I never will forget a couple of years ago I had a fascinating conversation with the President of China, and we were discussing what our future would be and whether we wished to contain China. And I said, “I don’t wish to contain China.” I said, “The biggest security threat China presents the United States is that you will insist on getting rich the same way we did.” And he looked at me, and I could tell he had never thought of that. And I said, “You have to choose a different future, and we have to help. We have to support you. And that does not in any way let us off the hook. But it just means that we have to do this together.”

Bill Clinton, 1997