GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy calls for ‘Declaration of Independence’ from China

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday called for the U.S. to take up a “Declaration of Independence” from China. 

“I’m leading the way in calling for a Declaration of Independence from China. Because the key difference today is, unlike the USSR in the last century, we never depended on the Soviet Union for the shoes on our feet or phones in our pocket. That is the case today,” Ramaswamy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“And I think it’s the number one threat we face,” the conservative entrepreneur added. “And so I’m actually delivering a vision of national identity that hopefully allows us to make the short-run sacrifices we’ll need to on the global stage to actually win as a country over the long run.”

Ramaswamy entered the 2024 Republican race last month, joining former President Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Ramaswamy has called several times for such a “declaration” to separate the U.S. from China, which he characterized on Sunday as the Biden administration’s top foreign policy challenge.

“The Declaration of Independence from China is what Thomas Jefferson would’ve signed if he were alive today,” Ramaswamy wrote on Twitter last month.

“The Declaration of Independence we need in this country is a Declaration of Independence from China. We are in a co-dependent relationship that will not end well. The only question is who ends it first,” he wrote in another post.

Ramaswamy’s comments come amid heightened U.S.-China tensions after last month’s takedown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over American airspace and concerns from the State Department that Beijing could be considering equipping Russia with lethal aid in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.