'Do You Think Your Friend Would Give Your Kids Fentanyl?': Rick Scott Grills Witness On China

2 days ago

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on PRC influence and the status of Taiwan, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) questioned witnesses about the U.S.'s foreign policy approach to China.

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Transcript

00:00Thanks. Well, thank you, Chairman. Thank you all for being here. So, first off, do you

00:10think China is our friend? Either of you think their government has decided they want to

00:15do whatever is, you know, act in the best interest of America? Either of you?

00:24Do I think that China is our friend? I'm not sure that friend is necessarily the vocabulary

00:29choice that they would choose. I think they view the U.S. as a superpower. It is someone

00:34that they can't ignore. It's somebody they have to accept and find ways to work with.

00:39The question is more about managed competition. So, in what areas are we going to compete?

00:43In what areas are we going to cooperate? That's not quite the same thing as a friend, but

00:47it is someone you have to live with. For me, Senator, thank you for the question.

00:53The Chinese people are our friends. The Chinese people are human beings living in an oppressive

00:57communist system, which, you know, fundamentally, you know, through the dominance of government,

01:01you know, crushes the initiative that they have and the freedom that they have. Now,

01:07looking at China as a system, what I'd certainly say is that, for me, the objectives of the

01:12Chinese Communist Party and the leadership of the Chinese state, it's all about China.

01:15It's about capturing as much value added for the Chinese as possible. It's about the restoration

01:20of the military and other power of the Chinese state after what they see as 150 years of

01:26humiliation. But what that implies is the question of whose security is taken away,

01:32you know, whose democratic system is taken away, in whose interest do international organizations

01:37and institutions flow, you know, whose liberty is lost, you know, whose territorial claims

01:43are lost. If we look at the advance of the PRC in the South and East China Sea with the

01:47militarization of reefs and stoles and what they've done with the Philippines and the

01:51Vietnamese and others. And so, and at the end of the day, you know, creating the dilemma

01:55for us that, you know, if we have to work, if we have to, you know, someday fight against

02:01the PRC because of Taiwan or something else, that is going to be a horrific challenge.

02:07And so, you know...

02:08Let me interrupt you for a second, make it easier. So, do you think a friend would give

02:14your kids fentanyl? Do you think a friend would do that? No. The answer is pretty simple,

02:22they wouldn't do that. Do you think your friend would sign a document that they are going

02:27to comply with some organization or some trade deal and completely lie? I don't think so.

02:36Do you think a friend would try to steal your job? Probably not. Do you think your friend

02:43would try to take the property of your next-door neighbor? Probably not. So, that's the party,

02:53the Communist Party, right? Okay. So how do you think that when you see the Communist

03:01Party do what they're doing, how are we supposed to try to be helpful to Taiwan? What would

03:05be the biggest reason, biggest ways we can be helpful to Taiwan?

03:11Sir, first of all, to ensure Taiwan's survival as a democratic autonomous entity to make

03:17sure that, as happened with Hong Kong in violation of the commitments to Hong Kong, that Taiwan's

03:23autonomy is not crushed, in part because it is in our security interest to do so.

03:31What would you do? What would you do that we're not doing?

03:34So a range of different things, sir, but number one is to make sure...

03:38Just give me the top three.

03:41To have a clear commitment backed by military and other capabilities to be able to defend

03:48the autonomy of Taiwan is fundamental to U.S. long-term security interests in Asia. And

03:53as part of that, also to resist encroachment on Taiwan and its group of friends in the

04:00Americas and other places in order both to help maintain the autonomy and friends of

04:05Taiwan, but also as a vehicle to restrict China's advance.

04:11How about you? What are your top three things that we ought to do to help Taiwan? Or do

04:16you think we should?

04:20In terms of helping Taiwan directly, I mean, I think there's a question as to how much

04:24does formal recognition matter versus broadening the support base of actors that see the value

04:32of an independent Taiwan. And I think a lot of the conversation earlier in this hearing

04:37had focused around how do you actually claw back wins from a lot of these actors? How

04:44do you push countries across the recognition chain? So those that aren't recognizing Taiwan

04:50at all right now, having a liaison office. How do you actually get the incentives right

04:55for partners in the region to do this? For those that maybe are opening up the door to

04:59full recognition, how do you move up that chain? So I think a lot of the conversation

05:05that we've had thus far has been about how do you get the economics right? How can the

05:09U.S. actually be part of the solution together with Taiwan to broker economic opportunities

05:15for countries to stay on board?

05:18You think we should continue to try to buy everything we can from China when they want

05:25to demolish our way of life, kill our citizens, build a military to defeat us, lie about every

05:31deal they ever did? Do you think we ought to stop buying their crap?

05:38I think I would answer the question by saying it is in the interest of the U.S. to diversify

05:43its supply chains, to diversify its trading partners. And Latin America is a great place

05:48to do that. We could be doing more to build and buttress our relationships from a trading

05:53perspective there. That's a win for the U.S., that's a win for Taiwan, and it's a win for

05:57the region.

06:01For me, I think there's a lot more that we can do in terms of restricting PRC's ability

06:06to obtain the technology, especially the technology that help in areas such as AI and other things

06:12that both represent military threat and strengthen the Chinese state, and also allow a dominance

06:18of certain industries that in a globalized form undercut our ability to compete. In addition

06:25to that, I think there's more that we can do with financial sanctions. I think there

06:29are certain areas where we need to make sure that we don't do more to undercut our own

06:35strength in trying to move away from working with the PRC. So I think there are some areas

06:42where we certainly can cooperate and have economic, but we absolutely do, I believe,

06:47need to understand, as you pointed out, Senator, that we are in a very serious competition

06:52and we need to make sure not only that we preserve the autonomy and democracy of Taiwan,

06:59but also our own strategic space and being able to compete against the PRC and not find

07:04ourselves in a position where we are technologically outmatched, militarily outmatched, and otherwise

07:12by allowing certain economic things. So I think there's a lot more that we can arguably

07:15do if we do it intelligently in that spacer.

'Do You Think Your Friend Would Give Your Kids Fentanyl?': Rick Scott Grills Witness On China

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