WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday denounced China's response to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, embracing that cause in the Trump administration's strongest statement to date and blasting American companies that he said have "embraced (Chinese) censorship" because of their greed.

"Nothing in the past year has put on display the Chinese Communist Party’s antipathy to liberty so much as the unrest in Hong Kong," Pence said in a wide-ranging speech on U.S.-China relations.

“Hong Kong is a living example of what can happen when China embraces liberty. And yet, for the last few years, Beijing has increased its interventions in Hong Kong and engaged in actions to curtail the rights and liberties of its people," Pence said.

Pence took sharp aim at American corporations that he said are acquiescing to Chinese coercion and censorship because of "corporate greed."

"... Far too many American multinational corporations have kowtowed to the lure of China’s money and markets by muzzling not only criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, but even affirmative expressions of American values," Pence said.

He pointed to Nike's decision to remove Houston Rockets merchandise from their stores in China after the Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey, posted a seven-word tweet supporting the Hong Kong protesters: “Fight for Freedom, stand with Hong Kong," Morey wrote.

Pence was even more severe in describing the NBA's response to the controversy.

"In siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech, the NBA is acting like a wholly-owned subsidiary of that authoritarian regime," Pence said.

Pence's remarks seemed to put him out in front of his own boss: President Donald Trump.

More:Cruz to NBA: Don't pander to China's brutal Communist Party, stand up for US free speech

Trump has been mostly mum about the democracy movement, and he even posted a congratulatory tweet to Chinese President Xi Jinping marking the country's 70th anniversary of communist rule. That same day, a pro-democracy protester was shot and at least 180 were arrested amid violent clashes in Hong Kong's streets.

Trump has urged Xi to "humanely solve the Hong Kong problem," after initially declining to criticize China for its handling of the protests. In August, Trump simply called the situation "tough" and "tricky."

By contrast, Pence said Thursday in a message to the protesters: "We stand with you. We are inspired by you. And we urge you to stay on the path of nonviolent protest."

Some foreign policy experts expressed skepticism at Pence's embrace of the Hong Kong democracy movement, given Trump's refusal to raise human rights issues with other authoritarian regimes and the president's harsh attacks on African American athletes who have taken a knee during the national anthem to draw attention to police brutality and racism in the U.S.

"Count me (in) the skeptical column when it comes to your administrations commitment to democracy and human rights, at home or abroad, Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration, tweeted on Thursday.

"Sorry but this just isn't credible anymore from this administration. Ask the Kurds," added Kelly Magsamen, who served as a national security and defense official in the Obama and Bush administrations.

More:Trump lauds China; police chief laments one of Hong Kong's 'most violent and chaotic days'

Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have long accused China of encroaching on their rights since the city reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Massive protests began in June, after the government introduced a proposal to allow suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China for trial.

Hong Kong officials withdrew the proposal, but protesters have seized the momentum to press demands for more freedoms, as well as investigations into police behavior during the demonstrations.

Pence devoted most of his speech to lauding Trump's trade war with China, saying the president has been willing to confront Beijing's unfair economic practices, such as intellectual property theft and currency manipulation, while the Washington political establishment often "enabled them."

Pence was supposed to deliver this speech in June, with aides billing it as a much-anticipated broadside against China for human-rights and religious-liberties abuses. But Trump nixed it because the White House wanted to avoid exacerbating U.S.-China tensions ahead of a high-stakes meeting that month between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Osaka, Japan.

Even before Thursday's speech, China derided Pence's anticipated remarks as an attempt to distract the American public from Trump's widely criticized decision to remove U.S. troops in Syria.

More:