Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sees the Biden administration's "weakness" as enabling China's growth, which he sees is on its way to becoming an "evil empire."
Pence slammed the current administration's rejoining of the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord during a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday.
"Weakness arouses evil and my sense is that China senses weakness in this new administration," Pence said. "China may not yet be an evil empire, but it's working hard every day to become one."
After taking office, President Joe Biden reversed many of Donald Trump's decisions, including the former president's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord because he thought it was unfair that the U.S. had to reduce its carbon emissions while China could continue to use fossil fuels.
The U.S. also rejoined the WHO shortly after Biden assumed office. At the time, Trump criticized the organization for failing to hold China's feet to the fire over the origins of Covid-19, a move that the former president saw as a continuation of his tough-on-China policy but drew international condemnation.
Pence described America's return to the WHO under Biden as "rolling over to communist China" without "demanding a single concession." He, like Trump, encouraged the administration to demand that China "come clean" about Covid-19's origins.
He also advocated for a more aggressive U.S. position to prevent China from establishing a military presence in the Western Hemisphere.
"The president must make it clear that the Western hemisphere is off-limits to China's neocolonialism," Pence said.
He also said that the U.S. should limit the issuance of H1-B visas to Chinese nationals working in U.S. tech companies to "protect American intellectual property and national security."
