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\n

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker<\/a> lambasted the White House decision to invite Chinese leader Xi Jinping<\/a> for a state dinner this week, calling the foreign head of state \u201ca brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator\u201d who cannot be trusted.<\/p>\n

Wicker, typically a staunch defender of President Donald Trump and Republican loyalist, targeted most of his criticism at Xi and Chinese policy during a Senate floor speech Tuesday. But the comments were nonetheless a surprise rebuke of the president\u2019s courting of Beijing amid broader concerns, such as the durability of U.S. security commitments to the Indo-Pacific, including in deterring a potential invasion of Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.<\/p>\n

The Mississippi Republican urged Trump to press the Chinese premier on a variety of sensitive topics \u2014 including purported support for Iran, its military buildup and human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States, based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“I know the president tends to discuss trade and artificial intelligence with the Chinese leadership, and rightfully so,\u201d he said. \u201cPerhaps some progress will be made. But … during every minute of dialog, our commander in chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.”<\/p>\n

The senior Republican\u2019s comments on the Senate floor were delivered just a few hours before Xi\u2019s expected arrival in Washington. Trump has scheduled a formal welcome ceremony for Xi and his wife at the White House on Thursday, along with talks between the two leaders throughout his three-day visit.<\/p>\n

Trump is facing bipartisan criticism over the state visit by Xi. Wicker\u2019s comments followed similar attacks on Chinese leadership from Sen. Dick Durbin<\/a> (D-Ill.) and Ted Budd<\/a> (R-N.C.).<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has been clear that under his leadership, the United States must engage with China, given the reality of our economic relationship,\u201d Budd said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t forget that China is also a competitor and an adversary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker lambasted the White House decision to invite Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state dinner this week, calling the foreign head of state \u201ca brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator\u201d who cannot be trusted. Wicker, typically a staunch defender of President Donald Trump and Republican loyalist, targeted most of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}