Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has singled out the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the biggest threat facing the United States today while vowing to end its alliance with Russia if he wins the 2024 election.
Mr. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, made the comments while outlining his foreign policy plans for the United States during a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California on Aug. 17.
The 2024 GOP hopeful repeatedly referenced the 37th U.S. president during his speech, noting his attempts to improve relations and reduce the chances of a Cold War between the United States and its two communist opponents, the Soviet Union and China, during his time in office.
At one point, he referenced President Nixon’s historic meeting on Feb. 21–28, 1972, with former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, which subsequently ended more than two decades of stalled communications between the United States and China
However, Mr. Ramaswamy stressed we are no longer in the 1970s, and said America needs to “awaken to the real threats that we face now”: the Russia-China military alliance.
He also noted America’s increasing dependence on Chinese technology and called the CPP the nation’s biggest “enemy,” adding that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “has his autocratic boot on our necks through the legs of the CCP.”
Mr. Ramaswamy vowed, if elected as U.S. president, not to allow the CPP to hold Americans “hostage,” and to make semiconductor independency one of his top priorities.
While speaking about his foreign policy, Mr. Ramaswamy said it would be akin to a “modern Monroe Doctrine,” under which the United States would make it clear that “if you’re a foreign nation, you do not mess with the United States of America on our own home soil, you do not test us on our waters or in the Western Hemisphere.”
Nations who do “will have hell to pay,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
‘No Chinese Spy Balloons’ Flying Over US
If he were to win the 2024 election, Mr. Ramaswamy also vowed there would be “no Chinese spy balloons flying over half the United States, no Chinese spy bases off the southeast coast of the United States,” and “no Chinese-manufactured fentanyl in the hands of Mexican drug cartels waging a modern opium war” on America.Mr. Ramaswamy later told the audience he himself had conducted business in China and also studied there while an exchange student at Harvard University.
Under his leadership, the United States also would not fight in “somebody else’s war if they’re not actually defending their territory either,” Mr. Ramaswamy said, before promising that, once in office, he would end the war in Ukraine “on terms that advance American interests.”
To do this, Mr. Ramaswamy said he would come to an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin “to exit his military alliance with China,” noting that this is a “reverse move of what Nixon did.”
“While we have a foreign policy establishment in both parties, including [President Joe] Biden who tries to supplicate to China to get Xi Jinping to drop Vladimir Putin, what we really need to be doing is getting Vladimir Putin to drop Xi Jinping,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
Under a deal with President Putin, Mr. Ramaswamy said he would “freeze the current lines of control” in Ukraine and bar Ukraine’s entry to NATO in return for President Putin agreeing to exit its military alliance with China, remove its weapons from Kaliningrad, the strip of Russia that borders Poland, and remove its military presence in the Western hemisphere.
The United States would then reopen economic relations with Russia, although Mr. Ramaswamy acknowledged this would likely embolden Chinese leader Xi Jinping to invade Taiwan.
However, the Republican believes that the loss of support from Russia would also likely work to deter China from invading the self-ruling island.
Declaration of Independence From China
Mr. Ramaswamy, who announced his presidential bid in February, has repeatedly touted cutting ties with China during his campaign.Prior to his Aug. 17. speech, Mr. Ramaswamy told Forbes that America is too dependent on its adversary who he said “is fundamentally hostile to the United States” and vowed to end relations with the CCP.
While speaking at the Iowa State Fair over the weekend, the GOP candidate also vowed to sign a Declaration of Independence from China if he were to be elected as president.
Responding to Mr. Ramaswamy’s speech on Aug. 17, Democrats said the GOP hopeful has “repeatedly made clear that he has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to foreign policy and standing with our allies.”
“His foreign policy ‘plan’ includes letting China invade Taiwan, rewarding Putin for his bloody war in Ukraine, and leaving the United Nations,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement.
The statement went on to accuse Mr. Ramaswamy of “cozying up to China when it benefited his business.”
Mr. Ramaswamy is currently polling in third place in most national polls, behind leading candidates former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
