Clinton faces bumpy road ahead

Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her second bid for the US presidency on Sunday.

Given her experience as first lady and US secretary of state, as well as her previous campaign to be the Democrat candidate in 2008, Clinton should be well prepared for a run at the White House.

Her long-time partnership with former president Bill Clinton will have given her a good grounding in what the position requires. As first lady and president's envoy, she represented the United States on numerous occasions, including at the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. And as secretary of state, she has set a record for the mileage covered as she sought to advance US interests overseas.

Like any politician, Clinton is not without opponents. Given her political agenda and personal temperament, she might even have more challenges. When in charge of healthcare reform, the Clintons were under fierce fire constantly, which led to her eventual failure. And as the US' top diplomat, she was blamed for the loss of the US ambassador in Libya when he was under siege in Benghazi in 2012. In connection with this, she is now deeply trapped in the "E-mailgate" scandal and failing to cooperate fully with a congressional investigation into the Benghazi incident.

It is hard to accept a former high official using her private e-mail for government work, which is naturally of a confidential nature. It is even more amazing that she destroyed e-mails based on her own judgment of privacy rather than submitting them all for congressional scrutiny. Although she still claims the legality of her conduct, the scandal has inevitably invited suspicion of her actions and questions about her integrity, and thus doubts about her suitability to be president.

Such errors of judgment and arrogance have been consistent characteristics of Clinton. At the primary debate during her last presidential campaign, she claimed she voted in favor of the war on Iraq because the CIA misled her. She didn't think why the CIA would fail to mislead her rival Barack Obama. In fact, during the last two presidential elections, all serving senators who ran for the White House, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and John Kerry, have all failed. This has much to do with their past support for the invasion of Iraq in the name of anti-terror. But for Clinton, it also has much to do with her arrogance in failing to admit she was wrong.

For Chinese, Hillary Clinton has long been controversial to say the least. On the one hand, from time to time she has shown warmth toward China, especially in co-presiding over the annual bilateral High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange. On the other, she has often tried to influence China's internal affairs on the grounds of defending US values. And her criticism of China's position on Syria and the South China Sea seems bereft of diplomatic grace and at times outright confrontational.

Thus far, Clinton has been one of the most successful female politicians in the US, enjoying tremendous amount of respect and popularity. If elected, she will write a new chapter for the US presidency, as she will be the first woman to lead the country. Nevertheless, her road to the White House is destined to be bumpy, and she will have to clear many huddles if she is to become president.

On the international stage, there is no reason why the world would not be positive about a woman president, but Clinton has to understand the time when the US dominated global affairs in its own interests is past.

The author is a professor and associate dean of Institute of International Studies, Fudan University.