STATE DEPARTMENT —
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a "substantive" face-to-face meeting Wednesday morning with Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been selected by President-elect Donald Trump as his nominee for the next U.S. secretary of state. The meeting comes as Trump’s team prepares for the transition process.
“It was a good, constructive and substantive conversation,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters during a briefing.
“We continue to stand ready to help support a seamless transition on January 20,” he added.
In August 2020, China sanctioned Rubio, a longtime critic of the government in Beijing, along with others, citing what it described as "egregious behavior" related to “Hong Kong-related issues.” Rubio told VOA earlier in December that he is confident in his ability “to find some solution” to engage with Beijing if confirmed.
When asked if he would maintain his previous stance on foreign policy issues, Rubio said, “The president sets foreign policy, and our job at the State [Department] will be to execute it.”
Here is a look at Rubio’s past legislative actions and public statements on key China-related issues:
Rubio has warned that "Communist China is the most powerful adversary the United States has faced in living memory," in a September report titled
The report asserts that the Chinese Communist Party controls the world’s largest industrial base through "market-distorting subsidies" and "rampant theft.” Rubio urged a "whole-of-society effort" by U.S. lawmakers, CEOs, and investors to “rebuild our country, overcome the China challenge, and keep the torch of freedom lit for generations to come.”
Rubio has been a vocal critic of U.S.-China research collaborations, warning that taxpayer funds have unknowingly supported Chinese military-linked experiments in areas like stealth technology, semiconductors, and cybersecurity — potentially giving Beijing a strategic edge.
In July, he introduced a bill to fortify U.S. research, with key provisions including the creation of a "TRUST" database to track high-risk Chinese research entities, stricter grant application transparency, and penalties for undisclosed foreign funding. The bill also enhances visa screening for individuals linked to adversarial foreign research and mandates stronger oversight of U.S.-China research partnerships.
Rubio has advocated for the bipartisan 2021 Secure Equipment Act, a law that prohibits the U.S. government from issuing new equipment licenses to Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE that the United States and other Western countries have deemed a national security risk.
Rubio is among the Republican lawmakers who proposed a bill to revoke China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations, or PNTR, with the United States.
Commonly known as "most favored nation" status, PNTR means that Chinese goods being imported into the United States are granted the most advantageous terms that the country offers when it applies tariffs and other restrictions.
Introduced in September 2024, the Neither Permanent Nor Normal Trade Relations Act marks a shift toward a more protectionist U.S. trade strategy. The bill aims to impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports, strengthen supply chain resilience, and reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese goods.
One of the key provisions includes the establishment of a trust fund using tariff revenue to compensate U.S. industries harmed by China's retaliatory trade actions, with priority support for agriculture, semiconductor, and aerospace sectors.
Rubio outlined his position as early as a 2022 speech at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, calling the belief that free trade and globalization would change China "the single biggest geopolitical blunder of the last quarter century."
“For over two decades, China methodically undermined our economic strength by stealing our critical technology, our manufacturing capacity, and our jobs,” he argued.
Rubio also chaired the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, CECC, from 2017 to 2019 and continues to serve as a commissioner.
The CECC was established in 2000 in response to concerns that granting PNTR to China would eliminate Congress's ability to annually review and debate China's human rights record. The commission monitors China’s compliance with international human rights standards and maintains a list of victims of human rights abuses.
Rubio has criticized China’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, introduced bills to ban imports linked to forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and expanded sanctions on Uyghur human rights abusers.