On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) criticized the Biden administration’s “flaccid response” to protests in China and said that the U.S. should be helping to penetrate China’s digital firewall and help protestors spread their message, crack down on the amount of American money that flows into Chinese money, and ban TikTok. Waltz also called for social media platforms to remove Chinese bots that are pushing the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda.
Waltz said, “[O]nce again, we just have a tepid, weak, flaccid response from this administration. Whether it’s China, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, we can go around the world where people crying out for freedom just need to hear that the United States firmly stands with you, and that’s, once again, not what we’re getting from this White House.”
He added, “We could be helping them penetrate the firewall, getting their word out. We should be cracking down on the amount of money, the U.S. money that’s flowing into their markets and propping up the Communist Party. All of these companies here and banks that want to preach ESG and social justice here, they completely hypocritically turn a blind eye there. Elon Musk, you were talking about, how about we take down some of the Chinese bots that are spreading their propaganda all over the world through Twitter, through Facebook, and other social media? So — and finally, why don’t we get a TikTok ban in place? Talking about a propaganda and data-gathering machine, the Indian government’s done it. The U.S. military’s done it. This administration needs to do it too. So, there are tangible things this administration could be doing and they’re not.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett