U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday struck an unyielding tone on America's position in its trade war with China.

"The era of economic surrender is over," Pence told CNBC's Joe Kernen at the CNBC Institutional Investor's Delivering Alpha Conference.

Pence said that not only does the U.S. run "$500 billion trade deficits" with China, the country also loses almost as much in intellectual property theft every year.

The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $419.2 billion in 2018, a 11.7% increase over 2017, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Washington has accused Beijing of intellectual property theft — something China has always denied — which along with other issues have been covered in their trade negotiations.

"For too long one administration after another, Republican and Democrat administrations, were willing to accept extraordinary disadvantages to American workers and American jobs in the name of trade with China," Pence said, according to a transcript of his comments.

"Those days are over ... we're going to continue to stand strong," Pence added. "The American people can be confident President Trump is going to continue to stand strong."