In the Trump administration's most substantial foreign policy speech thus far, delivered at the Hudson Institute on Oct. 4, Vice President Mike Pence accused China of a "whole-of-government" attack on U.S. interests and vowed the United States will respond with robust countermeasures.
Pence leveled three charges. First, "Beijing is ... using political, economic and military tools, as well as propaganda, to advance its influence and benefit its interests" in the U.S., including efforts to influence and interfere in domestic U.S. politics.
Second, although much of the ninefold growth of China's economy had been powered by U.S. investment and markets, China had used "an arsenal of policies ... including tariffs, quotas, currency manipulation, forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and industrial subsidies" to build its manufacturing base at U.S. expense.