Countering China requires decisive action, not words and flattery – here’s how I’ll do it as president

President Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, courtesy of Governor Gavin Newsom’s rolling out the red carpet for the communist leader.

If his administration’s record is any indicator, Biden will focus more on flattering Xi than holding his regime accountable.

His cabinet has hounded Chinese officials around the world, only to bow down, sing their praises and make concessions when meetings are finally secured.

The president seems content to manage America’s decline rather than take on China and win this decisive decade.

Time is running out to act and prevent China from overtaking the United States as the world’s first superpower.

As president, I will restore American strength on the world stage and focus our attention and resources on deterring Xi’s Chinese Communist Party, the greatest economic and security threat facing the United States today.

My goal is simple: we win and they lose.

Both American parties have wrongly treated China as a friendly competitor, allowing a hostile Marxist regime to exploit our openness and steal our technology, jobs, industries, and assets through trade abuses, currency manipulation, and slave labor.

It has allowed Beijing’s defense budget and military to rival Washington’s, putting China on track to overtake us economically.

The wealth and power ceded to Beijing has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to expand its malign influence globally, including in Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Western Hemisphere.

We must ensure that the United States economy remains the largest and most dynamic on Earth.

While China has increased its influence in our backyard, our foreign policy establishment simply talks tough.

The Biden administration says it is cracking down but continues to pursue detente, without accountability for China’s spy balloon, COVID-19, cyber breaches, military provocations or abuses against the Uyghurs.

Xi’s CCP continues to steal our capabilities, undermine our economy, and displace the United States on the world stage.

Enough is enough.

While adversaries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea threaten the United States and must be countered, China is our primary national security threat.

When examining the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, who is Russia’s main sponsor?

Porcelain.

If you look at what’s happening in Gaza with Hamas, much of the terrorism is funded by Iran, whose regime is ultimately funded through black market oil sales to China.

And China supports and protects the totalitarian regime of North Korea.

We must address China’s behavior to effectively counter these other threats.

It is time for a complete, top-to-bottom restructuring of American national security priorities.

American power must have concrete objectives, not murky missions or misguided agendas.

We cannot spend blood and treasure without clear objectives.

As president, I will act decisively to achieve defined goals.

The United States will be a strong ally to nations that share our interests.

Those who seek to harm us will not find a worse enemy.

The threat posed by China will require a whole-of-government response.

I will stop the flow of American capital and technology that strengthens the Chinese military.

Our trade policy will defend our workers, supply chains and essential industries.

My Treasury and Commerce Secretaries will focus on American interests, not Wall Street’s access to Chinese markets.

I will create an Office of Economic Security and Competition to prioritize the reshoring and offshoring of critical production, protecting technologies and reducing dependence on adversaries.

I will defend American workers and innovators from illicit technology transfer and intellectual property theft.

I will align capital with our interests, not those of the Chinese Communist Party.

I will protect our homeland.

As I did in Florida, I will ban Chinese purchases of farmland and property near critical infrastructure, counter espionage and cyber threats, block the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in our institutions and through malicious use of data and applications, and enact policies of reciprocity so that China cannot exploit our openness. society to our detriment.

Peace can only be achieved through force.

While some say that deterring China extends to other parts of the world, my view is a little simpler: if we want to deter China, we must deter China.

I will rebuild the American military, from conventional weapons to nuclear and space capabilities.

Increased shipbuilding will strengthen our resilience and deterrence, and closer collaboration with regional partners will form a united front against Chinese coercion.

I will champion a four-ocean Navy to accelerate naval expansion, directing the rapid construction of more Virginia-class attack submarines, Arleigh Burke destroyers, amphibious ships, and unmanned underwater vehicles.

I will raise land-based missiles with my allies in the Indo-Pacific as a “ring of fire” to deter Chinese aggression and invest in ports in the region to ensure free and fair access to the seas.

I will help allies and partners develop their defense capabilities when they want to invest in themselves to secure our shared interests.

My administration will focus on how to surpass China in innovation, production and competition in future industries.

The United States will win the 21st century technology race in artificial intelligence, quantum, 5G/6G, hypersonics, advanced automation, satellite and sensor technology.

The United States will lead the free world in exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses, surveillance, and censorship.

I will hold China accountable for its unfair practices, counter its political influence, and defend true American values.

We will support those who defend freedom from Taiwan to Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

Cooperation will require a change in behavior from Beijing, not empty rhetoric.

China’s responsibility is to stop its aggressive actions if it wants to normalize its relations.

We will respond to his words with skepticism until they come true.

The message to China will be clear: the era of appeasement is over.

I will defend our vital national interests and our allies.

With strength and clarity of purpose, we will protect our nation.

Vision and leadership will triumph.

My strategy will safeguard our heritage of freedom, inspire our friends, and deter our enemies.

The 21st century will be ours to shape.

We will rekindle the spirit that makes America exceptional.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a Republican candidate for president.