US Senator Marco Rubio, US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, on Wednesday said that a “dangerous” China cheated its way to superpower status, as he vowed to ramp up support to deter an invasion of Taiwan.
Rubio laid out his worldview to fellow senators at a confirmation hearing that took place just as Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in their 15-month war, a long-sought goal of US President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration.
Rubio, who is expected to secure confirmation easily, described China as “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever faced” and warned of drastic impacts if the US does not act.
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“If we stay on the road we’re on right now, in less than 10 years virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or not — everything from the blood pressure medicine we take to what movies we get to watch,” Rubio said.
He vowed to ramp up the defenses of Taiwan to prevent a “cataclysmic military intervention.”
“We need to wrap our head around the fact that unless something dramatic changes, like an equilibrium [between China and Taiwan], where they conclude that the costs of intervening in Taiwan are too high, we’re going to have to deal with this before the end of this decade,” Rubio said.
Trump had raised questions during his campaign over Taiwan by insisting it does not pay enough for its own defense — similar criticism he has made of NATO allies.
Rubio distanced himself from talk of exiting NATO, but said the US needed to ask whether to retain “the primary defense role” in the alliance or be a “backstop to aggression,” with Europeans taking more responsibility.
A staunch backer of Ukraine after its invasion by Russia nearly three years ago, Rubio has allied with Trump in promising “bold diplomacy” that would require concessions on both sides.
“This war has to end, and I think it should be the official policy of the United States that we want to see it end,” Rubio said, a shift from Biden’s approach of supporting Ukraine through victory.
Rubio also backed the diplomacy that reached the Gaza ceasefire, but made it clear that he would staunchly back Israel, after Biden’s occasional criticism of the toll to civilians.
“How can any nation-state on the planet coexist side by side with a group of savages like Hamas?” he said.
Rubio rejected a key tenet of Biden’s foreign policy — prioritizing a rules-based, US-led “liberal world order” — in favor of Trump’s belief in “America First.”
“The post-war global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us,” he said.
“We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this global order, and they took advantage of all its benefits, but they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities,” Rubio said.
“Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense,” he said.
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