In private speeches and emails from 2013 and recently released via Wikileaks, U.S. Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton commended Chinese leader and Communist Party boss Xi Jinping as a marked improvement over his predecessor and “good news” for the United States, especially in regards to maintaining control over China’s military and confronting the totalitarian regime in North Korea.
A few months after Xi assumed his leadership positions in late 2012, Clinton described Xi as “more sophisticated, more effective” as a public leader than Hu Jintao, the Communist Party general secretary that Xi replaced.
“He’s someone who you at least have the impression is a more worldly, somewhat more experienced politician,” Clinton said, according to an email correspondence pilfered from the Gmail account of John Podesta, her presidential campaign chairman.
“I say that as a term of praise, because he understands the different levers and the constituencies that he has to work with internally and externally.”
The American politician’s attitude behind closed doors contrasts with her public stance; in 2015, when Xi gave a speech promoting women’s rights, Clinton called him “shameless” because of five Chinese women jailed for feminist activism.
