Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA / Image : Associated Press
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis submitted documents to the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) on 24 May 2023 local time, officially launching his participation in the 2024 US presidential election. That night, he accepted an interview on Twitter with Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk), announcing his decision to run.
According to VOA Voice of America report, the 44-year-old Florida Governor DeSantis is considered to be the main opponent for the Republican nomination against former President Donald Trump but many people feel that DeSantis' every move, from the way he speaks to the policy stance, is imitating Trump.
DeSantis and Trump are very similar in their attitudes toward CCP China. He has always publicly criticized the Chinese Communist government and the Chinese Communist Party, believing that the CCP is the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States. As early as March 2021, DeSantis proposed a plan to limit cooperation between universities, state agencies and local governments and countries like CCP China to prevent intellectual property theft. He publicly stated, “We need to take action to firmly oppose the influence and interference of the Chinese Communist Party and foreign countries in American research, education and public affairs.”
On 7 June 2021, DeSantis signed two bills targeting China. A bill prohibits public institutions from signing contracts with China, Cuba and others. This prohibits China from setting up Confucius Institutes on campuses in Florida. Another bill toughens penalties for stealing trade secrets for the benefit of a foreign government, making it a third-degree felony to steal or attempt to steal trade secrets for personal gain.
During the pandemic, DeSantis also publicly stated in June 2021 that the covid virus was almost certainly leaked from the laboratory and Wuhan. He believes that the CCP’s concealment caused the pandemic, and said that it should be responsible for thecovid pandemic.
From a more recent perspective, starting from 5 April 2023, Florida also banned state government agencies from using drones made by China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and other countries, and allocated $25 million to help government departments replace equipment. The decision made it impossible for many government agencies, including fire departments and mosquito control agencies, to use drones made by China's DJI, drawing criticism from some lawmakers and law enforcement officials.
Earlier on 8 May 2023, DeSantis signed three new bills, respectively restricting Chinese people from buying real estate in Florida; restricting the use of TikTok, Tencent QQ, WeChat and other application software; and restricting schools and CCP China and other "concerned countries" from build relationships with Americans in the state. The restricted countries in the bill restricting the purchase of real estate include CCP China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria, among which Chinese citizens from the Communist country are the most restricted, covering the entire state of Florida.
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