Rick Scott To State Department Nominee: How Can US Hold China 'Accountable' For Violating Deals?

8 months ago

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) spoke about holding China accountable for violating trade deals.

Transcript

00:00I will yield to you my friend. Thank you Senator Rosen. Well first off

00:05congratulations on your nominations. Thanks for your willingness to serve. Let

00:09me start with Ambassador DeSombrey. So as we know Communist China has, they've

00:14decided to be our enemy. Their government is despicable. They're sending

00:20fentanyl across our border killing over 70,000 people a year. They've never

00:25complied with the trade agreement. The WTO, they steal our technology. The stuff,

00:33many of the things they sent here are unsafe. If they violate any agreement,

00:39there's no way to get recourse in China against them. So what can you do in this

00:47new role to hold Communist China accountable? And I think if there's

00:52anybody that can get a deal that makes sense with them, it's probably President

00:55Trump, but I just don't believe them. I mean they didn't even comply with the

00:58Trump trade deal in his first term. So what do you think you can do to hold

01:02them accountable? Senator, thank you very much for that question. I think you've

01:05given a very good list of many of the challenges that we have with China. You're

01:10you're definitely correct in the fact that they've been calling us their

01:12adversary and enemy for a long period of time and it's taken us a while to come

01:15to appreciate that and we need to deal with that. As I indicated in my opening

01:20remarks, working with our allies and partners to enhance deterrence and

01:24counter the blind activities by our adversaries, including China, is one of

01:27our top priorities. I further agree with you completely that if we're going to

01:32reach agreements with China, we need to make sure that they actually follow them

01:35and the way to do that is for them to actually show us what they're doing, not

01:39commit to what they're going to do. And that's a challenge that we need to face

01:43and I'll be eager to work, if confirmed, on trying to solve that issue and I

01:47believe definitely putting pressure via our allies and partners of the region is

01:50one of the important elements. So it's my understanding you've done quite a bit

01:54of business in Hong Kong. I have a friend, Jimmy Lai, who is a journalist who was

01:58wrongfully detained by the Hong Kong authorities, which clearly is doing Xi's

02:04bidding. They've stripped Jimmy of his wealth. I think he's been in solitary

02:08confinement for over four years. Given your knowledge and experience with Hong Kong and

02:12the region and communist China, first of all, you're familiar with this situation and what

02:17have you been able to do and what can you do to help Jimmy?

02:21Senator, thank you very much for raising that very important issue. I am very

02:25familiar with that. I'm very familiar with the fact that China is engaged in

02:29repeated violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration that required them to

02:32maintain the high degree of autonomy, rule of law and democratic freedoms in Hong Kong,

02:38which have not been so maintained. I am aware of what has happened to Jimmy Lai and

02:42understand that President Trump has called for Jimmy Lai to be freed and should be

02:45freed. Is there anything else we can do? I think, though, thank you Senator for that

02:51question. There probably are the things that we can do and I definitely, if

02:55confirmed, we'll look into that. I think the situation in Hong Kong, I mean, from a

02:59personal note, is deeply troubling to me. I lived in Hong Kong from 1997 before the

03:03handover until 2020 when I moved down to assume the position as ambassador to

03:07Thailand. And there's a reason why I didn't move back to Hong Kong after that.

03:11And it's really, it's really personally deeply troubling to see what's happened to

03:16Hong Kong. It's not the place that it was before.

03:18Mr. Pratt, I just got back from a trip to Europe and I met with military and elected

03:24officials in Denmark, Finland, and Estonia. And to a person, they complained about our

03:31foreign military sales and the fact that, I mean, one, they just can't get an answer.

03:36They, you know, they've watched what Putin is doing. Now they're afraid that they're going

03:42to be invaded. So they want to build up their military. So one, they can't get a decision

03:48out of our government to allow them to buy the equipment they want to buy. And then number two,

03:53our manufacturers don't produce it on time. So in this role, what can you do to change that?

03:59Thank you for that question, Senator. Certainly, I'm familiar with those complaints. And certainly,

04:06building up our partners in Scandinavia is critically important to countering the Russian

04:13influence. And I commit to, if confirmed, taking a thorough review of those issues and seeing how

04:21we can get those resolved.

04:22You think, well, you put time into understanding, like, there are, I mean, there's, it's pretty

04:26simple. There ought to be a streamlined way of getting this done. Say yes or no. When I'm a

04:31business guy, and what frustrates me about government is, just tell me no. If you're not

04:34going to sell it, if you're not, let me do it. I'll go sell it by sales. But what we're doing is,

04:37we don't tell them anything. We keep them in the dark. And then, then even when they get

04:42approval, they have no idea whether our manufacturers are going to show up and give and provide it on any

04:47reasonable period of time. So are you, will you, you know, are you going to work with both trying

04:53to streamline the process and get our manufacturers to actually do their job?

04:56Yes, sir. And again, I'm familiar with those complaints. And very much committed to addressing

05:04them. And as you point out, part of that is working with industry to figure out what the problem areas

05:10are. Part of that's working with the Department of Defense to figure out how they can be more engaged.

05:15And certainly, I commit to working with both those partners to resolve this problem.

05:20Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.

05:22Thank you, Senator Scott. Senator, you're up.

05:27Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ambassador.

Rick Scott To State Department Nominee: How Can US Hold China 'Accountable' For Violating Deals?

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended