Vice President Mike Pence's Remarks on the Trump Administration's Policy Towards China

[Drumboy44]

Remarks delivered by President Mike Pence on the
administration’s policy towards China at Hudson Institute on
October 4, 2018:

Thank you, Ken, for that kind introduction. To the Members of the Board of Trustees, to Dr. Michael Pillsbury, to our distinguished guests, and to all of you who, true to your mission, “think about the future in unconventional ways” – it’s an honor to be back at the Hudson Institute.

For more than half a century, this Institute has dedicated itself to “advancing global security, prosperity, and freedom.” And while Hudson’s hometowns have changed over the years, one thing has held constant: You have always advanced that vital truth, that American leadership lights the way.

And today, I bring greetings from a champion of American leadership, at home and abroad – the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump.

From early in this administration, President Trump has made our relationship with China and President Xi a priority. On April 6th of last year, President Trump welcomed President Xi to Mar-A-Lago. On November 8th of last year, President Trump traveled to Beijing, where China’s leader welcomed him warmly.

Over the course of the past 2 years, our President has forged a strong personal relationship with the president of the People’s Republic of China, and they’ve worked closely on issues of common interest, most importantly the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula…

But I come before you today because the American people deserve to know… as we speak, Beijing is employing a whole-of-government approach, using political, economic, and military tools, as well as propaganda, to advance its influence and benefit its interests in the United States.

China is also applying this power in more proactive ways than ever before, to exert influence and interfere in the domestic policy and politics of our country.

Under our administration, we’ve taken decisive action to respond to China with American leadership, applying the principles, and the policies, long advocated in these halls.

In the “National Security Strategy” that President Trump released last December, he described a new era of “great power competition.” Foreign nations have begun to “reassert their influence regionally and globally,” and they are “contesting [America’s] geopolitical advantages and trying to change the international order in their favor.”

In this strategy, President Trump made clear that the United States of America has adopted a new approach to China. We seek a relationship grounded in fairness, reciprocity, and respect for sovereignty, and we have taken strong and swift action to achieve that goal.

As the President said last year on his visit to China, “we have an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between our two countries and improve the lives of our citizens.” Our vision of the future is built on the best parts of our past, when America and China reached out to one another in a spirit of openness and friendship…

When our young nation went searching in the wake of the Revolutionary War for new markets for our exports, the Chinese people welcomed Americans traders laden with ginseng and fur…

When China suffered through indignities and exploitation during her so-called “Century of Humiliation,” America refused to join in, and advocated the “Open Door” policy, so that we could have freer trade with China, and preserve their sovereignty…

When American missionaries brought the good news to China’s shores, they were moved by the rich culture of an ancient but vibrant people, and not only did they spread faith; they also founded some of China’s first and finest universities…

When the Second World War arose, we stood together as allies in the fight against imperialism… And in that war’s aftermath, America ensured that China became a Charter member of the United Nations, and a great shaper of the post-war world.

But soon after it took power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party began to pursue authoritarian expansionism. Only five years after our nations had fought together, we fought each other, on the mountains and in the valleys of the Korean Peninsula. My own father saw combat on those frontlines of freedom.

Not even the brutal Korean War could diminish our mutual desire to restore the ties that for so long bound us together. China’s estrangement from the United States ended in 1972, and soon after, we re-established diplomatic relations, began to open our economies to one another, and American universities began training a new generation of Chinese engineers, business leaders, scholars, and officials.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, we assumed that a free China was inevitable. Heady with optimism, at the turn of the 21st Century, America agreed to give Beijing open access to our economy, and bring China into the World Trade Organization.

Previous administrations made this choice in the hope that freedom in China would expand in all forms – not just economically, but politically, with a newfound respect for classical liberal principles, private property, religious freedom, and the entire family of human rights… but that hope has gone unfulfilled.

The dream of freedom remains distant for the Chinese people. And while Beijing still pays lip service to “reform and opening,” Deng Xiaoping’s famous policy now rings hollow.

https://www.hudson.org/events/1610-vice-president-mike-pence-s-remarks-on-the-administration-s-policy-towards-china102018

 

[Drumboy44]

Feel free to visit the link above for the rest of the speech. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Shmooglavoue]

I wonder if Mike Pence watches China Uncensored....

 

[DEFCON Warning System]

Sounds like Pence has a good grasp on what China is attempting to do.

 

[Drumboy44]

Vice President Mike Pence’s accusations in a stinging speech Thursday warning of a tougher approach toward Beijing may have been familiar to China’s leaders. But until now such remarks were delivered in private, in fairly decorous terms, and rarely threatened direct action.

The surprise this time for Beijing was the magnitude of alleged offenses piled up in one public indictment, ranging from suspected interference in American politics to China’s stomping on the freedoms of its own people. Nor had the United States ever before told China: “We will not stand down.”

Publicly, China responded with a certain weariness, calling the speech “very ridiculous,” creating “something out of thin air,” but also warning that “no one can stop” the Chinese people from advancing.

But behind closed doors, Mr. Pence’s remarks probably left few doubts among China’s leaders that Washington was embarking on a Cold Warthat would force the country to dig in for a prolonged multifront battle with the United States, analysts said.

The leaders were no doubt angry and embarrassed that the Trump administration went all-out publicly with confrontational language that is considered unacceptable in Chinese culture, which prefers sweet phrases to disguise stern measures.

Some of Mr. Pence’s declarations, like saying Washington’s trade policy most likely caused a 25 percent fall in China’s largest stock exchange in the first nine months of this year, could be dismissed as inaccurate, since trade tensions were one of several factors. Similarly, the claim that the United States “rebuilt China” over the last 25 years could be shrugged off as dubious and unfair.

But it was unmistakably clear that the era of Washington holding out a hand to Beijing to become a “responsible stakeholder” in world affairs alongside the United States — a phrase used in 2005 by Robert B. Zoellick, then the deputy secretary of state — was over.

“This will look like the declaration of a new Cold War, and what China may do is more important than what it will say about Pence’s speech,” said Zhang Baohui, professor of international relations at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/world/asia/pence-china-speech-cold-war.html#click=https://t.co/YyHdzeDfhH

 

[Obreid]

This public declaration by Pence I believe was triggered by the new trade deal with both Canada and Mexico.
It had specific provisions that addressed sidestepped final assemble of products through the two countries from China.
With that door closed China is in a tougher position because it makes it harder to sidestep tariffs imposed on Chinese’s manufacturing.

Keeping Manufacturing in China and income flowing is at crisis point in China.

Even with their stockpile of gold and claims to rare earth minerals they don’t have many aces to play.

The only chance the bricks nations had at supplanting the US influence was a workable replacement for the SWIFT system and theres several strikes against them there.
India has been wooed alway from them. Brazil is in the middle of their own nationalist revolution and could swing either way. South Africa is on verge of economic and social collapse. Russia has an economy the size of Texas and other than oil has little economic influence. That leaves China, who’s fiscal and economic reporting is too opaque for any nation to trust To run an international financial settlements system.

They counted on influencing American politicians with cold hard cash so they could short cut the way to international power. Now you have an American government and population taking a cold hard look at them and they don’t like it one bit.
Massive game of chicken at this point.
Perspective; nine nuclear aircraft carrier groups vs one used diesel aircraft carrier and a military with zero veteran servicemen. Their new Stealth fighter is using used engine from Russia two generations old.

Their Ace was economic, and social subversion, they played it and now it’s being called.