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After the inauguration on January 20, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida will take over as Secretary of State. This 53-year-old Miami native and grandson of a Cuban emigre has what the English call the character and ambition of a political animal. He once challenged Donald Trump by trying to secure the Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency, which apparently caught Trump’s attention.
Addressing a global audience through journalists, Donald Trump praised his chosen candidate for the key post in the U.S. administration and explained the rationale behind his choice: «He will be a strong defender of our nation, a true friend to our allies, and a fearless warrior who will never bow to our adversaries».
During his time in Congress, this «fearless warrior» Rubio developed a reputation for hawkish rhetoric. He loudly condemned the Chinese authorities for allegedly violating the rights of the Uighur people, calling it «genocide». He called for dealing with Venezuela, which refuses to submit to Washington’s dictates, and also with Iran, which has not returned to the servile deference of the neo-colonial empires dating back to the era of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Rubio loudly encouraged the Western-influenced operatives behind Hong Kong’s 2019 «Umbrella Revolution». For his cumulative merits in stirring up internal political tensions within a sovereign country, Marco Rubio was honored by Beijing in a special way. Along with another verbal aggressor, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and nine other high-profile instigators of rebellion, Rubio was placed on China’s blacklist as persona non grata.
How Marco Rubio, as head of U.S. foreign policy, will meet with his Chinese counterpart remains unknown. Obviously, it would only be on neutral ground. And even then — only if the heirs to the ancient traditions of the Middle Kingdom let their textbook pragmatism prevail over their equally traditional resentment of foreign interlopers.
For now, such an optimistic scenario is highly questionable. Zhu Feng, an expert from Nanjing University, speaking to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, expressed Beijing’s official view: «We are very concerned (about the possible future impact on bilateral relations)». The publication predicted that Mr. Rubio could «create chaos» in his new role.
Will Trump’s appointee, who is toxic to China (and not only to China), succeed in the diplomatic arena? There are no guarantees, since Marco Rubio, as the magazine The National Interest notes, will return to his old ways in his new position. He will «support» opposition forces in countries that do not swear allegiance to the collective West. The magazine calls this a «method of stimulating change in totalitarian states from within». The focus, it quotes, will be on «U.S. support for nonviolent resistance movements in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia».
What exactly «nonviolent resistance movements» entail is not spelled out. Maybe it’s throwing Molotov cocktails at law enforcement officers, as happened on the Maidan (with the cynical excuse that «they’re just kids»), or as happened recently on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi?
No less important is understanding Rubio’s remark that the United States is entering a period of «pragmatic foreign policy». Speaking to CNN in September, the future secretary of state argued that the U.S. needs to be «very pragmatic and smart» on all diplomatic fronts. He explained this objective necessity by pointing to the close alignment of Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China.
Raised among Cuban immigrants who fled the island of freedom for various reasons, Marco Rubio is filled with a fanatical hatred of all leftist governments south of the Rio Grande. The Havana newspaper Granma, which describes Rubio as a «hardliner», commented grimly on Trump’s selection: «The peoples of Latin America can expect nothing good», adding, «This is a bad omen for peace».
In a programmatic essay published in the Journal of International Affairs in 2020, Marco Rubio laid out the tactics for implementing U.S. foreign policy without mincing words. A key element is to encourage (read: secretly fund and direct from behind the scenes) «mass protest movements», as was done in promoting Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed head of state (who failed to overthrow legitimate President Nicolás Maduro), as well as the so-called «Green Movement» in Iran and the «Umbrella» protesters in Hong Kong.
Rubio also targeted Venezuela because, he said, it was «becoming a friend of U.S. adversaries, including Iran, Russia, China and Hezbollah», thus posing a serious security threat to the United States. For this reason, Rubio argued, «the White House should consider emergency measures, including covert and overt operations, to weaken the regime’s resilience.
What remains when we boil it all down? «The appointment of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State will have far-reaching consequences for U.S. national security», conclude Robert S. Burrell and Arman Mahmoudyan, experts at the USF Institute of Global and National Security, in an article published by The National Interest on November 30.
«For the first time since the Cold War», the authors predict, «the United States may launch a campaign to support resistance not against communism but against totalitarian regimes. This strategy could prove extremely effective», since the likely primary targets (read: for diplomatic pressure, political blackmail, economic sanctions, and threats of military intervention — V.M.) «will be Venezuela, Iran, and China».
The researchers were silent on the presumed adjustment of the U.S. position on NATO’s war in the Ukrainian theater or the likelihood of either a situational escalation or cunning concessions to Russia to break its strategic partnership with Beijing and sideline Moscow.
Marco Rubio, for his part, makes no secret of the fact that he will be a tough negotiator, as his interview on CNN shows: «We know that the Russians have been involved in attempted sabotage operations throughout Europe to hurt European countries that are supporting Ukraine. I think that’s an area that we should focus on, and I think the Trump administration will make that a priority».
Marco Rubio baselessly accuses Russia of waging a «hybrid» war in Europe. This aligns him with the neoconservatives found among both Republicans and Democrats. It should come as no surprise if the world gets an obsessed architect of color revolutions in his person.