Former US Vice President Mike Pence has joined the growing chorus against China hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in view of its alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and also avoiding a proper investigation on the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Addressing The Heritage Foundation on the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the US-China relationship under the Joe Biden administration, and critical policy steps the new government must take in the coming months to confront the China challenge, Pence demanded the 2022 Olympics be moved from Beijing.

"President Biden should make a clear and unequivocal demand that the 2022 Winter Olympics be moved from Beijing unless China comes clean on the origins of Covid-19 and immediately ends the persecution of the Uighur people. The Olympics should only take place in countries that respect fundamental human rights and the well-being of mankind," sid Pence, a Heritage distinguished visiting fellow.  

Laying out a list of clear policy recommendations for the Biden administration, Pence highlighted the Donald Trump administration’s track record in standing up to the challenge presented by China while calling on the Biden administration to do more to combat the threat.

"The Chinese Communist Party aspires not merely to join the community of economically developed nations, but to sit atop a new global order, created in its own image. A world in which freedom is constrained, but Beijing's power is not," he said.  

"Yet, despite this new national consensus, the Biden-Harris administration is already rolling over to Communist China. They rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, allowing China to pollute with impunity. They rejoined the Chinese-controlled World Health Organization without demanding a single concession in the wake of failures throughout the pandemic. And they terminated our administration’s inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, before later reversing course," the former Vice President added.

He warned that Beijing has exploited modern corporate America's "insatiable appetite for market access" and coerced top CEOs, athletes and entertainers into not only withholding criticism from the communist regime, but in many cases actively singing its praises.

In his policy recommendations for the Biden administration, Pence included:  

– Demand that China come clean about the origins of the coronavirus

– Prohibit US public or private of scientific laboratories in China, especially those participating in gain-of-function research

– Ensure essential pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and protective gear are manufactured in the United States

– Decouple the US from China in industries that are essential to US national security

– End subsidies for land owned by foreign nationals

– End Chinese investment in American critical infrastructure projects

– Delist Chinese companies that flout the rules of transparency and financing that American companies must follow

– Negotiate a new trade agreement with Taiwan, and stand with the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong

– Significantly increase the readiness of the US Navy to defend its interests in the South China Sea

– Ensure the military stops wasting time on woke pursuits like critical race theory and re-focus on readiness

– Make clear that the Western Hemisphere is off-limits to China’s neo-colonialism and prohibit China from building any military bases in the hemisphere

– Immediately prohibit the issuance of H1B visas to Chinese nationals employed at US technology companies

– Ban Confucius institutes on American college campuses

– Demand the 2022 Olympics be moved from Beijing unless the CCP comes clean on the coronavirus and ends its persecution of the Uighurs

Pence's remarks were part of Heritage's annual B C Lee Lecture, named in honor of the late B C Lee, founder of the Samsung Group and member of The Heritage Foundation.

"Now more than ever, our leaders must get serious about the immediate and deadly threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Vice President Pence not only clearly articulated the threat we face, but numerous concrete policy steps the Biden administration and Congress can, and should, take in defence of American interests and values. We cannot afford to go back to 'business as usual' on China," said James Carafano, Heritage Vice President for national security and foreign policy.  

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