Chinese leaders lack ‘shared values' with US: Nancy Pelosi

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says relations between the US and China are hindered by a lack of “shared values” between leaders even if the world’s two largest economies must reach accommodations on behalf of a “shared planet.”

Pelosi, long-time critic of the Chinese government, offered a harsh assessment of it and US-based multinationals that invest there a day after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo completed a visit intended to strengthen US ties with Beijing.

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Pelosi said the Beijing government “violated almost every trade standard” and criticized its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities as well as its role contributing to proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua for the “Leaders With Lacqua” program.

Pelosi, one of the most prominent women in US politics, taped the interview Thursday in Venice before she was to deliver remarks at the DVF Awards, established by Diane von Fürstenberg to recognize extraordinary women.

Pelosi provoked a furious reaction from Beijing last year when she became the first US speaker of the House to visit Taiwan in nearly 30 years.

Amid signs of financial upheaval in China, she said she took no relish in a weakening economy there because of the human toll. But she condemned the US trade deficit with China as “an immorality” and the willingness of US companies to profit from doing business there despite the regime’s rights abuses.

“Money really has been a sad factor in all of this,” Pelosi said. “Corporate America has said mostly we don’t care about human rights.”

Pelosi also reiterated in the wide-ranging interview that she intends to complete her current two-year term representing her San Francisco-based congressional district.

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“Absolutely, positively — no question about that,” Pelosi said, dismissing speculation she might resign early to take an ambassador post.

Pelosi, ever the partisan leader, brushed off a question on which Republican presidential candidate she might prefer — “I’m not into Republican politics” — but described her former nemesis, Donald Trump, as a cancerous influence on the GOP.

She said she often tells Republicans, “Take back your party. America needs a strong Republican Party.” That, she said, can only happen when the GOP emerges from “the malignancy of Trump.”

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