Rubio Brings China Realism To The State Department

11/12/2024 7:05:57 AM

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Marco Rubio will be the next Secretary of State in the second trump administration, according to media reports.

The senior senator from Florida presents as a vociferous China hawk, like the whole of his Republican party, but with a key distinction: In September, Rubio published a 60-page report,“The World China Made ,” with a comprehensive and painstakingly researched analysis of China's economic success.

Some commentators already speculate that the selection of a bona fide China hawk like Rubio might prepare a grand bargain with China, like Nixon's 1972 China trip.

A credible anti-Communist like Nixon could make a deal with China without accusations of selling out, and Secretary of State Rubio could repeat the exercise, according to this line of thinking. Without second-guessing the incoming president's negotiating strategy with China, Rubio's published thoughts about China speak for themselves.

Full disclosure: the report cites Asia Times and this writer in particular, including our groundbreaking analysis of China's export success in the Global South. By building factories in third countries, China circumvented the Trump and Biden tariffs by building supply chains for Vietnam, Mexico, India and other countries to export to the United States.

A bright line divides realists from Utopians among Washington's China hawks. Neo-conservatives like Dan Blumenthal , popular publicists like Gordon Chang and Peter Zeihan, and true believers like former Secretary of State and CIA director Michael Pompeo believe that China is about to collapse and that the United States should hasten the fall by confronting China militarily and economically.

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