The Convent dels Àngels dressed up yesterday to receive the woman with the most political power in the United States, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on her first visit to Barcelona. On the occasion of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Cidob, the prestigious think tank on international politics, the former senator and former Democratic presidential candidate outlined her particular vision of the global game board in the hands of the center's president, Pol Morillas.
Relaxed and sometimes amused, Clinton placed particular emphasis on the chip movement that followed Russian President Vladimir Putin's risky move to invade Ukraine. And how the "courage" of the Ukrainians and the unity of the West had alarmed Beijing and the countries of East Asia. “Our policy towards Ukraine is our policy towards China,” she summed up.
"Ukraine is the key to what kind of world order we want to build," Clinton said. Contrary to what happened during the Russian invasion of Georgia, in 2008, or with the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Donbass, in 2014, when in the West there was not enough "appetite" to be tougher with Putin because "they did not wanted to believe" that it was going to become an "aggressor" that was going to endanger "the peace and security built after the Second World War", the invasion that began on February 25, 2022 was "a united force" for the governments westerners.
“There was a debate at the start of the war in the United States about whether focusing so much effort on helping Ukraine defend itself from Russia wouldn't distract us from China,” Clinton explained, something she disagreed with. According to the former Secretary of State, shortly before the invasion, Putin visited his ally, Chinese President Xi Jinping, to explain his intentions. "At the time, Xi Jinping hoped that Putin would succeed in Ukraine, which would send the message to countries in the Asia-Pacific region that China also had the power to change the equation in places like Taiwan." But as is well known, the Kremlin's plans to tour Kyiv in a week and install a puppet government soon fell apart.
Clinton said the Russian difficulties must have "shocked" Beijing, which has seen its allies' powerful army lose tens of thousands of men and had to be rescued by Wagner's mercenaries. In the opinion of the former Secretary of State, Xi must be wondering if his army "is not a paper tiger".
On the other hand, the Western unity when it comes to imposing sanctions also worries the Asian giant, which exports "much more than fossil fuel."
Finally, the Ukrainian war has caused a radical change in the attitude of the countries of the Asia-Pacific. "For the first time, Japan's parliament has passed a robust weapons budget, the Philippines has told the US they want the navy back to their ports after asking it to leave..." he listed. “All this happens because nations in the region know that they better defend themselves and ally with the US and Europe to send a deterrence message to China. All of that has gone through Ukraine,” Clinton said.
Asked about the situation of women in politics, the 75-year-old veteran Democrat denounced that there is still a "double standard". As a political woman "you have to know that many times when you ask for the vote or exercise authority your hair will be mentioned, your clothes will be mentioned, your weight, whether or not you have children...". But she warned that to this we must add the hate attacks that are received through social networks.
“The volume of misogyny and violence against women in pubic life is out of control. I have spent a lot of time talking to women in public office and they all tell me that the attacks against them, the threats, are leading them to even think about leaving their posts," denounced Clinton, who recalled that one of the reasons outlined by the former first New Zealand minister, Jacinda Ardern, to leave office were precisely the hate attacks on the networks. "Despite how hard it has always been to be a woman in politics, she has become even more so thanks to social media," she acknowledged.
