Cliff Sims

They want to set the rules of the road.

They want everything done on their terms, and they'll do anything it takes to accomplish that.

So the first thing I think that we have to do from a principle standpoint is identify that fact.

I was in a US-China commission hearing this past week,

debating with a witness over whether China wants to follow the rules or not.

We were talking about trade rules.

And she was trying to say that if China understands the rules, they want to follow the rules.

And I said, basically, ma'am,

I'm trying to wrap my mind around how you could possibly come to that conclusion based off of their history.

And I even cited a specific example of the Chinese stealing the technology of an American wind turbine company, standing up their own company, and putting that company out of business to become the dominant market player.

And this is extrapolated across a million different companies and industries.

There are still people in this country in very senior positions who are not willing to say that China is not a friend of ours.

They are an adversary of ours.

Now, does that mean we want to go to war with China?

No.

But we got to be honest about this is not just a friendly competition among rivals and peers.

This is...

This is something more insidious than that from their end, their intentions.

And so I think the first principle is being willing to say, call China what they are, and that is an adversary.

Well, that was a think tank economist.