Is Marco Rubio using his China expertise to copy CCP behavior rather than to counter it?
Seems so: Rubio mimicks CCP tactics with free speech suppression, arbitrary detention, privacy intrusion and democracy de-emphasizing
Most everyone assumed Marco Rubio, as Secretary of State, was going to be tough on China. They pointed to his muscular statements about the evils of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). All his legislation designed to deter and punish “malign” CCP influence. All his bills intended to help Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers.
Rubio spent 14 years in the Senate watching and analyzing China. For 10 of those years he served as the top Senate Republican on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a body that monitors and reports on the Chinese government’s behavior on human rights and rule of law. For four years he was Vice-Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a long-time member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Could it be that all the time Marco Rubio spent studying Chinese government behavior, he was learning how to import CCP tactics into the United States, rather than to protect Americans from them?
Look at what he has done so far:
Rubio has signed 300 letters cancelling the visas of students and others since taking office, for “taking activities that are counter to our foreign, to our national interest, to our foreign policy.” Rubio is copying the CCP behavior of punishing people for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly[1] despite the fact that U.S. and international law protects such rights.
Secretary Rubio said the students are being targeted because they “create a ruckus for us.” Rubio’s phrase is a synonym for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” which is (translated) the name of an actual crime under Article 293 of the PRC Criminal Code.
Ironically, Rubio criticized the Chinese government for using the “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” charge against Zhang Zhan, Pu Zhiqiang, Huang Xueqin, Cao Shunli and others -- the same reason he is now using to punish students in the U.S.
Some of the people Rubio has targeted have been arrested by plain-clothes security forced, detained without criminal charge, and moved to a distant detention center. Examples include the cases of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk. Rubio is copying the CCP behavior of using secret police to detain people, keep them in arbitrary detention[2] (without charge), and keep them in unknown, distant or inaccessible detention centers.
Secretary Rubio directed authorities to search the social media history of foreigners on student visas in order to determine which ones to revoke, based on whether they said something that was contrary to the politics of the Ruling Party. Rubio is copying the CCP behavior of checking people’s social media history to determine whether they may face adverse action from police, including by immigration/border authorities.
Secretary Rubio is requiring foreign companies to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within their firms as a condition for doing business with the US government. In imposing a mandate that foreign companies conform to the political position of the Ruling Party, Rubio is copying the CCP practice of mandating that foreign companies conform to the Party’s ideology and using government power to penalize foreign companies that engage in behavior contrary to its ideology, such as under the PRC’s anti-foreign sanctions law.
Secretary Rubio is overseeing the forcible deportation of people to countries where they likely face persecution, in violation of the fundamental principle of non-refoulement and U.S. legal obligations. Examples include the illegal deportation of Venezuelans to El Salvador where they are housed in deplorable prison conditions, and the possible deportation of Chinese nationals to China. Rubio is copying the CCP tactic of seeking deportation of people to places where they would face harm, such as the refoulment of refugees to North Korea or its success in convincing Thailand to send 48 Uyghur refugees to the PRC, despite Rubio’s hyper-hypocritical appeals for them not to.[3]
Secretary Rubio is overseeing a cancellation of democracy promotion as a function of U.S. foreign policy, such as through actions to defund the National Endowment for Democracy and eliminate the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance in its dismantling of USAID. Rubio is copying the CCP foreign policy strategy of undermining support for democracy around the world.
This is just an incomplete list of ways in which Marco Rubio is mimicking the CCP behaviors that he verbally criticizes. There is also the growing list of gifts that Trump and Rubio are giving to Chinese leaders, by eliminating institutions and programs that counter CCP influence.
Policymakers need to take a hard look at the substance and the consequence of what Marco Rubio is doing in implementing the Trump agenda. Domestically, he is doing his part to import CCP-style authoritarian practices into the United States. On foreign policy, he is undermining America’s standing in the rest of world vis-à-vis competition with China by blurring the behavioral distinctions between the Chinese government and the U.S. government.
[1] This citation is from the CECC’s 2018 Annual Report from when Rubio was Chair, showing that he knows what denial of freedom of speech and assembly looks like.
[2] Another citation from the Rubio-drafted CECC 2018 Annual Report, showing that he knows what arbitrary detention looks like.
[3] Why, after detaining them for 10 years, did the Thai government now decide to refoul the Uyghurs to China? My guess is that the Thais assessed that the pro-deportation and Xi-curious Trump Administration wouldn’t really care if they deported them. Rubio did issue sanctions against Thai officials for the refoulement. But I’m curious why Rubio didn’t announce this accountability measure before, to deter their deportation, rather than after they were already in danger back in the PRC.