The atmosphere was congenial as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) faced the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a confirmation hearing on Jan. 15.
Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, testified before a committee he has served on for 14 years. He addressed foreign policy questions from friendly colleagues on both sides of the political aisle to move forward with his confirmation process, with the chair and the ranking member of the committee concurring that he is qualified for the job.
As the son of Cuban immigrants who fled communism and built a stable life in the United States, Rubio was critical of the challenges presented by communist regimes such as China. He promised a robust foreign policy agenda that prioritizes U.S. interests and restores the global order that Beijing and other adversarial nations have weaponized to their advantage.
US First
Trump has often described an “America First” outlook when weighing foreign relations.In his opening remarks before the committee, Rubio offered his vision of this America First foreign policy concept. He set the scene by describing a trend since the end of the Cold War—that the United States has moved away from advancing its own national interests to instead serve a “liberal world order.”
Rubio said that in serving this post-Cold War global order, the United States has taken on trade, immigration, and national security policies that have “shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed [U.S.] industrial capacity, and ... pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and of rivals.”
While the United States has often placed the global order above its core national interests, other nations—namely, China—have acted in the opposite way, Rubio said.
“We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, and they took advantage of all of its benefits, and they ignored all of its obligations and responsibilities,” he said.
Rubio said Trump’s election win is a mandate showing that the U.S. public wants “a strong America engaged in the world, but guided by a clear objective to promote peace abroad and security and prosperity here at home.”
China: The ‘Most Potent’ Adversary
China was a centerpiece of the nomination hearing.
A longtime China hawk, Rubio was twice placed on Beijing’s sanctions list in 2020 for his human rights advocacy.
He characterized the Chinese regime as “the most potent and dangerous, near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”
“They have elements that the Soviet Union never possessed,” the prospective incoming secretary said. “They are a technological adversary and competitor—an industrial competitor, economic competitor, geopolitical competitor, a scientific competitor.”
In every realm, he said, the regime poses an extraordinary challenge and one that “will define the 21st century.”
“We’ve allowed them to get away with things, and frankly, the Chinese did what any country in the world would do, given these opportunities—they took advantage of it,“ Rubio said. ”And so I think now we’re dealing with the ramifications of it.”
If the United States doesn’t change course, Rubio said, it will soon head into a world where “much of what matters to us on a daily basis—from our security to our health—will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not.”
Defending Taiwan
As a democratic island just next to the Chinese mainland, Taiwan has faced increasing military harassment from Beijing over the past few years.To deter the longstanding ambition of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to annex Taiwan, Rubio supports what’s called a “porcupine strategy”: to make the price of an invasion too high for Beijing to pay.
Rubio said he was far from being alarmist about the regime’s motives.
“Unless something dramatic changes—like an equilibrium where they conclude that the costs of intervening in Taiwan are too high—we’re going to have to deal with this before the end of this decade,” he said.
Panama Issue ‘Very Serious’
The topic of the Panama Canal also came up during the hearing.Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked if Rubio shared concerns about the canal’s neutrality.
The Panamanian government is “very friendly to the United States and very cooperative, and we want that to continue,” Rubio said. But he added that the concerns are real—and have existed for “at least a decade.”
There are “no independent Chinese companies,” Rubio said. “They all exist because they’ve been identified as national champions. They’re supported by the Chinese government.”
Rubio further noted that the Chinese regime heavily invested in Panama around 2016 and 2017, but the money had strings attached. Panama broke off diplomatic ties with Taiwan in June 2017 and, in a few months, became the first Latin American country to endorse the Belt and Road Initiative, the CCP’s hallmark infrastructure project.
Ukraine War Needs to End
Rubio faced questions about his view of the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, and how the United States should support Ukraine going forward.Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member on the committee, noted Rubio had led U.S. efforts to support Ukraine early on in the war, but voted against a foreign aid package that allocated about $61 billion in Ukraine-related funding and opposed another measure to forgive past loans to Ukraine.
Rubio said his views of the war have changed as the fighting has reached a stalemate. He said that President Joe Biden’s administration had failed to articulate a clear end goal for the conflict.
When pressed to describe the limit of U.S. support for Ukraine, Rubio said the Biden administration’s answer often “sounded like: ‘However much it takes for however long it takes.’”
Trump has repeatedly pushed for negotiations to end the fighting.
Rubio assessed that Russia, Ukraine, and the United States would have to be willing to make concessions to reach this settlement. While broadly backing Trump’s push for talks, Rubio said he’s wary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to maximize Ukrainian neutrality in the negotiations in order to buy time to re-arm his forces to eventually resume the fighting.
“That’s not an outcome I think any of us would favor,” Rubio said.
Cordial Atmosphere
Rubio had an easier time compared to other Trump Cabinet nominees who have faced Senate hearings so far.The top lawmakers on the committee were two of many senators who signaled their approval.
“What you have seen is a nominee that is extremely well-prepared,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said. “We are used to seeing nominees that know a lot about a couple of things and know very little about virtually everything.”
With Rubio, Kaine said, one may “agree or disagree with the points he makes,” but “he is not having to thumb through a binder to figure out how to respond to a particular question.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) noted that, despite their policy disagreements, the two have co-sponsored nearly 60 bills together.
Lee reminisced about the two joining the Senate and the committee simultaneously in 2011, both in their 30s as the youngest members.
“I’m going to make a bold prediction and say that you are likely to be confirmed,” he told Rubio.
Fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz similarly expressed confidence in the support Rubio will get.
The Texas senator said that Rubio will receive an “overwhelming bipartisan vote” and that he expects Rubio’s confirmation to happen as early as Jan. 20, when Trump takes office.
