Sen. Hawley: We have to change our relationship with China and the best time to do it is now
Homeland Security Committee member Sen. Josh Hawley weighs in on escalating tensions with China.
Senate Homeland Security Committee member Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told "The Story" Wednesday that Democrats who attack President Trump's criticisms of China over that government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic shoud "come back to planet Earth."
"China is the single greatest national security threat to this country in the 21st Century," Hawley told host Martha MacCallum. "More than that, they are the single greatest economic threat."
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Hawley told "The Story" on Wednesday that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California are "not living in reality" if they think Trump's tough stance toward Beijing is meant to shift blame from his own actions.
On May 5, Schumer asked Trump rhetorically, "even if [coronavirus] came from China, why didn't you do something about it?" Nine days later, Pelosi described the administration's stance toward China as an "interesting diversion."
"I would say that if you think China is a diversion from the challenges the United States faces, than you are not living in reality," Hawley responded, later adding: "We've got to change our relationship with China and the time to do it is right now."
Hawley explained that since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, America's leaders have turned a blind eye to the fact the U.S. has been hemorrhaging jobs to China for decades.
"They said [joining the WTO] will liberalize China and it will be good for the United States. Well, guess what, that was 3 million jobs ago -- 3 million jobs lost to China," Hawley said.
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"I would just ask those folks, open your eyes, come out to Missouri, see what the effects of Chinese cheating in the WTO has been. This isn't about withdrawing [from] the world, this is about rallying the free world to stand up to China."
Hawley added that while the U.S. and China will never be able to "fully decouple" their economies, the focus must be on "building new partnerships, new alliances with free nations to say, 'We are going to build a better economic system internationally that will protect our workers, protect our jobs and resist Chinese imperialism.'
"It is urgent, the time is now."
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