To produce policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, National Security and democrat democratic. To talk about this series, this is a time when we have a policy with some of our patients policy figures. Fortunate to have marco rubio to talk about americas future government part of our discussion will take questions from you to encourage you to submit your questions with the q and a button located at the bottom of your screen. Hes a United States senator for florida, he got a number of committee on aging, hes tearing on the committee on intelligence as well as Small Business and entrepreneurship and a leading voice on a number of different issues, thanks for taking time to the. Thank you for doing this. I want to start with what i think is the single biggest you look challenge we face, our relationship with china. A lot of news coming out recently that news this morning the United States asked china or demanding china close in houston, texas because of activity going on there. Recent challenges in terms of chinese hackers trying to get access to technology here in the u. S. To find a covid19 vaccine as well as a host of other activities, i want to ask you, where are we headed in this relationship . You see things Getting Better anytime soon . What is it going to take from a policy perspective to for us to address this rise in times . One of the first thing we have to do is bring this in the scope of history. This is all not unusual. Another time in history where there is a rising power, it creates these tensions, the best way to think about it is the second world war, the most dominant Industrial Power and in germany, as rated by the war. Great britain was hurt and beginning to deteriorate. A tremendous loss and they made a deal and it was to go to west germany and help them rebuild on favorable terms in the industry. We allowed them to build an industry through protectionism on their and access to our markets. We do all these things and by the way, help in the national sense, in the case of germany and japan, we didnt want another army or armed forces but we wanted them to stay within the u. S. And free world. These countries are no longer developing countries. Then mid to late 1980s, china decides it wants to come out of that and grow and build. China used 150 years of that. It is their rightful role u. S. Takes a similar deal we are going to help them build industrial capabilities because we think once you do, they get rich and powerful, they will ascribe to global world trade and commerce, they probably wont be communist anymore. They will walk away from that that was what was made. They have not moved at all and they are entrenched in that regard. We stand today, china wants to use the status to rewrite the global trade they want to become the dominant Industrial Power. The United States made is that it was okay for the industries to go abroad because they are consumers of benefits and it doesnt matter where it made, theres borderless trade now and what we can benefit from that. It needs to be readjusted and we have to realize not. We allow them but we also stop investing or terabyte capabilities. Now we are trying to make up for 15 years of bipartisan and very short and condensed catch up. It feels like a lot. Its happening at a time in which china is assertive. Ultimately, china and the u. S. Is the most powerful nation for the foreseeable future. Our relationship defined the 21st century and i would love to see china and more human rights and so forth but we have the most control in the meantime, the nature of our relationship is that its not an equitable and balanced relationship between two great powers and central conflict and terrible things happen. We cannot allow these imbalances to continue. That will require us to stand up to unfair practices but also require us to reevaluate our own policies in terms of what we invest and prioritize and when are those times when our National Interests appear market are complete store results in our National Interest with its probably cheaper to make certain things in china but we dont want to depend on china for everything from pp to basic pharmaceutical and the ability to be a leader in 5g or anything else coming so we are in the midst of all that right now. It will take us time to get it right. You mentioned pressure points in the relationship, i want to go through some of those and share how you think congress should address them and how this administration should address them. The first is the situation involving human rights violation and western china. This is something i think not covered nearly enough here in the u. S. , weve heard about it increasingly from foreign media sources the Congress Taking action on this. What more needs to be done to address this . Can we press forward on this when its clear the chinese have no interest at all in talking about their treatment of this Minority Group . I can tell you they do care about their global reputation. Revelations about whats happening, they have damaged the Global Industry tremendously. It puts pressure on the muslim world to speak up more forcefully so one, we cant allow this to go on in the world. It something our country is clear on. Geopolitically, the rest of the world needs to speak out when they want to unless we dont do it first. Many of the countries cant sustain economic blowback. The third is, the hope that pressure will sympathetic behavior. Recalibrate the strategy, its a horrifying situation. They might be benefiting from the false labor. The notion we could be using things in our daily lives we had no idea were made by those working under the force compelled to be there during. Its something that horrifies all of us. The medical things people are using. There is no easy answer to stop it. Its having an impact on chinas ability to influence other countries and how countries treat them. Another pressure. Straddles the line between human rights and economic is hong kong. The passage of the new National Security law the that i think does promise china made