A.G. Gancarski
In his capacity as Acting Chair of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Marco Rubio warned Friday in a letter with ranking Democratic Sen. John Warner of a “watershed moment” in America’s relations with Beijing, contending that America must “stand our ground.”
The unambiguous epistle offers a stern reminder to incoming President Joe Biden that no matter which party controls the Senate in January, the China crisis is a massive concern.
“China poses the greatest national security threat to the United States. Our intelligence is clear: the Chinese Communist Party will stop at nothing to exert its global dominance,” the senators assert. “Beijing’s infiltration of U.S. society has been deliberate and insidious as they use every instrument of influence available to accelerate their rise at America’s expense.”
Democracy itself, the Senators contend, is under siege.
“Our democratic values are threatened by China’s attempts to supplant American leadership and remake the international community in their image. The Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian leaders seek to threaten our free speech, politics, technology, economy, military, and even our drive to counter the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rubio and Warner assert.
And America’s problems are the world’s problems, they argue.
“Unfortunately, the United States’ challenge with China is not unique as Beijing seeks to infiltrate and subvert other nations around the world, including our allies.”
“This is our watershed moment and we must stand our ground. The United States must not and cannot accept Beijing’s quest to exert dominance while dismissing international legal norms and committing egregious human rights abuses to further their goals,” Rubio and Warner assert.
They go on to say that “China’s behavior will not be tolerated and will be contested by democratic values, in close partnership with our allies and partners.”
At least for a stretch of the Presidential campaign, Rubio messaged grave concerns that President-elect Biden would sell America out to the Communist Chinese.
“When Joe Biden was Vice President, and for years before that as a Senator, he was a full-throated supporter of this idea [to] let China deindustrialize America,” Rubio said in September. “As recently as earlier this year in the [primary] campaign, he was saying that China was not a threat, not a big deal.”
Biden likely will avoid Trumpian rhetorical brinkmanship with China, if his most recent comments on the subject are any indication.
Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper Thursday that he had “met with [President] Xi [Jinping] more times than anybody had up until the time we left office, that I’m aware of.”
He intended to make it “real clear to China there are international rules that if you want to play by, we’ll play with you.”
“If you don’t, we’re not going to play,” Biden said.
