Rubio to call for "pro-American industrial policy" to counter China

Instead, the speech lays out a more general case for protecting certain sectors and workers, and is sure to spark debate among conservatives, many of whom have long opposed industrial policy on the grounds that the government should not pick winners and losers.

Responding to the rise of China requires the U.S. to “reject the fundamentalism that argues that the greatest virtue in American policy is to maximize ‘efficiency,’” the draft speech reads.

“When dignified work, particularly for men, goes away, so goes the backbone of our culture,” it says. “Our communities become blighted and wither away. Families collapse, and fewer people get married.”