WASHINGTON — In a Sept. 18 address on China policy, former Vice President Mike Pence said China is close to becoming an “evil empire” and made his case against Republicans embracing “isolationism.”
In remarks at Hudson Institute, Pence argued China has “expanded its many abuses” on multiple fronts including trade, military expansionism and human rights.
“The truth is Communist China is playing to win by any means necessary,” Pence said. “China is our rival. China is our economic adversary. Whether China becomes our enemy depends on choices the American people will make in leadership for our country over the next four years.”
“China is the greatest strategic and economic threat to the United States of America in the 21st century,” he added. “And we must meet that threat with American strength.”
China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the country’s Xinjiang region. China’s government reportedly has detained more than a million people of that population arbitrarily in “reeducation camps” since 2017, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Although Catholics are officially a recognized religion in China, they are a small minority and their worship has been restricted by the government, leading to strained relations between China and the Vatican.
Chinese authorities recently prohibited Catholic bishops and faithful in China from traveling to Mongolia to meet with Pope Francis during his recent papal visit to a small Catholic community in that country on China’s northern border. However some Chinese Catholics defied that order, America magazine reported.
Pence also argued against the U.S. taking an isolationist approach to China and the world stage, arguing that the coming election presents a contrast not just between Democrats and Republicans, but among Republicans.
Pence said that some Republican candidates “including my former running mate,” a reference to former President Donald Trump, “are abandoning the traditional conservative position of American leadership on the world stage and embracing a new and dangerous form of isolationism.”
“I believe isolationism is just another word for appeasement on the world stage,” Pence said. “And appeasement has never worked. The new appeasement Republicans say that America should retreat from her leadership position in the world, turn inward and focus solely on domestic concerns.”
He added that “anyone that says that America cannot solve the challenges facing our people, in our economy, on our border, law and order in our streets, and also be the leader of the free world, has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth. We can do both, just as we have for so many years before.”
Pence said that if the U.S. retreated from a leadership position on the world stage, it would embolden authoritarian regimes like China and Russia.
“If the Republican isolationists are successful in pulling support from Ukraine, if we allow (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to overrun Ukraine, I have no doubt that the day would come soon when Russian forces would cross the border of a NATO ally,” Pence said. “That would require our armed forces to go and fight under Article 5 and the NATO treaty.”
Pence said emboldening Putin would also send “a giant flashing green light for the Chinese invasion of Taiwan.”
“Look, you can either be tough on China or you can be an isolationist,” he said. “You cannot be both.”
