In an interview on Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reportedly stated that the United States has to become economically independent from China and that he would be prepared to employ tariffs to pressure the communist country to change.
During an interview with Fox News anchor Kayleigh McEnany, DeSantis made the comments.
“I think we need to reestablish our economic sovereignty. I think we need to produce more critical items here in the United States. And I think they have a huge amount of leverage over us because of really policy choices that have been made over many decades.” DeSantis said.
“In reality, it hollowed out parts of our country, it made China very rich, and what has Xi used that money for? To build up more military capacity. He now has grand ambitions, not just in the Pacific, but even in our own hemisphere. And we see news where China is going to be working with Cuba to establish eavesdropping, maybe a military outpost, that’s a huge, huge threat to this country.” the Florida governor continued.
“So yes, we need to declare independence from China economically. And we need to make sure that we have the ability to project the appropriate strength in the Pacific to work with our allies to deter China. China understands the language of strength. And I think what Joe Biden has done since his first day in office, he’s projected weakness. A lot of bad actors around the world see that. And that really whets their appetite to be able to do things that are going to be very harmful for the world.” he concluded.
[READ MORE: DeSantis Films New Ad on Location in San Francisco in Which He Shreds the State’s Liberal Policies]
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