“I think we’ve made good progress with the Chinese,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during his year end press conference. In response to a question about China’s supposed “provocative actions toward Japan” (where a government minister has recently proposed acquiring nuclear weapons!), Rubio spoke of China in unusually realistic terms. “At the end of the day,” he said, “China is and … will continue to be a rich and powerful country and a factor in geopolitics. We have to have relations with them. We have to deal with them. We have to find the things we are able to work together on.”
“Our job as we’re part—as part of responsible statecraft is to find opportunities to work together. Because I think if there’s a global challenge that China and the U.S. can work together on … I think we can solve it.” [jar]