For decades, politicians in the United States on both sides of the aisle have cheered along

as China has grown in prominence.

Now, as they're exerting more and more influence over our economy, over Hollywood, over

our universities, amid a global pandemic that they unleashed, we are beginning to ask how

to fight back.

This is verdict with Ted Cruz.

Senator, before we get into everything today, Hollywood, the economy, the media, I have to ask you, is Kim Jong-un alive or dead?

Who the hell knows? I've seen media reports on both sides. For all I know, they're propping

them up like weekend at Bernie's, about the same as the Democrats are doing with Joe Biden.

That's true. I guess I guess I could ask you the same question about the presumptive Democratic nominee for

president.

Senator, you have said that we need to fundamentally change our relationship with China.

You have been leading the fight in the U.S. Senate from what I can see on this.

Specifically, how are we going to push back against a China that now

seems to exert massive influence on our country? Yeah, the most significant change that I think

is going to come out of this pandemic is, I hope, a fundamental reassessment of the United States'

relationship with China and the world's relationship

with China. I've been saying for a long time, China is the single most important, the most

significant geopolitical competitor to the United States for the next century. They've got 1.3 billion

people. They're governed by a communist government that lies, that murders, that tortures its citizens. They invest billions in their military billions in expanding their economic influence. And I think this pandemic really illustrates just how dangerous that repressive regime of lying is.

I've been saying that a long time.

What's interesting now is a whole lot of other people are suddenly noticing, hey, wait a second,

...