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Sen. Marco Rubio: Biden’s climate plan benefits China – here’s how policy hurts US, boosts Beijing
By U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
April 12, 2021
Fox News

Last month, President Biden told reporters at the White House that “China has an overall goal … to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world.”

He then promised, “That’s not going to happen on my watch.”

It’s laudable that, after decades of downplaying the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Biden is finally recognizing the extent of Beijing’s ambitions. Or it would be, if he weren’t about to unleash a green energy plan poised to hand the CCP a massive gift.

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China dominates the renewable energy industry because it’s been investing in it for years through massive government subsidies. If the U.S. is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on renewable energy, it should not go to rewarding the CCP and allowing a genocidal regime to profit from its abuses.

Instead, U.S. policy should focus on how to build up domestic production to create good jobs here in America. The Biden plan gives a paltry nod to this through a handful of references to Buy America provisions, but they’re a far cry from what is needed to develop our own industry.

Any serious plan would do two things.

First, make clear that none of the money in the bill can go to China. Period. This “don’t buy Chinese” provision would hurt Beijing’s industrial base and provide tremendous incentive for U.S. manufacturers and other nations to fill the gap.

Second, the bill should increase domestic content requirements and apply Buy America requirements to all new spending to spur massive domestic investment here at home…

The alternative is a future that is Beijing’s to control. After a brief year of U.S. energy independence in 2019 – the first since the 1950s, thanks in great part to the shale revolution and clean natural gas – the Biden plan would make America even more reliant on foreign competitors…

And consider the horrifying industry practices the Biden plan would encourage and reward…

If we follow the Biden plan and massively increase American solar panel purchases from China, U.S. taxpayer dollars risk being used to buy Chinese products made with forced labor from Uyghurs and other enslaved Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.

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If Biden is serious about cutting down the Chinese government and communist party’s ambitions to become the richest, most powerful country in the world, then he needs to wake up to the unintended – but devastating – consequences of this plan.
 
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