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Senator Rick Scott at Hudson Institute on March 3, 2020.
Beyond China's military expansionism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the Communist Party of China has a growing presence in the US that remains largely undetected.
US Senator Rick Scott of Florida recently sat down with Hudson's Asia-Pacific Security Chair Dr. Patrick M. Cronin to discuss China's "cold war focused on technology, misinformation and political persuasion." From supplying illegal opioids to bribing government-funded researchers, Sen. Scott examined the every-day costs of China's actions to US taxpayers and how Congress is fighting back.
See below for more highlights from Senator Scott's speech, and don't miss the new policy memo by Hudson Senior Fellow John Lee outlining four key indicators that the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted China's long-term economic prospects.
Takeaways from Sen. Rick Scott
China's involvement in the opioid epidemic:
I have family members that have been involved in drugs. What is China doing? They're selling fentanyl in this country. They know what everybody does through their social scoring technology but gosh, they can't find that darn fentanyl that they're shipped into this country that’s killing American citizens.
There's so much mail that comes in through China, we can't check every package. I was down at the mail center down in Miami, which is like the fourth busiest. Every day they're finding illegal drugs coming in from China. Every day.
When you look at how communist China runs their economy, I don't think there's any question that this is all intentional. They know where this stuff is made. Everything they do is very systematic and very intentional.
Pirating taxpayers' research:
Right here at home, we've been faced with instances of Chinese infiltration into American research institutions with the goal of stealing sensitive, often taxpayer-funded research.
At the Moffitt Cancer Center, they let three of their top people go because they had undisclosed relationships with communist China.
We are going to make sure that our hospitals, our universities, are all thinking about China's commitment to steal our information. It's not just business information--it's taxpayers' information.
Propaganda placement in US newspapers:
Chinese propaganda outlets like China Daily collaborate with US media companies to publish inserts appearing to be real news. There is a human cost to the kind of anti-democratic, anti-religion and anti-human rights regime that General Secretary Xi is leading in communist China. We can no longer pretend that communist China is an ally with good intentions, merely a partner with customs or political system that we don't fully understand.
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity
Go Deeper: Hudson on China
Coronavirus and the Chinese Economy: Watching for Signs of a Further Slowdown
As Xi's government engages in a high-risk, high-cost approach towards national advancement, will COVID-19 impact China's long-term economic prospects? Dr. John Lee provides the indicators to watch out for in his latest policy memo.
Kurt Campbell on Crafting Bipartisan Policies for the Indo-Pacific
Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Dr. Kurt Campbell joined Walter Russell Mead to discuss US-Sino relations during the Obama years, his experiences with Xi Jinping, and constructing bipartisan policies for the Indo-Pacific.
The Realignment Podcast: Sen. Tom Cotton on China's Handling of Coronavirus
COVID-19 will not only impact medical supply chains in the US, it'll cause a reevaluation of China as an economic partner of the US. Senator Tom Cotton recently joined The Realignment to look at how the Coronavirus marks a new chapter in US-Sino relations.
Ending China's Arms-Control Free Ride
China's development of nuclear weapons rivals other key global actors. Yet, as Senior Fellow Tim Morrison points out, some members of the disarmament community are resisting efforts to draw China into the United States' broader nuclear-arms control policies.
The Last Word
“Hyphenated capitalism is no capitalism at all. The better name for it is socialism lite.”
George Will reflected on Nikki Haley's Hudson speech in his Washington Post column, noting her defense of a capitalism that is "woven into the nation's system of liberty."
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