Mike Pence knifes Trump for not drawing a harder line on China ahead of Xi and Putin meeting this week

READ MORE: Trump purge BEGINS as insiders name scapegoat Published: 13:00 EST, 15 November 2026 | Updated: 13:18 EST, 15 November 2026 President Donald Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence shared that he was shocked by how closely the current administration is working with America's top adversaries.In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Pence highlighted the hardline stance that the first Trump administration, in which he served, took on China.'You’ll recall that during the first Trump administration, we drew a hard line on China. We imposed $250 billion in a year in tariffs. We built up our military in the region. We called out the persecution of Muslim Uyghurs as the genocide that it was,' Pence noted.Speaking to moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday, Pence then compared those policies with actions being taken in the second Trump administration, saying that he doesn't 'really understand why.''First it was allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the United States, even though it continues to be essentially controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,' Pence stated, before continuing, 'Also, the delaying of weapons sales to Taiwan, where in our administration, we made those weapons available.''Then ultimately on Nvidia, the decision to loosen the export controls on our most advanced microchips is a mystery to me,' Pence added.The former Vice President then warned that Beijing has spent decades stealing American intellectual property and technology to boost its economic and military capabilities.'China, for decades, has been engaging in espionage and intellectual property theft all in efforts to gain American technology,' Pence stated. Former Vice President Mike Pence compared the first Trump administation's hardline stance on China with actions being taken in the second Trump administration, saying that he doesn't 'really understand why' those decisions are being made President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, DC in SeptemberHe then stressed that maintaining America's technological advantage over China was essential to both national security and economic prosperity. 'We’ve got to win the AI race. But for our national security, as well as for our economic security, the American people deserve answers,' Pence stated of the latest developments surrounding the debacle involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose company has been at the center of the debate over American chip exports to China.Huang was accused last week of having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, a scandal that prompted him to apologize for being 'unfaithful to my wife,' though he did not provide further details.Pence's latest split with Trump comes as the Commander in Chief is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a trilateral meeting on Thursday, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China. Trump rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi in Washington in September, just weeks before the American midterm elections. The warm welcome raised eyebrows among many in the nation's capital, as lawmakers of both parties shook their heads at the meeting when asked about it by the Daily Mail at the time.Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters in September that Xi is a 'reptile,' adding that he wouldn't turn his back on him 'if he's two days dead.'Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal said at the time that Trump should be issuing an ultimatum, not a welcome.'Far from rolling out the red carpet, [Trump] ought to be telling Xi knock it off, stop it, or we're not going to talk to you about AI or anything else,' he told the Daily Mail.