(Script of Marco Rubio’s Senate Speech on 15January 2025.)
The central argument behind doing business with
China was we think capitalism will change them, okay, they’re gonna eat Big-macs
and drink Coca-Colas and they’re gonna literally ingest democracy and it will
transform them, okay!
They argued that capitalism was gonna change China,
now we stand here 23 years later and realise capitalism didn’t change China, China
changed capitalism! China did get rich, they most certainly got rich, but they didn’t
use that money to buy our products, they use that money to buy the products that
are made in China, and they didn’t become a democracy either.
Now what you have is what was once a poor Chinese Communist Party now you have a rich Chinese Communist Party that has tightened its grip on the country ans it’s actually going around the world trying to export their authoritarian model.
They literally go around telling countries
democracy cannot solve problems, our system is so much better at solving
problems, we can move quicker, we don’t have to have a townhall meeting before
we do everything. We can have strategic 20 year plans and we can solve your
problems.
China is a populous country. They’re always gonna
be a superpower. They’re always going to be one. But they did it faster because
they did it at our expense. They didn’t create these jobs, they moved them.
They didn’t create these industries, they took them.
We buy solar panels from China. Who invented solar
panels? We did. They lead the world now in battery production for these
electric vehicles. We invented them, they made them, they perfected the
technology, and they noe lead the technology. I can go on and on.
They’re building more coalfired plants than in any
country on earth. Today China has more surplus refining capacity for oil than
any nation on the planet. This era has to end now. Its not about just taking on
China, it is about changing the way we think.
Its not 2000 anymore, its not 1999 anymore, this is
a different world.
