News / Foreign Policy

Xi reestablishing China’s greatness by undermining US interests: Rubio

Friday, 28 August 2015 7:04 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 29 August 2015 12:17 AM ]

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Republican US presidential candidate Marco Rubio says President Xi Jinping is trying to re-establish China’s greatness by undermining American interests.

"Xi Jinping is trying to convince his country's 1.3 billion people that the way to re-establish Chinese greatness is to undermine the United States and enhance China's influence at our expense," Rubio said on Friday, in an unusual attack on the Chinese leader ahead of his visit to Washington.

"Under Xi Jinping's rule, China has intensified its campaign to push America out of Asia," he alleged, speaking in North Charleston.

Rubio went on to accuse the Chinese president of trying to assert control over seas in order to manipulate global trade.

Xi "is asserting control over the East and South China Seas, through which more than half of global commerce passes each day,” he said.

"This is Beijing's way of gaining leverage over the world. It has unilaterally declared an 'air defense identification zone' over international waters and the Senkaku Islands, which are the territory of our ally Japan," said the Florida lawmaker, who sits on the Senate foreign relations committee.

US Senator Marco Rubio as he speaks at the Foreign Policy Initiative breakfast in New York, August 14, 2015.

"China aims to make it so costly and difficult for America to get involved in the region that we won't bother. In short, China is doing everything it can to make the 21st century a Chinese Century," Rubio asserted.

China and Japan have long been locked in a dispute for more than a decade over the sovereignty of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China, which are believed to have vast natural resources.

Although Washington has repeatedly said it would take no side on sovereignty of the disputed islands in the East China Sea, it officially recognizes Japan’s administration of the islands and feels responsible to protect Japan’s territory under a defense deal signed between the two countries.

China has been a punching bag for Republican presidential hopefuls, particularly following the global stock sell-off that some claim was triggered by Beijing.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, another Republican candidate, on Friday urged President Barack Obama to cancel a scheduled state dinner with the Chinese leader during his visit next month.

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