Richard McCormick

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Thursday that China needs the United States more than President Donald Trump needs China, dismissing a Chinese academic's claim to the contrary as "garbage."

Appearing on "National Report," McCormick responded after an official with the China Institute in Shanghai told the state-owned Beijing Review that "Donald Trump needs China far more than China needs Donald Trump" because of the president's domestic and international challenges.

"I think that's garbage, quite frankly," he said. "We have the largest world economy by almost double what their economy is."

McCormick said China is the country facing the more difficult long-term problems, pointing to "significant problems with their population, with the real estate market, [and] the way they do banking."

"They have a lot of things on the horizon that are going to cause them problems," he said.

McCormick also argued that China's conduct abroad is beginning to catch up with Beijing as other countries reassess their economic ties with the communist regime.

"Plus, a lot of countries that they've been doing business with in poor faith are going to start rejecting that model as they go forward," he said. "So they have their own problems."

McCormick said the United States remains in the stronger position despite China's importance to global trade.

"I think they need us more than we need them," he said. "We're still the big boy on the block, but they are important to the world economy, and we're going to have to deal with them into the future."

China has repeatedly violated trade rules since entering the World Trade Organization, while becoming more sophisticated in skirting accountability, said McCormick.

"Since they joined the World Trade Organization, I think we've taken them to court like 27 times, won every single case," McCormick said. "But they get better and better at cheating."

The presence of more than a dozen American business leaders traveling with Trump to China matters, said McCormick, because U.S. companies remain a central source of American leverage.

"It makes a difference because that basically is the way we flex," he said. "We still have the biggest companies in the world, by far the largest economy, the most discretionary income."

But McCormick warned China is a serious competitor, especially in advanced technology and artificial intelligence.

"They have about a quarter-million students in our advanced educational system right here studying the most advanced technologies," he said. "They have about 47% of the AI programmers and about 50% of the AI patents."

"They're for real," McCormick added. "This is going to be a competition to the future."

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