During Thursday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing for ambassador nominees, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) expressed concern over the United States' current relationship with China.
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NewsTranscript
00:00All right, well I'm up next. So first of all I want to thank both of you for your past service
00:05to our great nation and for your family's service and your continuing desire to serve our great
00:10nation. So thank you both and thank you to the families. Senator Perdue's talked about if you're
00:15confirmed this is an immense challenge for you as well as for the United States with regard to what
00:22we do about communist China who is not only an adversary but really our largest existential
00:27threat outside this country. Your tenure will take you past 2027 when Xi Jinping is told his
00:34military to be capable of taking Taiwan by force. This contingency becomes more real every day. In
00:41fact just this week the PLA conducted live fire exercises around Taiwan simulating a blockade
00:50around that island. Both to prevent war and to win this competition with Beijing, our policy
00:57toward communist China must be rooted in three simple things. Strength, deterrence, and reciprocity.
01:05And it's that latter that I want to talk about right now, reciprocity. This is where I think you
01:10can have a huge impact as ambassador in communicating to Beijing what our desires are. I'm going to
01:17start with just a simple really yes or no questions. So Senator Perdue, is it fair that American
01:24diplomats and officials face a litany of restrictions in communist China including
01:29the ability to travel freely which Chinese officials don't face here? Is that fair? Absolutely not,
01:36Senator. Is it fair that Chinese social media apps like WeChat can operate in the U.S. but American
01:44apps like Instagram and YouTube are banned in China? Is that fair? Absolutely not, Senator. Is it
01:50fair that American movies must get approved by Chinese communist party censors to be released
01:56in China but Chinese movies don't face that same restriction here? Is that fair? It's not fair and
02:03it's not reciprocal. Is it fair that despite being the world's second largest economy, communist
02:09China benefits from being considered a developing nation in certain international organizations?
02:15Will you give me a little liberty here to ask? I'll let you have a little bit more. Just one
02:19sentence here. It's not just its most favored nation. They really didn't qualify to be a member
02:25of that in the beginning. It's the WTO. They need to live up to the responsibilities of that and it's
02:30the developing nation status. I mean this is the second largest economy in the world as you said,
02:35our number one competitor and no, I don't think that's fair. Is it fair that U.S. businesses have
02:40to compete with Chinese-owned enterprises that receive massive subsidies from the Chinese
02:45government? Is that fair? No, it's not. Is it fair that Chinese communist or the communist China
02:52still forces technology transfers and steals intellectual property from U.S. companies?
02:58Of course not. Yeah. So I could go on and on and on and I could talk about and you've already
03:03mentioned about how communist China has hacked us. They've in our telephone systems, our ports,
03:10our energy infrastructure, all these things where communist China is taking advantage of
03:16us and this double standard must stop. If confirmed, what will you take to ensure reciprocity
03:24with communist China? Senator, thank you for that. That's a very thoughtful series of questions.
03:31First of all, there are several things we need to do in this country. Number one, to stand up to China.
03:35Not just in reciprocity. First of all, we've got to get our financial house in order. I can talk
03:40more about that but I'll be out of your time. The second thing is we've got to rebuild our strategic
03:44supply chains, rare earth elements, steel, ship building, pharmaceuticals, chips, quantum computing.
03:53All of these we've acquiesced through this globalization in the last two decades to basically
03:58China and people who would do us harm. The reciprocal nature that we want with China, I think
04:04President Trump is all over that. The starting conversation with trade, there are going to be
04:08many others. The treatment of how we treat their foreign service personnel in the United States
04:13versus how they treat ours in China is a big one. We've also got to make sure that the allies
04:19understand what this is all about. It's not just about trade. It's one of the tools in the toolbox.
04:24We need partners in this bifurcation that I'm describing to the ranking member earlier.
04:30That's where I would start. As ambassador, if I'm confirmed, I will promote U.S. values, U.S.
04:36interest, and the strategy that President Trump is drawing up right now to bring our allies together
04:40to make a united front against the PRC. Great. Well, thank you very much, Senator Perdue. I would
04:45again just stress that reciprocity is going to be key to the relationship. You mentioned earlier
04:51how China respects strength. If we don't force them to treat us the same way that they're
04:58treating our people and their country or the way they treat us on the international stage,
05:03they won't respect us because that is not strength. Strength is saying to Communist China,
05:08you will treat us the same way as we are treating you, or we're going to change the rules of the
05:14game. Thank you. Senator Rosen.