John Bolton Says U.S. Policy Isn’t Deterring China

The U.S. strategy to deter China hasn’t been effective, former national security adviser John Bolton said, calling for a more consistent approach by Washington in its dealings with Beijing.

“I think our strategy remains the classic strategy of deterrence, and we’re not doing a very good job on that,” he said Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, a virtual event.

Mr. Bolton, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser between 2018 and 2019, cited China’s moves in the South China Sea, its border conflict with India and other actions as evidence Beijing is pressing outward despite U.S. efforts so far.

“They’re building naval and air stations on rocks in the South China Sea, they’ve declared a provincial capital for the South China Sea, they’ve recently engaged in attacks along the line of actual control with India,” he said. “This is them, pushing out.”

Mr. Bolton, who has been critical of Mr. Trump since he left the administration last year and has said he won’t vote for him, cited what he called the president’s lack of discipline when it comes to foreign policy as a chief worry.

Mr. Bolton expressed concern that if Mr. Trump was re-elected, he could be quick to ease pressure against China in favor of making a major trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, Mr. Trump’s Democratic challenger, also is unpredictable on policy toward China, but is beginning to see the need for a tougher approach, Mr. Bolton said.

Asked which candidate in the 2020 presidential election Beijing would prefer, Mr. Bolton said: “I think they’d probably vote for Biden, not because they think he’d be softer on China but because he’d be more predictable,” Mr. Bolton said.

He added: “I think the erratic nature of Trump’s decision making just unsettles the Chinese, not because it’s a threat to them, but because they have to calculate in ways that are very foreign to how their system operates.”

Mr. Bolton said China and Russia both are strategic threats, while North Korea and terrorism in the Middle East remain concerns.

Mr. Bolton said that despite Mr. Trump’s “bromance” with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader has shown no sign of denuclearizing his country. Mr. Trump held summit meetings with Mr. Kim in 2018 and 2019.

“The North Koreans simply used that opportunity to perfect their ballistic-missile and nuclear-weapons programs,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve got the capability they need yet, I think we still have a little bit of time, but it’s getting vanishingly small.”

He also said it was a “tragedy” that the U.S. and allies were unable to replace Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in 2019, saying they came close to succeeding but were blocked by the involvement of Russia, China and Cuba.

Write to Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubold@wsj.com

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