During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) spoke about the Trump Administration's treatment of allied nations.
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00:00Thank you. Apologies for being late. Welcome. Glad to have you here.
00:05I would just like to talk about strategy vis-a-vis China and Taiwan.
00:09I'm sure you've gotten a lot of questions on this.
00:11I'm trying as the co-chair of the bipartisan Taiwan caucus to understand what our approach is,
00:20given that we talk about the Chinese threat to Taiwan.
00:25We talk about that we're in a period of vulnerability.
00:28We want to make sure to be particularly watchful about what's going on in Chinese military intentions.
00:37But at the same time, we're calling into question the commitments by allies and partners
00:43who we would need, I think, in any Taiwan contingency scenario.
00:49I think even the Trump administration's, your interim national defense strategy,
00:54talks about the importance of allies and partners.
00:56And I've seen public reports from CSIS and others that say that actually,
01:02if there was a war with China over Taiwan, if they tried to take over Taiwan,
01:08we could not manage that situation to satisfaction if allies and partners weren't with us in that fight.
01:15Just, we're so far away.
01:17The tyranny of geography, what we always talk about.
01:20And I'm just concerned that our approach to allies and partners is threatening the very thing
01:28that I think we believe in in a bipartisan basis on this committee,
01:31that we need to have a muscular deterrent approach.
01:35So, can you tell me about the value of allies and partners to whatever you need to do in that region,
01:44understanding we're in an unclassified space,
01:47and the dependence we have on other nations hosting our forces,
01:55allowing operations from their land?
01:57And can you walk me through it, please?
02:01Senator, good morning.
02:03Allies and partners have an outsized effect.
02:06It is the strategic center of gravity of the United States of America.
02:10And by having access, basing, and overflight with our allied partners,
02:13we have the ability to achieve the principles of expanded maneuver.
02:18And that is to have multiple attack vectors across multiple domains
02:24where our adversary would potentially just be putting, would be focused on the one point,
02:30there'd be threats coming from multiple points.
02:33It would confer, it confers legitimacy on the force.
02:37It confers greater access, basing, overflight, freedom of movement of the force.
02:43And then to the extent that allies and partners are participating in the operation,
02:49it enhances your fire's capability as well.
02:52So, all across those fronts, allies and partners are critical.
02:56You do pay me to build a plan that does not fall on the loss of a partner.
03:03But the cost, the bill comes in the form of people, capability, money, and time.
03:10The more partners and allies that we have, the less it will be the bill across those four domains.
03:19So, I guess my confusion comes with my view, again, my view as a senator here,
03:29that this administration is implementing a strategy of cozying up to our adversaries
03:35and kicking our allies in the teeth.
03:37And I say that as someone who's a border state and lives right next to Canada.
03:42You know, we can go to a concert in Canada.
03:44I mean, it's a, it, the, the idea that we need partners to make deterring China
03:51affordable and approachable, but that we're going to attack our allies,
03:58put significant tariffs on again, off again on these allies.
04:02We're going to humiliate them in public, speak badly and speak ill of them,
04:08including countries we share intelligence with,
04:11is, to me, the most astrategic thing I have seen in a national security approach to China.
04:17So, for all someone claims they care about deterring a military threat from China,
04:25if your approach is, and thank you for your incredibly articulate description of how our allies and partners are the center of gravity,
04:34your words, I believe it to my core, I cannot for the life of me say with a straight face that for all the huff and puff this administration puts on about China,
04:45that they actually give a crap about deterring them, because then you wouldn't be alienating all the allies and partners who live around China.
04:53And I'm watching the, the Chinese put in a base in Cambodia, right?
04:58Sounds like a terrible vulnerability for us that other allies and partners are, are cozying up to China.
05:05So, I, I deeply appreciate the work that you do, we depend on you, we need you all to do your work well,
05:11but for the life of me, I think whatever bravado this administration has about China,
05:17the play is actually being undermined every day by the way that they kick our allies in the teeth.
05:22I yield back.
05:23Thank you, Senator Schlott.