Partial Transcript
Hagerty on Xi’s gathering with world dictators: “It’s a real cast of characters. I think President Ronald Reagan used to call them the axis of evil. You think about who was there– Kim Jong Un from North Korea, Vladimir Putin, President Xi, and the Iranians were there. It looks like Xi Jinping is reaching out to anyone who’s out of favor, trying to create this image of an alliance. But there’s no real alliance there. It’s a marriage of convenience.”
Hagerty on America’s historic role in Asia: “80 years ago, the United States shed blood. If you think about it, had we not been involved in World War II, China might be under Japanese control right now.”
Hagerty on revisionist history in China: “It’s amazing how revisionist history works under Xi Jinping. The Chinese seem to have fully forgotten all of that [U.S. assistance during World War II], and they can only remember grievances. But the fact is that were it not for the United States of America stepping into World War II, China would be a very different place.”
Hagerty on China’s abuse of global trade rules: “It hasn’t always been the case. I first lived in Asia back in the late 1980s, early 1990s. I worked for a firm called the Boston Consulting Group, and they sent me to the region. At that point in time, I was in Tokyo, Japan. At that point, China was definitely a third-world economy. They were riding bicycles in Beijing, but we changed the world for China. President Bill Clinton was the one who signed it, but we brought them into the World Trade Organization. China never abided by the rules. In fact, they used that mechanism to cheat. They subsidized, they used predatory practices like stealing our intellectual property, and different rules were set for American companies that want to go and compete on Chinese soil. And they certainly don’t hesitate to subsidize to compete against us. But they’ve been able to use the WTO as a mechanism to come into the world trade mechanism and really enrich themselves dramatically.”
Hagerty on the plight of North Koreans: “The average North Korean–even though they’re the same gene pool as the South Korean, same peninsula–the average North Korean is now four inches shorter than the average South Korean. This is all due to malnutrition. I’ve been to North Korea; I’ve taken my family there. We’ve had the opportunity to engage on numerous occasions with what they call North Korean defectors. These are young people who’ve escaped from North Korea. They’ve made their way out, and to hear their stories, it’s very, very tragic of what they’ve suffered through. It’s an incredibly challenging and difficult situation. And Kim Jong Un and his family, the Kim family, have ruled for three generations, and they use an iron fist. And if there’s ever anybody that steps out of line, well, they’re brought right back in– if they’re still alive.”
Hagerty on the greatest threat among global adversaries: “Xi Jinping, obviously, with the resources and the reach that he’s got. The scale of China’s economy is enormous. If you think about Vladimir Putin, certainly, he’s got a nuclear arsenal that has to be dealt with, but their economy is essentially entirely based on energy. John McCain said, ‘It’s basically a fuel station with a flag attached to it.’ The North Korean economy is tiny by comparison. … North Korea is minuscule from an economic standpoint. This is why these dictators turn to nuclear weapons as a means to be recognized and as a means to get outsized influence. China, on the other hand, is a real economy. They’re the number two economy in the world. They’ve got massive human resources that are there. And certainly, that’s a different set of circumstances to deal with.”
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