Carolina Quotes... China and Russia exist in an uneasy “Asian détente.” China’s hard-liners would prefer to see the failure of Yeltsin’s democratic government, because it would lessen the ideological threat of Russian democracy and weaken Russia’s ability to protect its interests in East Asia. At the same time, Chinese officials fear a new resurgent, nationalistic Russia because it would inevitably clash with China over important economic regions in East Asia and force China to divert its attention from other areas.
Richard Nixon Connected to the Carolinas
Source
(Cap II, China: “The Biggest of Them All”)
- work
- Beyond Peace (1994)
- year
- 1994
attributed
Cite this record
“... China and Russia exist in an uneasy “Asian détente.” Chi…” Richard Nixon. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-5DA00CBFC0. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/5da00cbfc0
More from Richard Nixon
Naturally, and understandably, there are those who are impatient about what has happened. Some believe we should have moved faster in some areas--for example on appointments--and others think that we should have moved faster in finding the solutions to the great problems with which we were confronted. Tonight I want to tell you how I look at this situation. We deliberately have not attempted to make the kind of a record that looked awfully good in the headlines of today and that made very bad history in the books 3 or 4 years from now. We want a solid achievement we can all be proud of. It would have been very easy, I can assure you, on the first day after the inauguration, for me to have announced that we were immediately going to bring all the men home from Vietnam; that immediately the solution of the problem of inflation and others that we had inherited were to be found. I could not say that. I could not say that because I knew we could not produce. I can assure you of one thing: We will make our mistakes. We have made some, and we will make some more in the future. But as far as this administration is concerned, we are going to lay it on the line with the American people. We are never going to promise something we cannot produce. I think that is the kind of government that you want.
To challenge a particular policy is one thing; to challenge the government's right to set that policy is another--for this denies the process of freedom itself. Lately, however, a great many people have become impatient with this democratic process. Some of the more extreme even argue, with a rather curious logic, that there is no majority, because the majority has no right to hold opinions that they disagree with. Scorning persuasion they prefer coercion. Awarding themselves what they call a higher morality, they try to bully authorities into yielding to their "demands." On college campuses they draw support from faculty members who should know better; in the larger community, they find the usual apologists ready to excuse any tactic in the name of "progress." It should be self-evident that this sort of self-righteous moral arrogance has no place in a free community in America, because it denies the most fundamental of all the values we hold--respect for the rights of others. This principle of mutual respect is the keystone of the entire structure of ordered liberty that makes freedom possible.
Of course you know perfectly well that it has always been Tory men with liberal principles who have enlarged democracy.