My warning to President Biden: Protect America from a rising China

When I served as mayor of Miami-Dade County, I had a front row seat to the attempts from China to control our critical infrastructure and assets. That experience leads me to give President Biden one piece of advice. He must reject the calls from leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to weaken our stance on China and commit to strengthening all non-military elements of American foreign policy.

Despite the propaganda that will be espoused by members of the CCP, we cannot afford to forget that China remains the most dangerous geopolitical and economic foe our country faces. China will approach the new administration with tones of reconciliation and will push the United States to abandon a strategy of maximum pressure. They want the United States to buy into a new economic system that favors China’s strategic objectives at the expense of the United States and our critical partners and allies around the world. Most importantly, they want us to believe the lie that China will be a good, reliable partner in the world and that Chinese leadership is actually a good thing.

Amid deceiving rhetoric coming out of the communist circles in Beijing, China is employing a wide range of economic tactics to diminish American leadership abroad, disrupt the liberal free market in the world economy, and recreate a world order that depends on China for it to move forward. That is why the United States must continue developing its economic warfare arsenal to address the competition China poses — to protect American businesses, our critical industries, and our standing in the world.

CRRC, a state-owned Chinese rolling stock manufacturer, is one of many Chinese state-owned companies that have tried to insert themselves into America’s infrastructure, attempting to bid on contracts to become an important part of Miami-Dade County’s light rail systems. Chinese state-owned companies manufacture several freight cranes in the Port of Miami, making us vulnerable to a potential situation where China would have the ability to access information on the products being imported, the state of our infrastructure, and in effect give them the ability to control access to our port. These vulnerabilities are seen throughout the entire country, from China’s control of generic prescription medication used by our military to China’s control of the supply chain of products most Americans rely on to function on a daily basis.

In a broader scope, China is ramping up its efforts to manipulate world markets for intelligence and military purposes, exploit data from American businesses, and steal our critical and emerging technologies. China has entirely discarded international norms, using Chinese-based international conglomerates such as Huawei to detect and punish Uyghur Muslims, forsaking responsibility in their extreme culpability for the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am encouraged by the statements made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his confirmation hearings when he said that the Trump administration was correct to pursue an aggressive stance on China. It is my hope that those sentiments are replicated across the administration, particularly with firm commitments from the will-be Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo that companies such as Huawei will remain on the department’s blacklist. If the Biden administration can commit to maintaining a great powers competition strategy, then I will be the first stand beside President Biden to defend our nation from China’s threats of global dominance.

Gimenez represent Florida’s 26th District.