Vice President Mike Pence’s Speech on U.S. China Policy: Full Text Translation
Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C., October 4, 2018
Opening Remarks
I want to thank Kenneth Weinstein, President and CEO of the Hudson Institute, for that introduction. My thanks to the Board of Directors, Dr. Michael Pillsbury, and all our distinguished guests. I am honored to speak at an organization devoted to “advancing human freedom, prosperity, and security” across the globe.
For nearly half a century, the Hudson Institute has worked toward these noble aims. Though your leadership has changed over the years, one thing has remained constant: your commitment to seeking truth while promoting American leadership as a light guiding us forward.
Today, in speaking about leadership, I bring greetings from President Donald Trump—America’s 45th President and an advocate for strong American leadership both at home and abroad.
The Presidential Initiative
When President Trump took office, he placed high priority on our relationship with China and with Chinese President Xi Jinping. On April 6 of last year, President Trump met President Xi at Mar-a-Lago. On November 8, President Trump traveled to Beijing, where Chinese leaders received him warmly and with courtesy.
Over these past two years, our President has built a strong personal relationship with the President of the People’s Republic of China. They have worked together on matters of mutual interest—most importantly, advancing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
I am here today because the American people have a right to know this: At this very moment, Beijing is employing whole-government strategies, wielding political, economic, military, and propaganda tools to advance its influence and interests within the United States.
Moreover, China is more actively wielding its power than ever to influence and interfere with American domestic policy and politics.
The New Strategy Under Trump
Under President Trump’s leadership, America has begun taking decisive action using our principles and policies to counter Chinese conduct.
Last December, President Trump released the National Security Strategy addressing a new era of “great power competition.” Foreign powers are “reshaping their influence” in their regions and globally, “challenging America’s geopolitical advantages and attempting to modify the international order to suit their interests.”
Within this strategic framework, President Trump made clear: The United States has adopted a new policy toward China. We seek relationships that are fair, reciprocal, and based on mutual respect for sovereignty. We have begun taking swift and strong action to achieve this goal.
During his China visit, President Trump stated: “We have an opportunity to strengthen both nations and improve the lives of our peoples.” Our vision for the future builds on history’s better moments, when America and China engaged openly and amicably.
Historical Context: A Relationship Reexamined
Early American-Chinese Relations
After the American Revolution, as our young nation sought new export markets, Chinese merchants opened doors to American traders carrying ginseng, furs, and other goods. This early commercial relationship demonstrated mutual benefit and respect.
The Open Door Policy Era:
During China’s “Century of Humiliation,” when foreign powers exploited Chinese weakness, America refused to participate in colonization. Instead, America championed the “Open Door Policy,” enabling freer trade and respecting Chinese sovereignty. American missionaries came to China’s shores, attracted by its ancient, vibrant civilization.
American education and faith-based institutions established some of China’s earliest and finest universities. These missionaries brought not only gospel but also educational advancement.
The Allied Partnership:
As World War II began, America and China stood together against imperial aggression. After victory, America ensured China received a permanent United Nations Security Council seat—making it a crucial force in the postwar world order.
The Post-1949 Divergence
However, after the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, history took a different turn.
It is difficult to imagine that five years after fighting as allies, our forces clashed in Korea’s mountains and valleys. My father participated in that struggle for freedom.
Yet even the brutal Korean War did not extinguish our shared desire to restore connections between our peoples. China and America’s isolation ended in 1972. Shortly thereafter, we restored diplomatic relations and established trade connections. American universities began training new generations of Chinese engineers, business leaders, scholars, and officials.
The Post-Cold War Expectation
After the Soviet Union’s collapse, many believed China would inevitably move toward freedom.
With such optimism, America opened its doors to China as the new century approached. We welcomed China into the World Trade Organization, hoping that economic opening would inevitably lead to political freedom as well.
The Hope That Failed:
Previous administrations made this decision expecting that Chinese openness would spread across all sectors—not merely economically, but politically. They believed China would embrace traditional liberal principles: respect for private property, individual freedom, religious freedom, and human rights.
This hope has been betrayed.
