WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Thom Tillis appeared on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss the importance of eliminating America’s pharmaceutical and medical supply dependence on China and the future of U.S.-China relations. Senator Tillis’ comments come as President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping today.
Watch the interview HERE.
Senator Tillis on Foreign Direct Investment in China:
“I think they’ve got serious problems. They’ve got a long-term problem because they’re seeing a reduction in foreign direct investment in China. That’s an indication that the world has woken up and decided that we’ve got to reduce our dependence on China for so many of our supply chains. They have a demographic problem. They have a problem that we don’t have, we have lots of allies. They don’t have a lot of allies.”
Senator Tillis on America’s Relationship with China:
“I think that China is in a weaker position they’ve been in some time, and it concerns me that this President won’t go in playing with what I think is a strong hand. China has to behave differently for us to reward them in any way. I’ve seen this administration reach out to Iran. I’ve seen them reach out to China. I want those to be postures of strength, where those regimes have to change for us to have any concessions or working relationships.”
Senator Tillis on Future American Investments in China:
“I think what we have got to do is look at China differently. I don’t mind the idea of investments in China that are beneficial to the United States. I no longer want the pattern that we have seen over the last quarter-century of investments in China that make us more dependent on them. And we’re seeing that happen organically. We learned our lesson from COVID. But I do think that there’s a market there. Think about that the Chinese people have nearly twice our population size in what they consider to be the middle class. That will probably shrink a bit over time. But it’s still a big market that I think that we want American and Western businesses to serve.”
Senator Tillis on America’s Dependence on China:
“One of my favorite pictures coming out of China is a little Chinese girl wearing a Wonder Woman outfit with a Captain America shield. I want American culture, Western culture known in China, because that’s a path to freedom and ultimately change in China. What I don’t want are strategic investments that make us dependent upon them for our pharmaceutical supply chains, the PPEs, all the things that we saw that we were dependent on in China over the time that we were dealing with the COVID pandemic. That has to change. We should have learned our lesson.”
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