many years ago, talk a little bit about the reaction to that, your to congress act enacted, is there more we need to say or do there . The other issue is a lot of hong kong was this commercial space, commercial hub for east asia, a lot of it seems to be moving to other places. Is hong kong ever going to be the same it was ten or 15 years ago . I dont think it can be for a couple of reasons. One of the things, hong kong benefits, not just the status economically but the nation if you had a commercial dispute, youd go to a court and adjudicated daily and non politically. Now theres a takeover of the judiciary, they get into a commercial dispute with a chinese company, they are not going to be treated fairly in court and they will not be adjudicated. Results are personal concerns. Anyone in the world according to law, you can be arrested. Theoretically, i could travel to hong kong and they could arrest me while sitting in my living room resizing china. I think i will scare off a lot of people and its hard to imagine how it goes back to how it was before these conditions. The chinese calculated, i think they thought people would get over it. They have to be shocked by how strong the response was from different places they also think influential on the thinking. What next is taiwan. What they are doing in hong kong today is what they intend to do with taiwan is force an arrangement for reunification and ultimately come back when the time is right. Is there a particular policy prescription on taiwan you think we should be following . Spoken clearly on this, your colleagues have been clear about the need to support taiwan. Is there more that needs to be happening there . Yes, individuals who are individually persecuted and i hope our country will provide them probably voice provided for people in these circumstances. We cant allow taiwan to benefit from, we cant allow the chinese mainland benefit from the best of both worlds which is dont have to comply one nation, two systems but they get the benefits of it. We cant allow to continue to treat hong kong, different rules applied when it comes to trade and commerce. The reason its important we follow through, we have to actually follow through because part of the chinese calculatio calculations, the world will complain but they wont do anything about it because they want so badly to have access to our market. Thats what they are banking on and what they assume. If we prove them right, the next will be taiwan. Look whats happening in the south china sea, the conditions on the ground so ultimately, the hope is something you cant do anything about, thats what they are doing right now and what they will eventually do with taiwan. On the economic relationship with china, is there more there we need to do . Is a bunch of work youre doing on reading for transparency around Chinese Companies here in the u. S. Open Chinese Companies do business here but is the more we can do only it, policy front particular ip theft and constant issue we seem to have with the elements in china, the Chinese Communist party trying to expropriate american ip and goods another kind of things developed here in the u. S. . We have to address all vulnerabilities they have taken advantage of. For example, if figured out ways on the federal review of the key industry. Europe as well, they would lend them money and distract them when companies default, the now take that company over. Its one way around it but we have seen them invest in technology, they forced the transfer of intellectual property. They have to address at all but the most important thing, we have to identify one of the five, ten, 15 key sectors of the economy that we have to have not just those key abilities but exhibit world leadership and we have to ensure we have a domestic ability to produce it but its not a domestic ability to produce it so an example, 5g is a technology and whoever dominates will set the Global Standards and all sorts of things. Manufacturing, 3d printing, it will all depend on 5g. Weber sets the standard for 5g will also for all the things that depend on 5g. Two years ago, extraordinary gains on a bunch of different markets. Making them the leader on 5g standards. The reason they were able to is because while their quality may not be as good, they have cheaper than American Products and they are subsidized by the state so they can undercut and be competitive. Some of it might be the software they decide to use the weather is a u. S. Company for brits and allies that comes with the alternative are just as costeffective and colby more, that opportunity is this. In the bill that its a bipartisan effort in the bill to create a fund not just Domestic Technology research would also stand up on International Allied construction along with japan, korea, india, uk and others in europe to create alternatives because thats one of the biggest problems we run into. Its the only thing we can afford and we have to have 5g so there has to be an alternative and we believe we are not far from an alternative thats better and cheaper and doesnt rely on that. One last question we have from stephen, a viewer who asked about china involvement in other parts of the world. Are we still seeing china actively trying to expand into latin america, cuba, venezuela, is that something we are still seeing . Should be counteracted . The main way is too economic investment, not dissimilar to what was seen in africa, in some cases where they come in with the promise of the lead investment and for a lot of the countries that have no other way of accessing this, it sounds like a really good deal. They wind up in a death trap that requires you to comply with alignment and national institution. The pandemic has graded more opportunities but youre in a underdeveloped country, he want infrastructure and the only people out there offering money to build roads and bridges is the chinese so you take it because politically, it makes you look good. In addition, looking politically, you or someone related to you is making money off it in the