Gov. Ron DeSantis is ready to escalate tensions with China should he get elected President.
In comments in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the Republican candidate said “hard power” and an increased U.S. presence in the region was necessary to check Beijing’s ambitions.
“I’d like to do more to invest more in our military. I think we need to project more hard power in the Pacific region because at the end of the day, all China respects is hard power,” DeSantis said. “You’re not going to negotiate with them. Janet Yellen is saying, ‘Well, this is just a friendly competition with China.’ China is eating our lunch and we’re letting it happen.”
DeSantis has taken a dovish position on helping Ukraine repel the ongoing Russian invasion, but he has been a hawk on the China question throughout the 2024 campaign.
During remarks in New Hampshire last month, the Governor argued “NATO allies don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye with us about our foremost threat, which is China.”
“You have some like the Brits and the Poles, they get it and I think that they’re with us on that. But you have others like France and Germany that, they think being more friendly with Xi (Jinping) is the right way to go, that China doesn’t really represent a threat,” DeSantis said.
“We can’t underwrite security for all of Europe while they don’t necessarily share our interests in terms of our posture in the Pacific, which is the most important threat we’re going to face as an American.”
Before launching his campaign, DeSantis told “Fox & Friends” viewers about his serious concerns with Joe Biden’s Ukraine policy, including a potential “proxy war” with Beijing and an open-ended war with no seeming strategic objective.
“They have effectively a blank check policy with no clear strategic objective identified and these things can escalate. And I don’t think it’s in our interest to be getting into a proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea,” the Governor said in February.
The Sino-skeptic DeSantis has taken action on the state level to curb China’s influence. Earlier this year, he signed legislation cracking down on China and other hostile nations — Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Syria, Cuba and North Korea — buying land near military bases and critical infrastructure. He also signed a bill blocking universities from making arrangements with those same countries.
“The CCP has done a really effective job of identifying some of the soft underbelly of American society,” DeSantis said in May when he signed the bills. “In Florida, we say, not here, not now, under our watch.”
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