Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Sen. Rubio on fears China is winning trade war with the US

Interview

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MACCALLUM: My next guest, Senator Marco Rubio, harshly went after the president on this saying on Twitter, if this is true that administration has surrendered to China on ZTE, making changes to their board and a fine will not stop them from spying and stealing from the United States. But this is too important to be over. We will begin working on veto-proof Congressional action. Moments ago I spoke to the Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about why he is so concerned about this deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, I just heard the President speaking. If that's the direction we're going, that's good news. I'm going off the news reports and say that some in his administration are pushing for a quick deal on ZTE. Here's what concerns me. First of all, trade and ZTE are two separate issues. They shouldn't be mixed. We have a huge trade problem with China. It's structural, it's not just how much they buy from us, it's what they do to our companies. They force our companies to turn over intellectual properties, secrets, you know you can't do business in China unless you do that. If you can do it at all, I mean, while their companies can do whatever they want here, OK? That's what's got to be fixed because that's long term and it's problematic. ZTE is a cell phone and technology company. They got caught violating the Iran deal and they got caught violating the Iran sanctions in North Korea, OK? They got hit with a billion dollar fine and they were told they had to fire the employees who did that. You know what they did, they didn't do it. They lied. They didn't fire those employees. They gave them a bonus, they tried to cover that up as well like they tried to cover up the violation. So now, we hit them and said fine, you can't buy our semiconductors anymore and that put them out of business. That's a good move. That's what we need to be doing when people are violating these things. But now it appears that some are saying well, let's find them again and let's make them change the Board of Directors. That's the same deal they've broken already once. Meanwhile, all these phone companies, they have to report to the Chinese government, OK? You use those phones, they can steal our secrets, they can spy on us, they even have subcontractors in ZTE that work for -- people right now could be using ZTE and Huawei technology and not even know it because it says AT&T or something.

MACCALLUM: Yes. So in your mind, is there no negotiation that could allow us to allow ZTE to survive? Because basically, they told the Trump administration, we're going to go bankrupt. You know, this company is going to go out of business and so we need to figure this out. Is there any way that you would be comfortable with dealing with ZTE again ever?

RUBIO: Well, first of all, what about the American companies the Chinese have bankrupted, like the American companies that partnered with the Chinese company? The Chinese steal everything you do and once they figure out how to do it they say we don't need you anymore, we're going to do it here, we're going to do it cheaper because our government subsidizes us and you're out of business. Number two, we didn't put them out of business, we're just saying we're not going to sell them any more semiconductors, American semiconductors. And that's what's put them out of business apparently, but that's not our problem, that's their problem. I'm not going to be feeling bad for it. I don't work for the Chinese government.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I understand it. But you know, you're looking at it -- the way that you look at it which I completely understand and it's the way that we've done this for a long time. And the president is linking a lot of things that many people are not comfortable with having linked. But this is definitely the way that the Trump foreign policy doctrine if you will, is emerging. He's saying, look, I want them to help us with North Korea. I want to lower the trade deficit with the Chinese and I want to figure out a way to do it. So they said -- they said to the administration in some form or another, look give us some slack here on ZTE and then we're going to buy a lot more American goods and we're going to help you with the North Korea situation.

RUBIO: Yes, so you said something actually I disagree with. This is not the way we've always done it. The way we actually have always done it is the way they're going now and that is the Chinese go to a bunch of American companies, the semiconductor company or some others and they go to them and say, can you go to the White House and Congress and lobby them to change their mind. And that's what they do and then we back off. And every president before now has backed off on China and that's why they've gained this advantage on us. Number two, here's the problem with the deal, North Korea is in China's interests. It's in China's interest. Because if North Korea and Kim Jong Un goes down, you have a bunch of North Koreans coming across the border. So they're not doing us any favor helping us on North Korea. They're closer to that crazy guy than we are. So they should be worried about it.

Number three, what kind of deal is it where they say, OK, we're going to buy more agriculture from America, and in return we're going to do that anyway by the way, so they're not giving anything, in return we're going to keep stealing your stuff.

In about five or eight years, they're going to dominate biotech, aerospace, they are going to be able to listen in to all of our military secrets, and use those.

I mean, they are building airplanes -- our airplanes that took us 20 years to innovate, these guys are coming up with these things in two years. You think they're either that brilliant, which they're not, or they're stealing it from us. And using they're using ZTE in place to do it.

(CROSSTALK)

MARTHA MACCALLUM, HOST, FOX NEWS: So, I understand, so here's my question for you. Is China just an enemy, you know? I mean, is there anything that we can deal with them on?

RUBIO: Yes, of course.

MACCALLUM: Because when you look at what's happening on the disputed islands, and when you look at their economic growth, their growth rate, they want to surpass us by 2028.

RUBIO: Right.

MACCALLUM: So, you know, are there deals that can be done or should we treat them in a completely different way--

RUBIO: No.

MACCALLUM: -- and say obviously you guys are out for yourselves, we're out for ourselves, and that's it?

RUBIO: Well, there's need to be balanced. Right now it's an imbalance. And when you have an imbalance, the other place is going to take advantage of you. And sometimes you have wars because of this imbalance. Right now, it's a total imbalance.

Chinese companies come to America and can do whatever they want, whatever they want. American companies some of them are not even allowed in China, and if they let you into China they let you partner with one of their companies until they steal your secrets.

That has to be balanced. Until that's balanced we're going to have this problem. So China is taking advantage of the fact that for 20 years, American presidents, before this one, made the decision that, don't worry about it, we'll let them keep cheating because once they're rich, they're going to act more like us.

Well, it didn't work out that way and now we finally realized that and it's almost too late.

So, I don't want China to be an enemy. We are actually turning them into an enemy in some ways by allowing this imbalance to exist. They are taking advantage of that imbalanced like any country in the world would, and until we get this thing balanced out against structurally, the threat of a conflict is actually going to grow, not diminish.

MACCALLUM: All right. We got to leave it there. Senator, thank you.

RUBIO: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: Great talking to you. Good to see you tonight.

RUBIO: Thanks.

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