US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a long speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC on Thursday. 

In a wide-ranging speech, Pence accused China of trying to undermine the US democratic system. The speech comes almost three months into the Trump administration's trade war with Beijing. Pence criticized the previous US administrations for ignoring China's actions and even “promoting” China. And he said, “This day is over.” Pence also stated that the Trump administration has adopted a new policy on China, saying, “we seek fair, reciprocal and mutual respect for sovereignty, and we have begun to take swift and powerful action to achieve this goal.”

Pence's speech covers a wide range of topics, mostly including the US election meddling, China's economic prosperity, China's military threat, free trade, China's currency manipulation, and intellectual property theft. The speech includes the US-China trade disputes, China's militarization in the South China Sea and suppression of Taiwan as well.

As for the election meddling, Hua Chunying, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, stated that China is firmly opposed to Pence's unwarranted accusations against China, saying, "We do not and will not interfere in any countries' domestic affairs and elections."

Xu Qinduo, the senior fellow at the Pangoal Institution from Beijing, said that the retaliatory tariffs which China has imposed on the US are a normal way to respond to Trump Administration's trade bully. He also expresses his opposition towards Pence's criticism on the US election meddling. In his opinion, the US-China trade war is detrimental to the global economy. Both sides will suffer from their choice to fight fire with fire. For China, their high-tech industry is suffering from the trade war. For the US, the trade war strikes a blow to its agriculture.

Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates and a former US Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, claimed that the United States is trying to make an equivalency argument against Russia, accusing them of meddling US mid-term election.  “I don't think the equivalency argument holds water”, said Hormats. While Trump accused China of faking propaganda as news in one particular article, Hormats pointed out that the Chinese advertisement was “overtly labeled”.

He argues that both countries are able to benefit from the close ties built for the last few decades. Sourabh Gupta, the Resident Senior Fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies, stated that this relationship can be mutually productive for the next 25 years. Both countries have a huge amount of consumption potential for each other's product.

Another important accusation from the speech by Pence is that China uses debt diplomacy to expand its influence and the benefits invariably flow overwhelmingly to Beijing. Xu denied the diplomacy and pointed out that China is not the only beneficiary of the so-called “debt diplomacy”. Xu uses the Sri Lanka issue as an example. The number one source of their debt comes from the international money market and that mostly comes from New York and London. Japan is another case in the point. The fifth source comes from China. “The media makes exaggerations of that. More than 40 leaders of the government from African countries welcome Chinese loans and Chinese funds for its projects because it helps their own country,” said Xu.

Pence said at the speech that China's aggression was on display this week when a Chinese naval vessel came within 45 yards of the USS Decatur as it conducted so-called "freedom of navigation" operations in the South China Sea, forcing it to avoid collision. When it comes to the topic, Xu said that he admitted the danger caused by collision. But this is not the first time the US Navy sailed into the territory of the Chinese-controlled island. China regards the US navy action as a threat to its sovereignty and perceives the counteraction by the Chinese navy as a safeguard to its sovereignty.

The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.