The Failure of the Liberalization Narrative
The Chinese people’s hope for freedom has not been realized. Beijing still speaks about “Reform and Opening Up,” but Deng Xiaoping’s famous policy has become hollow.
Economic Asymmetry:
Over the past seventeen years, China’s GDP has increased ninefold, making it the world’s second-largest economy. This enormous growth occurred largely because of American investment in China.
Yet the Chinese Communist Party employed policies inconsistent with free and fair trade:
- Tariffs and quotas
- Currency manipulation
- Forced technology transfer
- Intellectual property theft
- Industrial subsidies
These policies built China’s manufacturing foundation primarily at the expense of competitors, especially America.
The Trade Deficit Crisis:
China’s actions have produced a massive trade deficit for America. Last year this reached $375 billion—nearly half our entire global trade deficit. As President Trump stated this week: Over the past 25 years, we essentially rebuilt China.
China 2025 and Industrial Dominance
The Strategic Pivot:
Through “Made in China 2025,” the Chinese Communist Party seeks to control 90% of the world’s most advanced industries—including robotics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence.
To win leadership in the 21st century economy, Beijing has directed its industrial officials and business leaders to acquire American intellectual property by any means necessary. This represents the foundation of America’s economic leadership.
Corporate Coercion:
Beijing now demands that American companies seeking to do business in China surrender their trade secrets. China pressures companies into forced joint ventures to access their innovations. Most alarmingly, Chinese security apparatus possess vast capabilities to steal American technology—including our most advanced military designs.
Using this stolen technology, the CCP is rapidly converting its military from quantity to quality. China’s military spending exceeds that of every other Asian nation combined. Beijing has made containing American power its primary military objective across land, sea, air, space, and beyond. China seeks to exclude America from the Western Pacific and prevent our assistance to allies.
But they will fail.
Military Expansion and Regional Aggression
Beijing is wielding its power assertively as never before. Chinese vessels regularly patrol near the Senkaku Islands, which Japan administers.
Despite President Xi’s 2015 statement in the Rose Garden that his nation “had no intention of militarizing the South China Sea,” today Beijing deploys advanced anti-ship and air defense missiles on artificial islands.
The Recent Confrontation:
This week, Chinese recklessness demonstrated aggressive intent. A Chinese military vessel approached the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Decatur conducting freedom of navigation operations. The vessels came within 45 yards of each other, forcing our ship to take emergency evasive action.
Despite such reckless harassment, America’s Navy will continue flying, sailing, and operating where international law permits and our national interests require. We will not be intimidated. We will not retreat. (Applause)
Hopes Betrayed: Economic Aggression and Military Buildup
America had hoped that economic liberalization would create better partnerships. Instead, China chose economic aggression, strengthening its already-expanding military.
The Domestic Freedom Deficit:
Beijing has not expanded personal freedom as we hoped. Previously, Beijing gradually moved toward greater freedom and greater respect for human rights.
Recent years show a troubling reversal. China has enacted increasingly pervasive surveillance and control systems with expanding scope and invasiveness, often using American technology. The “Great Firewall of China” grows ever more restrictive, severely limiting Chinese citizens’ access to free information.
The Surveillance and Control State
By 2020, China’s rulers intend to implement an Orwellian system called “Social Credit Scores”—systems designed to monitor and control virtually all aspects of individual life.
In the official language of this blueprint: The system will “allow the creditable to enjoy the benefits of heaven, and make it impossible for the untrustworthy to take a single step.”
Religious Persecution Intensifies:
On religious freedom, Chinese Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims face a new wave of persecutions.
Last month, Beijing shut down one of China’s largest underground churches. Across the country, authorities demolish crosses, burn Bibles, and imprison believers. Beijing has even reached agreement with the Vatican, allowing the openly atheistic Communist Party direct involvement in appointing Catholic bishops.
For Chinese Christians, these are desperate times.
The Tibetan and Uyghur Crises:
Beijing is also suppressing Buddhism. Over the past decade, more than 150 Tibetan monks self-immolated protesting Chinese suppression of their faith and culture.
