MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told Breitbart News that the United States needs to be prepared to pull “most U.S. businesses” out of China “unless and until the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] reforms their behaviors.”
Speaking with Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Friday in Manchester, Ramaswamy laid out his vision for taking on China soon after he unveiled his 25-point policy plan earlier that morning.
“First of all, you have to be willing to make a sacrifice,” he said. “If you know what you’re sacrificing for, that is this thing we call America; we need more Churchill, less Chamberlain in our foreign policymaking… I think it’s more achievable than people think.”
“I think that if we’re willing to use South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, Australia, Mexico, West Africa, Western Europe, Brazil, to pick up the slack of what we might miss from China’s supply chain, this becomes actually a lot more achievable than people think,” he added.
Moreover, Ramaswamy asserted that Chinese President Xi Jinping has made China vulnerable by securing a third term as general secretary of the CCP, which “broke the chain of succession.”
“Xi Jinping actually shot China in the foot approximately last year, culminating in October, when he took his unprecedented third term. He broke the chain of succession — that actually presents a window of opportunity for us,” he said. “The real point of the matter is: it’s when you’re most willing to make a sacrifice that you won’t have to make one at all because Xi Jinping will buckle.”
Ramaswamy, speaking on his tour bus during a ten-county tour of the Granite State, told Breitbart News that he would personally present the ultimatum to Jinping if elected.
“I will look him in the eye. I’ll tell him, ‘We are pulling out; we’re done…This economic relationship is over unless you reform, and here’s how you do it: No more intellectual property theft, no more data, no more deputizing companies to advance your political agendas.’ We’re done playing that game of tariffs with the easy part, and I mean I’m going so much further.”
“And I think Xi Jinping will fold. And if he doesn’t, the Chinese Communist Party will fall because it will be economic hell on China if we’re actually willing to pull the rug, but you need conviction and fortitude to do it. That’s what we’re missing in today’s White House. Joe Biden doesn’t hold a candle,” he said. “I think that that’s actually what I’m going to deliver. Look, I’m taking the America First agenda further than Donald Trump.”
Anti-Woke Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: ‘I Would Not Give Another Dollar to Ukraine’ If Elected President
Ramaswamy emphasized that he respects Trump, who is his friend, and what he “did in 2015,” adding, “I’m following that model.”
“The goal has been to spend time here in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is what catapulted Trump forward; it’s going to catapult us forward in this race,” he said. The first debate is another opportunity Ramaswamy sees to make a “seismic change” in the race.
“But here’s the thing: America First does not belong to Donald Trump. People need to understand that it does not belong to any one man,” he added. “It doesn’t belong to me. America First was born in 1776. And so we need to revive that 1776 spirit, and there’s no trademarking of the substance of this country. Actually, it belongs to the people of this country.”
“The question is who’s going to go further. Donald Trump went as far as he was gonna go, and I respect him for it. I’m not going to be the same person eight years from now that I am today. He’s not the same person today that he was eight years ago. You get to be an outsider once, and then you drop the mic, pass the torch to somebody else. I will take his help. I’ll take his advice every step of the way; we’re in this together as a country,” Ramaswamy said.