Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 27, 2021, on the Biden administration’s ambassador to UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Marc Rubio, a Republican from Florida, said he will be watching closely to see if the Biden Administration will practice a tough policy toward the Chinese Communist Party.
He is concerned that key members of the Biden administration, who are ostensibly taking a stand to be tough on the Chinese Communist Party now in order to pass appointments, will not ultimately follow through.
I’m concerned about two things. One, they (the Biden administration) may talk a good game, but they won’t actually practice it,” Rubio said. Two is that they put a group of people in key positions who will ostensibly say things in order to get through appointments or get into government positions, but in the end are not really practitioners and believe that the United States and the Chinese Communist Party are locked in this strategic competition.”
He said the Democratic Party’s stance on the CCP is very different now than it was in the past, but there is no shortage of people who still believe in that past Perception.
“There’s been a change in the last four years that’s been very dramatic, and there really aren’t many (Democratic) voices saying that we should stay (tough) on the way we deal with the Chinese Communist Party. I think there’s a general consensus now that we have to rethink this issue (with the Chinese Communist Party), and I hope that’s the direction (the Biden administration) will follow ……,” Rubio said.
“There are still a large number of (Democrats) in Washington who are holdouts and followers of past ideas (on CCP policy) that China is a poor country that will become more like us once they become rich.” He added.
He was referring to the same line of argument that helped China join the World Trade Organization in 2001 under former President Bill Clinton. That narrative has long been refuted by academics, business and the political establishment, and is also far from reality.
Rubio said “Congress must be concerned” about whether the Biden administration will continue its hard-line policy toward the Communist Party, and “let’s wait and see.
He added that many countries around the world, such as in Europe, are now very concerned about a common problem – “the unfair way that the Chinese Communist Party does business, that (European countries) are extremely vulnerable in their supply chains, that they lack vital supplies that are necessary for national security, that they have to buy (supplies) from China during a pandemic. They all had to buy (supplies) from China” during the pandemic.
Rubio said, “There are countries that are already looking at this issue and they are taking their own measures. They’re smaller than we are, they have a smaller economy, so they have to balance that out and not cut off (trade with China) completely because it would hurt their economy, but they do want American leadership.”
A good example, he said, is 5G. “Right now, huawei is the largest 5G provider in the world, and what we need is for the free nations of the world to come together and create an alternative to Huawei – and I think countries will be open to that, but it’s going to take some leadership.”
Recent Comments