In Xinjiang, the Communist Party has imprisoned up to one million Uyghur Muslims in political camps. Survivors describe ceaseless brainwashing. Beijing explicitly aims to extinguish Uyghur culture and eliminate Muslim faith.
History teaches us: Nations that oppress their own people rarely stop there. Beijing attempts to extend its unprecedented control worldwide.
China’s Global Influence Operations
As Hudson researcher Dr. Michael Pillsbury has written: “China opposes American government actions and objectives. Indeed, China is building its own relationships with American allies and adversaries—relationships wholly at odds with any Beijing claim to peaceful or positive intent.”
Debt-Trap Diplomacy:
China deploys so-called “debt diplomacy” to expand its influence. Today, China provides hundreds of billions in infrastructure loans to governments across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
But these loans’ terms are opaque at best, with benefits flowing overwhelmingly to Beijing.
The Sri Lanka Model:
Ask Sri Lanka, which borrowed vast sums to fund a port of questionable commercial value built by Chinese state enterprises. Two years later, unable to repay, Beijing forced Sri Lanka to hand over the port. This facility will likely soon become a forward operational base for China’s expanding blue-water navy.
The Venezuela Connection:
In our hemisphere, Beijing has provided a lifeline to Venezuela’s corrupt, incompetent Maduro regime with $5 billion in potentially repayable loans. China is Venezuela’s single largest creditor, burdening Venezuelans with over $50 billion in debt. Beijing also directly supports political parties and candidates committed to advancing China’s strategic objectives, corrupting local political processes.
Since last year, the CCP has persuaded three Latin American nations to abandon Taiwan, transferring diplomatic recognition to Beijing. These actions threaten stability across the Taiwan Strait—conduct the United States condemns.
While our government honors the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act reflecting America’s “One China” policy, America firmly believes that Taiwan’s embrace of democracy offers all Chinese people a better path. (Applause)
The Broader Strategic Reality
These represent merely some ways China pursues strategic interests globally. Yet previous administrations largely ignored such actions—often actively facilitating them.
Those days have ended.
The Trump Administration’s Response
Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has renewed American strength to defend our interests.
Military Strengthening:
We are making the world’s most powerful military even stronger. Earlier this year, President Trump signed legislation providing our defense spending the largest increase since the Reagan era—$716 billion—to strengthen American military capabilities across all domains.
We are modernizing our nuclear arsenal. We are deploying and developing new advanced fighter jets and bombers. We are building new-generation aircraft carriers and destroyers. Our investment in armed forces is unprecedented. This includes initiating the process to establish the U.S. Space Force to ensure our space dominance continues.
We have authorized enhanced cyber capabilities to create deterrence against our adversaries.
Trade Enforcement:
On President Trump’s direction, we have implemented tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods, with the highest tariffs specifically targeting advanced industries Beijing seeks to monopolize. The President has made clear: We will impose additional tariffs at significantly higher levels—potentially doubling current amounts—unless a fair and reciprocal agreement is reached.
Results:
These actions exercise American strength with major impact. China’s largest stock market declined 25% in the first nine months of this year—primarily due to this administration’s firm stance on Beijing’s trade behavior.
As President Trump has made clear: We do not wish for China’s market to suffer. In fact, we hope their markets prosper. But America demands that Beijing pursue free, fair, and reciprocal trade policies. We will continue pressing for exactly that. (Applause)
Beijing’s Response: Election Interference Operations
Regrettably, China’s rulers have thus far refused that path. The American people should know: In response to President Trump’s firm actions, Beijing is directing a comprehensive, coordinated campaign to undermine support for the President, our agenda, and our nation’s most cherished ideals.
Today I want to detail actions China has taken domestically—some gathered from intelligence assessments, others publicly available. But all are factual.
As I have said, at this very moment Beijing employs whole-government methods to advance influence and pursue interests. Beijing is increasingly using coercion to interfere with American domestic policy and politics.
The Corporate and Institutional Pressure:
Today, China’s communist government is rewarding or coercing American businesses, movie studios, universities, think tanks, scholars, journalists, and local, state, and federal officials.
Most troubling: China has launched an unprecedented campaign to influence American public opinion, the 2018 elections, and the environment ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Frankly, President Trump’s leadership is working. China prefers a different American president.
