Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has come out strongly against China in an interview with Piers Morgan, viewing the communist nation as the US’s greatest threat. When probed about the potential for military action if China were to invade Taiwan, he was adamant that such aggression would not be tolerated.
“That would be aggression,” said DeSantis. “Absolutely it would be aggression. Taiwan is a strong ally of the United States…the number one issue that we face internationally is checking the growth and rise of China.”
Former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien recently warned that if China invades Taiwan, the U.S. will destroy all facilities owned by the Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) rather than let them fall into Chinese hands, as this could give Beijing control over “the world economy”. O’Brien stated that “The United States and its allies are never going to let those factories fall into Chinese hands”.
DeSantis views China as the greatest threat America has faced since the Soviet Union. He believes that the data harvesting of Chinese-controlled platforms, such as TikTok, creates a security risk and can have a “corrosive impact”.
“They’re much more powerful than Putin and Russia are,” he said. “And they really represent the biggest threat that we’ve seen to our ability to lead since the Soviet Union”.
When asked about whether he would ban TikTok, DeSantis answered: “I would… I think it’s a security risk, they are harvesting so much data on our citizens. There’s a whole bunch of other apps and stuff that are out there, and honestly Piers, I’ve got young kids. I don’t want our kids on some of this stuff. It’s not healthy for them. The TikTok in China is sanitized, it’s more wholesome. Here they’re putting in a lot of bad stuff too. So, I think it’s had a corrosive impact but that in itself wouldn’t be enough – what’s enough though is how they’re harvesting that to use against the American people.”
