Sen. Lieberman: China Still 'Taking Advantage' of United States

China is "taking advantage" of the United States through its continued theft of intellectual property, former Sen. Joe Lieberman said Wednesday.

"Look, this is a relationship that is rising as most important to us," the one-time vice-presidential nominee from Connecticut told Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria" host Maria Bartiromo.

"The Chinese are not threatening to us in the same way the Iranians are...but the Chinese play a tough game, we have known it for years stealing our intellectual property."

Lieberman said that even while he was in the Senate, he'd see in classified briefings what the Chinese were up to, and he thinks the time has come to blow the whistle on their activities. .

"I feel we have the opportunity," said Lieberman. "We depend on each other, the Chinese and us, for economic growth in a lot of ways."

Lieberman also discussed the matter of illegal immigration, specifying that he is generally pro-immigration in many ways, but there has to be rules.

"Any anybody who favor immigrants as I do should want the rule to be enforced as best we possibly can," said Lieberman. "There is a really interesting effort going on in the House to try to discharge a bill, on DACA, the Dreamers, and it is bipartisan, getting closer and closer to having enough signatures to bring that bill to the floor. That will be a breakthrough,"

But that doesn't mean he wants the gates to be opened for immigrants.

"The bottom line is, immigrants contribute to the economy and country," said Lieberman, noting that most are not looking for trouble, but rather for a better life.

Also on Wednesday, Lieberman that as chairman of the group, United Against Nuclear Iran, he could "not be more supportive" of President Donald Trump's policy to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.

"[It] was a bad deal," he said. "We gave a lot away and got very little in return, and we did nothing, about the non-nuclear aggression and support of terrorism, of the Iranian government."

He said he also thought Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's address on enforcing sanctions on Iran if it does not stop its support of terrorism was "right on target."

"Let's sit down with Iranians, negotiate to stop the aggression in the Middle East, stop support of terrorism, and, of course, stop the nuclear program," said Lieberman. "Let us inspect comprehensively, which the original agreement didn't do. What is in it for them is the tremendous opportunity to raise the standard of living of their people, who are suffering now because of the government."

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