Without question, China is interfering with American democracy.
Specific Evidence of Interference
The Intelligence Assessment:
As President Trump stated last week: We have “discovered China attempting to interfere in our 2018 midterm elections.”
Our intelligence community reports: “China is targeting American state and local governments and officials, seeking to exploit policy differences between federal and local governments. China is using divisive issues—trade tariffs especially—to advance Beijing’s political influence.”
Last June, Beijing issued a sensitive document called “Propaganda and Guidance Notice,” which outlined its strategy explicitly. The directive stated: China must “strike precisely” and divide different American groups.
To accomplish this, Beijing deploys covert operatives, front organizations, and propaganda apparatus to change American perceptions of Chinese policy. A senior intelligence official recently told me that compared to what China is doing across America, Russian activities are “small potatoes.”
Corporate Leverage:
Chinese officials attempt to use American business leaders’ desire to maintain China operations as leverage, pressuring them to criticize our trade actions. Recently, they threatened a major American company, warning that unless it publicly opposed American government policy, Beijing would not approve its China business license.
Electoral Targeting:
Regarding influence on the 2018 midterms, one need only examine Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs. China specifically targets industries and states likely to play significant roles in 2018. Over 80% of counties China chose to hit supported President Trump in 2016. Now China hopes to turn those voters against our administration.
Direct Appeals to Americans:
China also appeals directly to American voters. Last week, the Chinese government purchased multiple full pages in the Des Moines Register—Iowa’s major newspaper and home state of America’s China ambassador. Significantly, Iowa is a key 2018 battleground state. These advertisements mimicked news reporting, describing our trade policy as “reckless” and harmful to Iowans.
Fortunately, Americans see through this. American farmers, for example, stand with the President—and are witnessing concrete results from his firm stance, including this week’s announcement of the USMCA, which substantially opens North American markets to American products. The USMCA represents a major victory for American farmers and manufacturers. (Applause)
Corporate Coercion and Market Manipulation
Yet China’s actions extend beyond influencing policy and politics. Beijing uses economic leverage and market access to pressure American business.
Joint Venture “Party Cells”:
Beijing now demands American joint ventures operating in China establish so-called “Party Organizations” within their companies, granting the Communist Party say, even veto power, over hiring and investment decisions.
Censorship and Ideological Control:
Chinese authorities threaten American companies describing Taiwan as a distinct geographic entity or departing from Beijing’s Tibet policy. Beijing forced Delta Air Lines to apologize for describing Taiwan as “one of China’s provinces” rather than a province per se. Beijing forced Marriott to fire an American employee who merely retweeted a post mentioning Tibet.
Hollywood Censorship:
Beijing routinely demands Hollywood depict China positively. Studios failing to comply face punishment. Beijing’s censors quickly edit or ban any film containing even minor China criticism.
For example:
- World War Z was forced to remove a plot element involving a virus originating in China
- Red Dawn was digitally altered, changing the antagonist from Chinese to North Korean forces
The Propaganda Apparatus
Beyond business and entertainment, the Chinese Communist Party spends billions funding American propaganda outlets across the nation.
China Radio International now broadcasts pro-Beijing programming on 30+ American radio stations, many in major U.S. cities.
China Global Television Network reaches 75 million Americans, receiving direct operational orders from CCP leadership. When China’s top leader visited this network’s headquarters, he stated explicitly: “Media run by the Party and government are propaganda fronts that must belong to the Party.”
For these reasons and this reality, the Justice Department last month ordered this network to register as a foreign agent.
Conclusion: The Path Ahead
The American people deserve to know what we have discovered: China is actively interfering in American democracy. But under President Trump’s leadership, we are responding decisively.
We will not retreat. We will not compromise on our values. We will continue defending America’s interests, supporting our allies, and demanding the free, fair, and reciprocal trade the Chinese people themselves ultimately deserve.
Thank you, and God bless America.
[End of Speech]
This translation captures Vice President Pence’s major address outlining the Trump administration’s comprehensive repositioning toward China, addressing trade practices, military expansion, intellectual property theft, human rights concerns, and direct interference in American electoral processes.