Sen. Cruz: China’s Objectives Are Nothing Short of Global Domination
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday delivered remarks at the Falkirk Center Freedom Summit about the enormous geopolitical threat China poses to the United States and the rest of the world, and the urgent need to fundamentally reassess the U.S.-China relationship, saying, "[China's] objectives are nothing short of complete, global domination."
Excerpts of his remarks are below.
On the enormous threat that China poses to the United States and the rest of the world:
"In my judgement, China poses the single greatest geopolitical threat to the United States over the next century. It's important to understand that China, their objectives are not short term. They are fighting a thousand year war and their objectives are nothing short of complete, global domination [...] I think the most lasting foreign policy consequence of the coronavirus pandemic is a fundamental reevaluation of the United States relationship with China and indeed, the world's relationship with China [...]
"China's fighting a thousand year war, we need to recognize the threat they pose and we need strong leadership in Washington to take them on. This is a fight that would lead to the eight years I've been in the Senate. It's a fight I intend to keep leading for many years to come."
On China's cover-up and involvement in the coronavirus pandemic:
"The government of China bears direct responsibility for this global disaster [...] We need to have real transparency. We need to have real accountability. We need to go in objectively and find out who knew what and when they knew it. But the weight of the evidence right now suggests that the origin of this virus was escaping accidentally from a Chinese government controlled lab.
"The Chinese government lies, its mendacity, [and] its cover-up played a very direct role in the human suffering [and] in the trillions of economic devastation that has flowed out of this pandemic [...] This pandemic is causing a worldwide reassessment of our relationship with China."
On legislation Sen. Cruz has introduced to hold Chinese officials accountable for endangering millions of lives as a result of their medical censorship:
"I introduced legislation that would sanction Chinese officials who censor health information like those Chinese officials that censored the information about COVID -19 that cost over 600,000 people's lives. That would impose sanctions on those officials. We used to think of censorship as just a human rights issue. Now we know it's a national security issue and a public health issue."
On countering Chinese propaganda and censorship:
"China engages in rampant propaganda [...] On the Senate Armed Services Committee I introduced legislation to prohibit the Department of Defense funding from going to universities if they have a Confucius Institute. That legislation got bipartisan support, got the support of Republicans and Democrats. It was signed into law and that legislation has directly resulted in 17 Confucius Institutes and Universities across the country being shut down.
"I've introduced legislation called the SCRIPT Act which simply says there are enormous U.S. assets that the federal government makes available to American filmmakers. Things like the DOD, allowing them to use ships and planes and tanks, or DHS allowing to use border patrol equipment to film the big, big elements of a lot of movies. The SCRIPT Act says very simply that the federal government is not going to allow you to use federal government assets if you are going to allow communist China to edit films. If you want access to government assets, don't give a hostile foreign power the ability to edit the films. Combating propaganda is important."
On bringing critical supply chains back to the United States:
"China has systematically targeted the U.S. supply chain. It is going after critical infrastructure. We look at in the midst of this pandemic, PPE, masks and gloves and gowns, and a huge percentage of it worldwide is manufactured in China. [...] Just a few months ago, one of the state controlled newspapers in China explicitly threatened during this pandemic to cut off pharmaceuticals to the American market as a tool of economic warfare.
"Let me say right now they do that, that's not economic warfare, merely, that is actual warfare. That is literally threatening the lives and safety of millions of Americans who rely on medication to just stay alive and healthy. And so I've been leading the fight to bring critical infrastructure, to bring the supply chain back to the United States, create tax incentives to bring them back. Whether it is infrastructure like PPE and pharmaceuticals or whether it is rare earth minerals that are integral to defense components and technology, which likewise China systematically went after and acquired dominant positions."
WATCH: Sen. Cruz: ‘We Need To Stand Up and Deal Directly with the Threat China Poses'
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Sen. Cruz is leading the charge to fundamentally reassess the U.S.-China relationship and counter Chinese censorship in the wake of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) coronavirus coverup. In April, Sen. Cruz introduced the SCRIPT Act as part of a comprehensive push to combat China's growing influence over what Americans see and hear. He also introduced the BEAMS Act as part of a successful push to prevent the CCP from blanketing the U.S. with propaganda. After the CCP imposed sanctions against him, Sen. Cruz delivered remarks on the Senate floor to hold China accountable for their coronavirus cover-up and for engaging in censorship and propaganda campaigns in China and here in the United States. On Tuesday, Sen. Cruz introduced the Protecting America from Spies Act that would allow the Department of State to deny visas to individuals who have committed acts of espionage or intellectual property theft against the United States. Learn more about Sen. Cruz's push to counter Chinese propaganda here.
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