Sen. Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, told a confirmation hearing Wednesday that China poses the most significant threat to the U.S. and must be countered with new foreign and domestic policies.
The former senator from Florida faced little opposition from Democrats during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing and is considered one of Mr. Trump’s most significant nominees. He said the incoming administration plans to pursue a foreign policy centered on advancing American core interests that reflect Mr. Trump’s “America First” agenda.
As a guide for U.S. foreign policy, acting on core national interests has been the norm, not the exception, for two centuries, Mr. Rubio said in his opening statement. “And for our country, placing the interest of America and Americans above all else has never been more relevant or more necessary than it is right now.”
The son of Cuban immigrants who arrived in Florida in 1956, Mr. Rubio said his Christian faith would influence his work at the State Department.
China came under particular criticism from Mr. Rubio, who said the communist regime was wrongly welcomed into the global order.
“And they took advantage of all its benefits,” he said in his opening statement. “But they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked and stolen their way to global superpower status — at our expense.”
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The warm reception for Mr. Rubio sharply contrasted with Democrats’ acrimony Tuesday during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Defense Secretary-nominee Pete Hegseth.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James E. Risch, Idaho Republican, said Mr. Rubio, a former panel member, was a great friend. He then outlined a lengthy list of international crises Mr. Rubio is expected to confront as secretary of state. Mr. Risch said the Biden administration’s diversity policies, based on “progressive ideology,” hampered morale and operations at the State Department.
“The outgoing administration often undercut effective foreign policy when asserting ideological and political requirements into the fabric of personnel decisions and policy execution, rather than making hires or promotions based on merit and effectiveness,” Mr. Risch said. “This must end on Day One. We need to return to merit, and I know Marco will right that ship.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said she had a good working relationship with Mr. Rubio in the Senate and supports his nomination.
“I believe you have the skills and are well qualified to serve as secretary of state,” Ms. Shaheen said.
China’s ‘extraordinary’ challenge
On a top policy issue for the Trump administration, Mr. Rubio told the panel that China presents an “extraordinary” challenge and the ruling Chinese Communist Party thinks America is in an inevitable decline as Beijing is rising.
The challenges, he said, include Beijing’s control over global supply chains, lying about militarizing islands in the South China Sea, and engaging in “grotesque” human rights violations and the enslavement of minority Uyghurs in western China.
“So if we don’t change course, we are going to live in a world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis, from our security to our health, will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not,” Mr. Rubio testified. “That’s an unacceptable outcome.”
Under questioning from lawmakers, Mr. Rubio described China as “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”
He said countering the threat will depend on increasing domestic efforts, such as rebuilding industry and ending an overreliance on China for raw materials and goods.
Mr. Rubio said he supports continued U.S. backing for Taiwan under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and six U.S.-China understandings. He favors adding Taiwanese representatives to international meetings and organizations, which China opposes. China’s announced plans to annex Taiwan in the coming years by military force, if necessary, is a “foundational” belief for Chinese President Xi Jinping and highlights the danger of a conflict that Mr. Rubio said would be “catastrophic.”
He urged a policy of strength to deter Beijing. “The bottom line is we’re going to have to deal with China. And they’re going to have to deal with us,” Mr. Rubio said.
On the Russia-Ukraine war, Mr. Rubio said he supports Mr. Trump’s position that the killing and destruction should be ended quickly. Sanctions imposed on Russia for the war may continue and expand, he said.
He said a problem with the Biden administration’s policy toward Europe’s worst conflict since World War II was that the end goal was never clear.
“So this is an important conflict, and I think it should be the official position of the United States that this war should be brought to an end,” Mr. Rubio said.
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he planned to end the Ukraine conflict before his inauguration. He has expressed skepticism about the large U.S. military and aid packages to Kyiv that Mr. Rubio largely supported while in the Senate.
While Mr. Rubio testified, news broke that Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement had reached ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip. Mr. Rubio said he supports the announced deal but said its success or failure will hinge on the release of scores of hostages who have been held by Hamas since the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.
Asked about rising anti-Jewish sentiment in the United States, Mr. Rubio said “common-sense” policies would bar antisemitic Hamas supporters from U.S. entry and expel those already in the country.
The nominee was asked about Mr. Trump’s opposition to NATO membership and noted that he co-sponsored a bill requiring Senate approval for any U.S. withdrawal from the alliance. Mr. Rubio said Mr. Trump announced that former Justice Department official Matthew Whitaker would be the U.S. ambassador to NATO — a sign that Mr. Trump will engage in the alliance.
On Venezuela, Mr. Rubio said the Biden administration “got played” by socialist President Nicolas Maduro in easing sanctions last year to promote free and fair elections. The Maduro regime has violated the agreement, he said.
Russians and Iranians are operating in Venezuela and pose a threat to the United States, he said.
Asked by Sen. Christopher A. Coons, Delaware Democrat, about potential conflicts of interest between Mr. Trump and his family members who are engaged in building hotels in Saudi Arabia and Oman, the nominee said he is unfamiliar with the deals and noted that the president-elect does not have a role in the Trump family businesses.
“My understanding is … the president doesn’t manage that company,” he said. “His family members do, and they have a right to be in the business.”
Mr. Rubio said North Korea is a continuing threat and preventing a conflict on the Korean Peninsula and the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region will remain a policy priority.
The ‘end of history’ delusion
Mr. Rubio said bipartisan claims that the end of the Cold War in the 1990s produced the “end of history” were wrong.
The idea that all nations of the world would join the democratic, Western-led community and that foreign policy would serve a liberal world order and abandon national identity was “a dangerous delusion,” he said.
Unfettered trade at the expense of the U.S. economy diminished the American middle class, produced a crisis for the working class, collapsed industrial capacity and left supply chains in the hands of the country’s adversaries, Mr. Rubio said.
He said mass migration, fueled by a global zeal for maximum freedom of movement, has produced a historic crisis in the United States and threatens the stability of societies and governments worldwide.
In criticism of the Biden administration’s foreign policy emphasizing allies and partners, Mr. Rubio said: “What good to our allies is America if it is not strong? And how can America help end the suffering of God’s children across the world if it is not first prosperous here at home?”
As with other Trump nominee confirmation hearings, the session was disrupted by protesters, including one speaking Spanish.
Mr. Rubio quipped: “I get bilingual protesters.”
The hearing was set to consider U.S. policy changes under Mr. Trump in global regions.
In the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Rubio said despots and narcoterrorists are exploiting open borders to drive mass migration and traffic in women and children while flooding the United States with fentanyl and violent criminals.
Russia, Iran and North Korea are now led by dictators sowing chaos and instability and are aligning with fundamentalist radical terrorist groups. The three nations also “hide behind their veto power at the United Nations and the threat of nuclear war,” Mr. Rubio said.
“The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us,” he said. “And all this has led us to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.”
He said creating a free world from the current geopolitical situation would be impossible without a strong and confident United States.
Mr. Rubio said Mr. Trump had begun to build up American strength. His first four-year term resulted in no new wars, the diminishing of the ISIS terrorist group, the drone assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and the Middle East diplomatic breakthrough known as the Abraham Accords.
Mr. Rubio said voters gave a mandate for Mr. Trump to produce a strong United States and promote peace abroad and security and prosperity domestically.
“And if I am confirmed, keeping that promise will be the core mission of the United States Department of State,” he said.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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