Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says China is 'biggest threat' against US

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Indian-American lawmaker who is set to contest against former President Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, has called China the “biggest threat” that the US faces and said that he would go for “total de-coupling” with Beijing if he comes to power. He said that he would aim to completely re-enter the trade in the Pacific and enter trade relationships with countries like India, Japan, and South Korea. In an interview with Fox News, Ramaswamy said, “Xi Jinping is the dictator and China is the top threat that the United States faces. I think I am the clearest candidate in declaring a clear path in declaring economic independence from China. That would be the first step in our policy”. He further said that he would go for a “total de-coupling” with China and ban most US companies from doing business in Beijing.“I would go for total de-coupling. I would ban most US companies from doing business with China, unless and until the CCP reforms its behaviour…I think there would be short-term consequences, but I think we can make sacrifices if we know what we are sacrificing for. I also think that when you are most willing to make a sacrifice, you actually do not have to make one at all,” Ramaswamy said. He added, “I think if we are willing to enter the trade relationships with Japan, South Korea, Philippines, even India, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, that makes it much more tractable, than we make it out to be. I think that’s achievable. Speaking on the Chinese spy balloon — that flew over the US territory and was shot down by the American military in February this year — he said that the US would have been immediately shot down if it had been from Russia. “If that would have been a Russian spy balloon, flying over the country, we would have shot it down immediately and put up sanctions. The reason we did not do it with Chinese spy balloons, is that we are afraid of our economic dependence on China. So, I have a clear plan. I would re-enter our trade relationship, elsewhere in the Pacific, and that would put me in a position to lead our declaration of independence from China,” he said. Ramaswamy also sounded an alarm over the growing Russia-China ties calling it the “single-largest military threat” and said that the US needs to deter this alliance.