Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01) joined ‘Mornings with Maria’ on Fox Business today to discuss failed outcomes from President Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco this week, as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s role in promoting anti-American propaganda.
(Watch)
On President Biden claiming Xi agreed to help to curb the flow of fentanyl from China:
“This is not the way to go about successful policy initiatives with China. You don't capitulate to China first, and hope that they follow suit. This just doesn't work. We've seen previously when Biden administration officials have gone there, they've asked for things to be done. China has not done those things. This is another procession of failed policies here, and to say we're going to take you off the sanctions list and hope that you stop the flow of fentanyl is wishful thinking, and it is not the way you deal with Xi. The way you deal with [Xi] is by strong assertion.”
On President Biden caving to meet with Xi without setting preconditions:
“What you see is Xi and China have become master manipulators. They are willing to dangle out their two businesses. The 1.4 billion people in China are that marketplace, and American businesses are tripping over themselves instead of saying ‘What are you doing concerning intellectual property theft? What are you doing to protect the value of what they transact there in China?’ They won't do that. They won't assert themselves against Xi, and when you don't do that, Xi will take advantage of that. … [Xi] will look to assert himself in ways that are to China's advantage, not to the advantage of American businesses.”
On President Biden failing to confront Xi on the Chinese spy balloon incident and CCP police station in the United States:
“He should [also] be talking about intellectual property theft. He should be talking about the other aspects of military communications, things that are important to the stability, not only of the world, but making sure too that China understands that there is a consequence for them not taking positive actions in making the impact of their behavior felt. So, what they believe they can do is to still do the same bad things and not have any outcome from that.”
On CCP-controlled TikTok’s role in promoting anti-American propaganda:
“China is using this to manipulate public opinion. They are doing this to try to foment discord. It is clearly an effort by them to use this diatribe in ways that are not productive for conversations themselves, but also, I think are harmful to the United States, harmful to Israel, and really continue this antisemitic flow that we see happening, unfortunately not only across United States, but across the world.
“It's really disturbing. But again, it points to what TikTok is being used for. And I think it calls into question, what should be our public policy concerning TikTok? I don't think TikTok serves any useful purpose. And I'm sure there'll be some that'll disagree with me. But when you look at what the outcome is of these sorts of events, when they put this diatribe up, and then once it's already had its impact is oh, by the way, now we're going to take it down, we know China is using that as a manipulative tool in the information sphere. That to me ought to guide our public policy and how we deal with that. …
“Well, there needs to be federal action. … We need to have a debate and discussion about this. We need to take up legislation that impacts how TikTok is being used, period.”
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