Dr. Mehmet Oz, who claims to be a “Republican” candidate for Senate, criticized Trump’s trade policies toward China in an interview with CCP media.
The Washington Free Beacon reported on the recently unearthed interview:
Oz, who is running for Senate in Pennsylvania, told Chinese state media network CGTN in July 2018 that he opposed trade wars with China and supported closer collaboration in the field of medical research. Oz gave the interview to CGTN, which operates under the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department, as part of a promotional tour for a supplement company with extensive business ties to China.
Oz’s commented to the Chinese Communist Party affiliated media appear to contradict his recent comments on U.S. policy toward China now that he’s actually running for office under the Republican Party label.
He recently urged Joe Biden to “get tougher” on China, and has also accused the Chinese government of manipulating its currency and stealing American intellectual property.
But Oz’s past comments could put him at odds with former President Donald Trump, who has not yet endorsed a candidate in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary. Trump imposed tariffs against China in 2018 over its unfair trade practices, and those tariffs are exactly what Dr. Oz was criticizing in his interview with CCP media.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
In the interview, Oz agreed with CGTN host Tian Wei that the United States should not be in a trade war with China. “I don’t think trade wars are worth it,” Oz said in agreement with Wei. The CGTN host has been a vocal critic of China hawks in the U.S. government, and once compared Trump to an infant in a post on social media. Oz went on to call for closer collaboration between the United States and China in the field of health care, saying it was “one of the ways we can bridge our relationship.”
Oz has made millions of dollars in China from his television show and his health sponsorship deals. He visited China in 2018 to promote Usana, a multi-level marketing company that sells health and wellness products. In September 2021, Usana published a book from Oz and Anlong Xu, a professor at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, to promote Chinese traditional medicine. Oz spoke at a medical summit alongside Usana executives, where he said that Chinese president Xi Jinping’s support for traditional Chinese medicine had “opened a portal” for Usana to sell its wellness products in the country.
Dr. Oz has faced scrutiny in the past for praising China’s authoritarian response to the COVID pandemic. In the early days of the pandemic, he said that the U.S. should “copy” the CCP’s aggressive crackdown on its citizens in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“Take their blueprint and repeat it here in this country,” Oz stated.