U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Maria Bartiromo of CNBC Television

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
The Four Seasons
Palo Alto, California
May 22, 2008

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Secretary Rice, let me switch gears to talk to you a little about our approach to the Iranian issue. This week, Senator Barack Obama out criticizing the U.S.'s approach to Iran; what do you say to that?

SECRETARY RICE: We have built an international coalition of states led by the United States, the UK, Germany, France, Russia, and China, which is showing Iran that there is a course of cooperation. And if they are not willing to cooperate and give up the technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon, then there are consequences. And we've passed three Security Council resolutions. Iran's economy is having difficulties. They have increasingly difficult access issues with the international financial system. People, for reputational and investment risk reasons, are not investing in Iran.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Ms. Secretary, so often, the issue of America's competitiveness comes up again and again, as we watch this economy grow just about 1 percent, and China grow 12 percent, and India grow 10 percent. The idea or the suggestion that America is less competitive or, worse, less important on the global world stage keeps coming up. Has America lost its edge versus competitors around the world?

SECRETARY RICE: I can count many, many times that people have said that America had lost its competitive edge. You remember them, Maria. We had lost a competitive edge vis-…-vis Japan. We were a power that was overstretched in the '80s. We were going to converge with the Soviet Union, by the way, in the 1970s. So there have been many premature sentences for America losing its competitive edge.

We're going through a difficult time in the economy. Adjustments to a number of circumstances, including in the housing markets and in the financial markets, that my colleague Hank Paulson and others who have stewardship for this will tell you, will work their way out.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]