'The Core Of National Power': Marco Rubio Sounds Alarm On China's Strength In 'Key Core Industries'

Senator Rubio thank you thank you for being here um on this issue of China one of the things that makes it such a unique competitor and and adversary in many ways is unlike the Soviet Union they are not just a military and diplomatic adversary they are a technological industrial commercial um adversary as well and it's the one I want to focus on because I do think it challenges us in our foreign policy apparatus to combine Commerce and trade and Technology iCal matters with geopolitics which are clearly important they've always been important the technological and Industrial High Ground has always been a precursor of of global power so if you look at what China's achieved in the LA 10 years ago maybe even less they let in know none of the Cutting Edge Fields yeah today they dominate the world's electric vehicle markets um and primarily this is a challenge because they're dumping these cars now or threatening to dump these cars and and eviscerate automakers Beyond just electric cars uh outside of China uh they are dominant in energy Fields particularly I think the 80% of the global supply chain for solar um they are technologically a leader in nuclear power in ways that have surpassed our own um and and unfortunately despite the electric cars and nuclear power leadership they're also the world's largest polluter so just think about that but the two I really want to focus on is that I think it really go to the heart of Power number one is by far the other world world's leading ship Builder yeah they're building aircraft carriers they're building uh this Fleet of LG ships they're even building cruise ships uh and I and we all understand that ship building is at the core of the ability to project power not just military but commercial and they are the Undisputed king of basic industrial inputs steel and cement and these things that are not glamorous they don't have Netflix miniseries about steel and cement or ship building but these These are at the core of of National Power they used to be at the core of our national power we don't win World War II without industrial power so how does that fit this whole view of this domination that they're establishing in these key core Industries within our broader confines of something that's not simply military or diplomatic I mean how are we melding that into our strategy because some of these are going to require uh us to lean heavily into our alliances in essence make sure that our allies in some sort of Consortium fashion are not just protecting their domestic Industries but protecting the existence of non Chinese Communist party controlled sources of Steel cement ship building and the other fields that they seek domination is domination and so how does this fit into the broader construct of our strategic uh approach to this challenge great um Senator I just I I I accept and deeply uh support that General worldview that you've just laid out I would just add one or two things on the first part you know there is a huge debate in the kind of in intellectual foreign policy whether this is another cold war right the the one thing I worry about sometimes about that debate is that is that when you say cold war it conjures up views of the struggle we had with the Soviet Union which as you described is really monochromatic it was really in a couple of different sectors and in truth our economy were not linked at all in any way one of the biggest challenges for the United States as it constructs a strategy and I'm going to try to answer the second part of your question is that there are very few countries that are more interdependent than the United States and China and at the same time there are very few countries that are more uncomfortable with that interdependence both the United States and China are both taking steps to ease to remove elements of that connectivity financially manufacturing lines of communication so that's one of the one of the biggest challenges how do you take steps that then don't hurt your own economy but the point that you make I could not agree with you more if if if I look you know in government is about just surveying a list of challenges like how can you figure out what to do about if I would ask the two things that we really need to get our our act together on naval ship building both surface ships but submarines as well when I came into the White House I thought and I believe still do that our submarine program is the jewel in the crown right but one of the things that became clear looking at Aus is how much more and I thank the people at this committee that we had to invest in our own industrial base just to keep up just to get subs back in the water that are in dryy dock we just have to do better and and the truth is there are a lot of reasons why ship building is challenging we've got strong ship building in the Northeast we don't have enough um uh workers we don't have enough um uh capacity generally there are a thousand reasons why naval ship building is challenging I I would like us to think there might be ways that we could work with allies and partners here but it's extremely difficult a lot of domestic legislation but I will tell you when I look at the balance sheet you went through several things Senator but the other the one things you did not mention but you think about it often I know I've heard you speak about this look at the difference in ship building between the United States and China deeply concerning we have to do better in this Arena or we will not be the great Naval power that we need to be for the 21st century I'll say one last thing the 20year engagement in the Middle East was largely about Ground Forces about Army about Special Forces we made all the appropriate Investments we modernized we innovated now is the Navy and the Air Force's time they have to step up they have to invest more they have to be more um uh Innovative they have to be more intrepid and they've got to understand that the indopacific arena requires the most capable Naval and advanced long range air capabilities that the United States has ever needed before and that's that's where we have to put our Focus sorry I didn't mean to go on so long Senator shots