US hypocrisy as Trump courts China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia

Trump then met with him earlier this month on his visit to Vietnam, just days after Duterte claimed to have stabbed someone to death when he was 16.

In many ways Trump’s approach to foreign policy is nothing new – it highlights the hypocrisy America has shown for decades.

In cosying up to Duterte, the President simply followed a long tradition carried out by his predecessors who have chosen allies principally based on the economic and strategic priorities of America, no matter how much blood flowed from such choices.

Under Trump, the contradictory nature of the US government’s attitude has never been more glaring. It is not as though the President and his administration are deaf to the horrors of human rights nor tyrannical leaderships.

While in South Korea, Trump spoke animatedly about the consequences of the “cruel dictatorship” in North Korea.

Yet on the same trip, the President went to China and expressed his love and admiration for “a very special man”.

Step forward President Xi Jinping.

The same Xi Jinping who elevated his intolerant and iron-fisted rule to a cult of personality not seen since Chairman Mao.

Under his leadership he snuffs out freedom while throwing anyone who dares oppose his rule in prison.

And while much of Jinping’s control harks back to a dynasty of yesteryear no one can accuse the Chinese president of not having a modern approach to human rights abuse.

Under his leadership the greatest barrier in the country is no longer the Great Wall of China but the great digital firewall he has erected to blind his citizens to the outside world.

Tumbleweed is currently blowing through app stores in China, as unmonitored and foreign-run communication tools continue to vanish. This week it was the turn of Skype.

It was no coincidence that after Trump and Jinping addressed waiting journalists together not one question was allowed to be asked.

The US leader – a man who normally demands the spotlight of sparring with the press – uttered not a word of protest.

What Trump’s trip showed is that human rights and democracy are seen by the President as universal principles that do not demand attention everywhere.

They are merely clubs to be used selectively, to criticise tyrants and human rights abusers when convenient to his needs and to be easily ignored elsewhere.

Although not the first American leader to do so, above all others, Trump shows little commitment to democracy and human rights as values.

His eagerness to cast aside any concern for freedoms when it comes to his tyrannical friends in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines undermines the human rights rhetoric he employs, no matter how forcefully, with regard to regimes he dislikes, such as North Korea’s.

Human rights are seen by the President as universal principles that do not demand attention everywhere