Sec. Rubio: ‘We’re Not Going to Live in a World Where We Depend on China’

EXCERPT:

RUBIO: "Well, interestingly enough, the communication with China’s actually been better than the communication with the Russians under the Biden Administration and to the current day, which is that why there has to be some level of maturity here and practicality and pragmatism when it comes to foreign policy. That said, we’re not going to live in a world where we depend on China for critical rare earth minerals, for critical components in our supply chain. We're not going to live in a world in which China gets to dominate the Indo-Pacific and we’re not allowed to have commercial ties in that region because they’re holding countries hostage and they all become tributary states. The Japanese have no interest in being a tributary state and they’re close allies of ours. The South Koreans, the Philippines, Australia — none of these countries want to become tributary states. Vietnam, for that matter, are not interested in becoming sort of tributary states in a Chinese zone of influence. We are a Pacific nation, we intend to remain one and maintain our relationships there. So, that is a red line for us. We’re not going to abandon our engagement as a Pacific power and, by the other token, we’re not going to live in a world where the Chinese dominate things that are critical to our economy and be held hostage by them. That’s just silly to do it.”