chinese come in and bring their own workers. Though a bunch of money and cant pay it back. We are concerned about that and the changes made and a new approach will help offset some of it. Talking to countries around the world and weve already seen blowback as well with what weve seen in the past. There are real challenges and panama where the chinese controlled a Significant Holding in and around their is a deep concern for this country. Talk about cuba and venezuela, there involved in those countries for different reasons. They have operations going there and in the case of venezuela, it is a lot of money so they want to get paid theyve been involved there and exporting some of their drink capabilities that allow them to do things like that. Talking a little bit about the economic challenges we have here at home because of covid19 and what happened there, maybe reflect on the Work Congress has been able to do in conjunction with the administration to help bring america back from the steps of a tough economic times, were in the middle of one now obviously but what are some Lessons Learned from how congress was able to come together and act. People complain about it being a polarized time and politics seems to be so tough but you and your colleagues were able to come together and get some things done including the paycheck Protection Plan but what you think made that possible . What are lessons we can learn from that . The magnitude of the crisis, the fact that it wasnt regional, it was national, the moment in which we live, staring into the greater unknown and its pretty extraordinary. Weve now voted for two major pieces of legislation unanimously in the house and senate. We had to pass basically without a roll call vote. Weve gone made and made additional legislative changes having more money and extending it. All of it is a required passage in the senate and then in the house by voice vote. It is the dire circumstances. Its a tough position to be in. These are not things i would support for the most part, i think the big challenge we face on the pandemic is there are two things happening. A lot of the economic downturn we are seeing is not the result of recklessness on the part of the Business Community and their coming together to bail them out. The government is basically saying you cant open and if you do, you have to operate under certain constraints. If theyre not telling you that, they are telling the customers that. Theyre telling people not to go out so in many ways, its actually similar to the taking and government has a right to deny you, take your property from you so the way i view it is the reason why the businesses are going through a hard time because the governments regulations are putting them in this place. You have to compensate for that. The second reality, some of these things are happening, it will create structural damage in a labor market that will take a decade to recover from it. And make it harder to pay down debt and harder to move forward. The pandemic is a big deal in itself, it happening in a moment of extraordinary economic realignment of which had economic realignment in history and theyve been followed by political adjustments. It takes government about two and a half decades to catch up to the changes in our economy, displaced workers that five out some industries that creates cultural friction about was already happening and then the pandemic which exacerbates. The people who can work from home because they depend on the economy, theyre all living one way. People who have to show up to work you have to work despite the pandemic or are out of work. You cant do hotels or auto repair online but you can do banking in all sorts of other services so that has created a fracture as well. Just the regular disruptions, graduating class of seniors from colleges with no labor code to enter into. What the impact of that is going to mean longterm to all those things is the pandemic exacerbates preexisting tensions happening because of this economic realignment we are living. Focusing in on whats going to happen next in congress and thinking about potentially another round of relief relating to covid19 or Economic Issues that have arisen from it, the Paycheck Protection Program targeted at Small Businesses, we now know that was successful at saving jobs. In very practical terms lets say you do on a small restaurant and are doing well and you want to restart. In order to restart you need the cash which you may not have on hand to rehireworkers but also supplies and to comply with local regulations. So thats one function of it. Ultimately though the recovery shows something thats more longterm that will have to examine down the road butwere still in that sort ofresponse phase because we are seeing surgeons in different places and we will continue to see searches. I dont think any governor should be taking. Are not isolated and eventually it will serve a different level but nonetheless they require thanks so the followup response is going to be more tailored and targeted to truly smaller entities, under 300 employees or who meet the fda guidelines. It will be 50 percent for payroll, 40 percent for other expenses and much of it designed to ensure these entities not that you can put them where they were before the pandemic but you put them in a place where they can hold onto enough workers and enough of the present so you dont have a contagion in the realist market because they stop paying the lease and close down but you dont put millions on theunemployment rolls and create all the problems that create for our country. And also so you dont lose these businesses so that really is our focus in the second round. We are literally dealing with this the way we are the pandemic and that is we are trying to alleviate the symptoms so things cycle through but we cannot replace a functional economy with any government program. We have to invest in things that allow us to get back to normal and that means no therapeutics that change the nature of the disease and health comes and ultimately