Marco Rubio actually said...

They are efforts to, basically, make these nations economically, politically, and, eventually, militarily dependent on and vulnerable to Chi...

Defending human rights isn't just a good thing to do or just the right moral thing to do, which it most certainly is.

They have most certainly not embraced democracy. They have actually gotten more autocratic.

One of the first things autocratic rulers do, almost by definition, is they violate the human rights of their people.