Vice President Pence will ramp up the administration’s rhetoric on China in a speech later Thursday by reiterating accusations that it is interfering in the…
Vice President Pence will ramp up the administration’s rhetoric on China in a speech later Thursday by reiterating accusations that it is interfering in the upcoming election to undermine President Trump and condemning Beijing’s military presence in the South China Sea.
“To put it bluntly, President Trump’s leadership is working,” the vice president will say at a speech to the Hudson Institute, according to prepared remarks. “China wants a different American president.”
Pence will say that China is using a variety of measures, including propaganda, to sway November’s midterm elections. “Beijing has mobilized covert actors, front groups, and propaganda outlets to shift Americans’ perception of Chinese policies,” he will say during the speech in Washington. “As a senior career member of our intelligence community recently told me, what the Russians are doing pales in comparison” to what Beijing is doing.
The US and China have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war, with Trump slapping penalties on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing has retaliated with its own tariffs on American goods, focusing on agricultural products that are crucial to the president’s base in the Midwest.
“They specifically targeted industries and states that would play an important role in the 2018 election,” Pence will say. “By one estimate, more than 80 percent of U. S. counties targeted by China voted for President Trump in 2016; now China wants to turn these voters against our administration.”
Trump accused China of interfering in the election during a speech last week at the United Nations, saying “They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.”
Pence also plans to condemn military actions in the South China Sea that has led the US to accuse the Chinese navy of “unsafe and unprofessional” actions after a Chinese destroyed came within 100 yards of an American warship on Sunday.
“Despite such reckless harassment, the United States Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows and our national interests demand,” Pence will say. “We will not be intimidated; we will not stand down.”
After the confrontation, the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet drew up plans for a show of force to warn China not to threaten the US with military actions and deter any future incidents, CNN reported on Thursday .
The Pacific Fleet will carry out a series of operations in November that will involve sending American warships and aircraft near Chinese territory in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait to demonstrate the right of free passage in the international waters.
With Post Wires
