https://www.rubio.senate.gov/rubio-delivers-opening-remarks-at-worldwide-threats-hearing-2/
Press Release via Senator Marco Rubio's Office
RUBIO DELIVERS OPENING REMARKS AT WORLDWIDE THREATS HEARING
MARCH 11, 2024
Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence delivered opening remarks during the annual Worldwide Threats Assessment hearing.
âI still think America, by every measure you can imagine â economically, culturally, militarily â remains the worldâs strongest nation and should remain that way for the foreseeable future if we make the right choices. But that order that I just described is being challenged. Itâs being challenged by nation-states that donât like the way the world looks now. At least, they think it benefits America and hurts them. And they want to [sideline] America and our democratic allies with an alternative, if not a replacement.â â Senator Rubio
âThank you all for coming here today. I also extend my thanks to the men and women who work underneath you that do the important work of keeping our country safe at what I think you could describe as one of those pivot moments in history, where what life will be like for a generation is being determined by whatâs happening now and in the near future.
âWhile events are changing perhaps faster than any other time in human history, I think we have to remind ourselves of the why â the bigger outlined picture of why things are happening the way they are happening. Because I do think that they are all interrelated.
âFrom the end of the Cold War to the late 2000s, we lived in a unipolar world. The United States was basically the only country in the world that could project power everywhere at every time. And we were called upon to do many things in regard to that. But other nation states progressed during that stage.
âI still think America, by every measure you can imagine â economically, culturally, militarily â remains the worldâs strongest nation and should remain that way for the foreseeable future if we make the right choices. But that order that I just described is being challenged. Itâs being challenged by nation states that donât like the way the world looks now. At least, they think it benefits America and hurts them. And they want to [sideline] America and our democratic allies with an alternative, if not a replacement.
âThe Chinese believe weâre in inevitable decline and that their rise is inevitable. They donât like the rules of the world as they believe were written by America and our allies, and so they increasingly are taking it upon themselves, at every opportunity, to challenge them in every domain. They steal our ideas on innovation and so forth, so that their companies can do the things that we do, but do it cheaper and flood markets with those products.
âI donât need to tell this panel or the members of this committee and the general public that theyâre expanding their military capabilities in an extraordinary way to include, not simply projecting power in the Indo-Pacific, but around the world. By the way, they manipulate loopholes in our laws and in our systems in this country to buy up land, buy up companies, gain strategic advantage in industries, and undermine our industries in return.
âThey are a major part of flooding this country with deadly drugs that are destroying communities and ravaging entire families. And theyâve also gotten very good at hiring lobbyists and even deputizing corporate America to come up here and lobby us for things that are beneficial to Chinese goals at the expense of this country, long term.
âI think itâs important to mention here today, they also happen to control [ByteDance]. Anybody who says they donât doesnât know what theyâre talking about, because every company in China is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. They happen to control a company that owns one of the worldâs best artificial intelligence algorithms. Itâs the one thatâs used in this country by TikTok, and it uses the data of Americans to basically read your mind and predict what videos you want to see.
âThe reason why TikTok is so successful, the reason why itâs so attractive, is because it knows you better than you know yourself, and the more you use it, the more it learns. The problem is not TikTok or the videos. The problem is the algorithm that powers it is controlled by a company in China that must do whatever the Chinese Communist Party tells them to do.
âAnd the only way that that algorithm works is if that company in China, under the control of the Chinese government, is given access to the data that TikTok collects. TikTok does not work without that algorithm. And that algorithm is controlled by a company thatâs controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, under the law of China.
âIn the case of Putin, he also sees America as decadent and in decline. He views China and Russia as resilient. They view themselves as great powers. And he believes that great powers have a right to buffer states. He believes that great powers have a right, not just to have their own borders, but to control the countries around their borders as buffer states. They already have that in Belarus. It is one of the reasons why he invaded Ukraine.
âIn the case of Iran, they want to export their Shia Islamic revolution to the entire Middle East. The problem with this is, two things stand in their way â the state of Israel and the United States of America. That is why they have proxy groups in places like Syria, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Yemen, in Gaza, whom they use for their purposes.
âOne of their purposes is to use these groups to attack Americans, so that we will say, âItâs not worth the trouble. We need to get out of there.â And once we leave, then theyâll move on to Jordan and Bahrain. Then theyâll make Israel an unlivable place. Ultimately, their ambitions are the entire region and most of the Gulf kingdoms.
âThatâs why I think itâs a mistake to view the horrific events of October 7th as simply the latest iteration of a longstanding Israeli-Palestinian problem. It is deeply tied to the head of this snake, and the head of this snake is in Iran and in Tehran.
âAdd to these three countries North Korea. We havenât heard a lot about it yet, but they have become increasingly aggressive. In fact, I would argue that we perhaps are closer to some armed hostilities than weâve been in a decade or longer.
âWhy have they become so aggressive? They feel empowered. They feel empowered because Putin is buying things from them and helping them to break their international isolation. And also because â I donât know what percentage of their economy is powered by ransomware attacks and cyber hacking, but itâs substantial. They generate a lot of money from that.
âThen add to this parade of horribles the fact that terror is still a threat. Iran, as has been publicly reported, is still trying to kill former government officials that live in the United States of America. There are former government officials in this country, no longer in office, who require 24 hours a day security because Iran is trying to kill them inside the United States.
âHezbollah, an agent of Iran, is also looking for ways to conduct terrorist attacks against American interests and Israeli and Jewish interests all over the world and here in the homeland as well. By the way, ISIS and al Qaeda are not out of business. They are still involved with Al-Shabab. They also want to kill Americans. If they could do it in the homeland, they would love that.
âAnd all of that is happening at a time in which perhaps the single largest, most eventful migration corridor in history is operating right off of our border.
âI think itâs a mistake sometimes to divide all of these problems geographically, because in some ways, theyâre all interrelated. Yes, these individual states all have different ambitions, but they share a common goal. And the common goal is a world friendlier and better for them and their interests and a world in which America is weakened and less able to act.
âAll of these crises begin to interlock in a way that helps them. For example, the Chinese and the Russians see great benefit in whatâs happening in the Middle East, because they figure every dollar and every second of our attention thatâs paid there is not paid to whatâs happening with Ukraine or the Indo-Pacific. The Chinese see great benefit in Ukraine as well, because they view it as the more time and money we spend there, the less time and money and focus we have on them.
âIn fact, I know the Chinese hope for one of two things â we deplete ourselves in Ukraine and/or the Middle East, particularly Ukraine, or we cut and run. Then they can go around the world and say, âSee, I told you, Americaâs weak. I told you America is unreliable.â They have a plan for either outcome, which makes it challenging for us as we decide what to do here.
âThese things all come togetherâŠ. The goals that Russia has, the goals that Iran has, the goals that North Korea has, the goals that the Chinese have, may be different goals, but one of the real developments that threatens the security of our country is that they are increasingly partnering with one another. Itâs not a NATO alliance, not the sort of formal alliance thatâs written out. But they are increasingly partnering with each other.
âItâs on selected topics, and itâs on selected opportunities, because they all share one goal, and that is, they want to weaken America, weaken our alliances, weaken our standing and our capability and our will. Because it helps them to achieve the world as they envision it, the world that they want. But it comes at our expense and at the expense of all thatâs been built over the last 20 or 30 years.
âI think that one of the greatest dangers we face is the inability to see how all these things are interconnected. And I think one of the greatest challenges we face is to deal with them as if they are interconnected. I think that what life will be like on this planet for the next generation will be determined very much by what we do or fail to do here, over the next two to three years, with the issues that are before us today.â
Full hearing is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJHQ18Wx8RM
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