Vice President Says America Will Not Back Down to China Until IP Theft, Forced Tech Transfer End

Vice President Mike Pence said American voters will not be swayed by Chinese propaganda and tariffs aimed at rural Republican constituencies, and that the administration will keep escalating tariffs on China until abuses end. "Our message to China's rulers is this president will not back down," Pence said Oct. 4 at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. "We'll continue to take action against Beijing until the theft of American intellectual property ends once and for all. And we will continue to stand strong until Beijing stops the predatory practice of forced technology transfer."

"The Chinese Communist party has .... used an arsenal of policies inconsistent with free and fair trade, including tariffs, currency manipulation, forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and industrial subsidies that are handed out like candy to foreign investors. These have built the Chinese manufacturing base at the expense of its competitors, especially the United States of America."

Pence, unlike his boss, did not attack past administrations for allowing China into the world trading system. "Previous administrations made this choice in the hope that freedom in China would expand in all its forms." But, Pence said, instead, China is becoming more authoritarian, adding that surveillance is becoming Orwellian in China.

Pence said China is leaning on American businesses to speak out against tariffs on Chinese goods, and he said in one case, the government denied a license to a U.S. corporation to convince it to speak out against the policy. But, he said, even so, "a new consensus is rising on China. More business leaders are thinking beyond the next quarter, and are thinking twice before diving into the Chinese market if it means turning over their intellectual property or abetting China's oppression." Pence said China's rulers can still change course and return to a spirit of reform and opening. "America is reaching out our hand to China, and we hope soon, China will reach back with deeds, not words."