Clinton threatened to 'ring China with missile defense' in leaked emails

Hillary Clinton took a hawkish stance on China in leaked excerpts of speeches she gave to Wall Street audiences, the Associated Press reports.

Clinton framed her comments with concern that neighboring North Korea, which has long looked to China — in name if increasingly not in practice a fellow communist regime — for aid and trade relationships, could develop the capacity to launch a nuclear missile that "could actually reach Hawaii and the West Coast theoretically."

If that happens and China does not control the situation, she said in a 2013 speech, "We're going to ring China with missile defense. We're going to put more of our fleet in the area. So China, come on. You either control them or we're going to have to defend against them." Clinton's expression of willingness to use U.S. military presence to force Chinese compliance with American demands could offer a preview of the foreign policy of a Clinton White House.