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 the United States Mike Pence, my close friend, whose office is down the hall in the West Wing, will be here next week.

I appreciate the kind invitation to come discuss an issue of great importance to American national security with you, Governor and your colleagues here in Arizona: the challenge the Chinese Communist Party poses to the United States and our allies is of critical importance to us right now. My remarks are the first of several speeches senior Administration officials will give on this matter over the next few weeks. You will soon hear from Secretary of State Pompeo, Attorney General Barr, and FBI Director Chris Wray on the subject.

America, under President Trump’s leadership, has finally awoken to the threat the Chinese Communist Party’s actions pose to our very way of life. For decades, conventional wisdom in both U.S. political parties, the business community, academia, and media, has held that it was only a matter of time before China would become more liberal, first economically and, then, politically. The more we opened our markets to China, the thinking went, the more we invested capital in China, the more we trained PRC bureaucrats, scientists, engineers, and even military officers, the more China would become like us.

Prior to President Donald J. Trump taking office, it was under this premise that we welcomed China into the World Trade Organization in 2001 with vast concessions and trade privileges. We overlooked China’s gross human rights abuses, including Tiananmen Square. We