“It is the one country in the world that has the military, economic, diplomatic capacity to undermine or challenge the rules-based order that we care so much about and are determined to defend. But I want to be very clear about something. And this is important. Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and— and defend it.” //

Can someone smarter than me explain how those two statements are not likely mutually exclusive? //

“I think what we— what we’ve witnessed over the last— several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.” //

And then the question, as posed by O’Donnell: “What is China’s goal?” //

“I think that over time, China believes that it— it— it can be and should be and will be the dominant— country in the world.”