U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state on Wednesday warned China not to further destabilize the Indo-Pacific region, including areas around Taiwan and the Philippines, so that Washington and Beijing can keep cooperating to avoid conflict.
In a confirmation hearing for the post, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is almost sure to become the top U.S. diplomat under the second Trump administration, urged China “to stop messing around with Taiwan and with the Philippines, because it’s forcing us to focus our attention in ways we prefer not to have to.”
Rubio said China wants to establish preeminence in the region, which will have “historical ramifications” for smaller countries.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio speaks during his Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing in Washington on Jan. 15, 2025. (Getty/Kyodo)
He asserted that China basically believes “all roads lead back to Beijing,” but noted that countries such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam do not view themselves as “tributary states.”
The 53-year-old Republican, who has served in the Senate since 2011, said that ensuring “a proper geopolitical balance between the United States and China” should be at the core of Washington’s strategy to prevent any sort of conflict.
His nomination hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee lasted about five hours, during which questions about China dominated.
Regarding Taiwan, he said the United States must make China understand that the cost of invading the self-ruled island would be higher than the benefit.
“I think that’s critical, not just to defending Taiwan (but) to preventing a cataclysmic military intervention in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
If confirmed, Rubio, born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, would be the first Latino to assume the post.
Known as a prominent hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, he has extensive experience on diplomatic and intelligence issues, including being a longtime member of the Senate committee.
Unlike many of Trump’s Cabinet nominations, Rubio’s selection is uncontroversial and has won backing even from Democrats, making him likely to win confirmation without a hitch.
In his opening statement at the committee, he underscored that prioritizing U.S. national interests above all else is not a stance of isolationism.
“While America far too often continued to prioritize the global order above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way nations have always acted and always will, in what they perceive to be in their best interest,” he said.
“We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, and they took advantage of all its benefits…(and) ignored all its obligations and responsibilities,” he said.
“Instead, they have repressed and lied, cheated and hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, and they have done so at our expense and at the expense of the people of their own country,” he added.
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