Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who served in the U.S. Senate for more than a decade and was President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, has often fought against the interests of repressive communist and socialist states. As a result, the Chinese Communist Party expelled him from the country, and there are also suspicions of an assassination plot by the Venezuelan regime.
President Trump announced Thursday that he has chosen a former presidential rival and ally in the 2024 election cycle to lead the State Department, calling him “a highly respected leader and a champion of freedom.” “A very powerful voice.”
“He will be a strong advocate for our country, a true friend to our allies, and a fearless warrior who will never give in to our enemies. He will work with Marco to make America and the world safe and great again. I look forward to seeing you there,” President Trump said in a statement to the press.
Sen. Rubio drafts legislation in Congress to prioritize U.S. foreign policy threats and the global human rights crisis and address China's ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other non-Han ethnic groups in East Turkestan and encouraged Washington to deal more directly with the threat posed by socialist allies of Iran. Venezuela. His position has made him an outcast in some of the world's most anti-American capitals, especially Beijing, where he is legally prohibited from visiting.
In 2020, the Chinese Communist Party, along with fellow Cuban-American Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with nine others, responded to sanctions against Chinese officials involved in the Uyghur genocide during the Trump administration's first term. Rubio was sanctioned. The Chinese government also sanctioned Rubio for his vocal support of anti-communist protests in Hong Kong that erupted in 2019, which turned violent due to the Wuhan coronavirus lockdown and the passage of an illegal “national security” law from Beijing. was suppressed and eventually silenced.
“Last month, China banned me. Today they gave me sanctions. I don't want to be paranoid, but I'm starting to think they don't like me,” Rubio said. He joked on Twitter shortly after the bill passed.
Based in Hong Kong South China Morning Post noticed On Tuesday, before Rubio's nomination was formalized, he said it would be unprecedented to nominate a secretary of state candidate that China has actively sanctioned, seeking to improve relations with the Communist Party on terms Beijing favors. He said attempts to do so could be complicated. The newspaper quoted a Chinese scholar who lamented that Mr. Rubio could “cause chaos” by not complying with the Chinese regime's demands.
“We are very concerned that [the potential impact on] “What is the future of bilateral relations?” said Zu Feng, a scholar at Nanjing University.
China's Foreign Ministry did not mention the nomination Thursday or comment on the possibility of lifting sanctions against Rubio to allow diplomatic normalization with the Trump administration. China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Mr. Rubio was nominated to be secretary of state but did not provide any meaningful comment on the choice, instead saying he would debate his replacement in the Senate.
Other rogue regimes that Mr. Rubio has actively opposed have also remained silent. At the time of reporting, the official news agency of Venezuela's socialist regime, VTV, did not mention the nomination. Dictator Nicolas Maduro and his henchmen have long accused Rubio of supporting domestic anti-socialist opposition parties and of human rights abuses by Maduro. In 2017, miami herald The Department of Homeland Security reportedly circulated a memo announcing that Diosdado Cabello, one of President Maduro's top aides, had issued “an order to assassinate Senator Rubio.” Cabello, a member of President Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), has long been suspected of being the head of the Cartel of the Sun, a cocaine trafficking organization run by the Venezuelan military.
“Also, there are very strong suspicions being raised by some people about the role of Diosdado Cabello. He is, in my view, based on everything I've seen so far, just a drug trafficker. Not a leader,” Rubio charged that same year. “In my opinion, he is the Pablo Escobar of Venezuela.”
Venezuela has remained silent about the nomination, but the Cuban Communist Party announced through its state newspaper grandmaissued a panicked denunciation of Mr. Rubio on Tuesday. As a member of the Cuban exile community, Mr. Rubio has been a vocal supporter of human rights sanctions against the Castro regime and other policy measures to contain its negative influence in the hemisphere.
“If he is confirmed, the people of Latin America cannot expect anything good.” grandma he announced dramatically. “Giving so much political influence to a shadowy figure who has caused so much damage is a bad omen for the world,” the paper said, adding, “The Florida senator is a hardliner. We are going above and beyond and committed to the worst possible cause on this issue.” planet. “
In addition to condemning Cuba's human rights atrocities against its own citizens, Mr. Rubio has long warned that China is using its alliance with Cuba to harm the United States.
“As we know, Russia and China are opportunistic serial human rights abusers, so they have no qualms about supporting dictators anywhere in the world,” Rubio said. It was detailed in 2018. “Both countries have been active and capable partners against the region's worst human rights abusers. [Raúl] Castro and Maduro regimes in Cuba and Venezuela. …In Nicaragua, China is working to build a waterway that would reduce the size of the Panama Canal, potentially bringing new revenue and new power to the repressive power. [Daniel] It's the Ortega government. ”
