In this video from Foreign Policy magazine, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace scholar Michael Swaine talks about a conversation he had with Hillary Clinton. In it, he said, Hillary had intimated something along the lines of “it is absurd to think that the American people would support a war with China over Taiwan.” Swaine’s response, as I recall, was to say that that may be the view of the American people, but American foreign policy elites certainly would contemplate a war with China over Taiwan.


Now, you may be saying, “Logan, you sure sound sketchy on this. Is this just your recollection? How about a quote?” Well, I’d love to provide a direct quote, and that was my intention when I started this post. However, when I clicked back to the video, the anecdote from Swaine was gone. “Am I losing it?” I thought. Until I scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the page and found this:

Editor’s Note: This video has been edited since its original posting. A small portion was removed at the request of an interviewee.

So here’s a question for Senator Clinton: What did you mean by your comment to Swaine? And to Swaine: What was your interpretation of what Hillary was driving at? That she wouldn’t go to war over Taiwan? That we shouldn’t?


These are very serious questions and they deserve a place in the presidential campaign.