the line," the Global Times said. "But the astronomical spending will likely bring up all the money-related questions and memories and mean that Clinton has an incentive to keep her distance from China."
Former State Department official John Tkacik told the Free Beacon's Bill Gertz that he agrees with Beijing's assessment of Clinton.
"I'm not a big fan of Secretary Clinton, but I have to admit that of all the candidates so far, it's a paradox that the ones with consistent records of China-skepticism are Democrats: Mrs. Clinton and former Virginia Senator Jim Webb," Tkacik said.
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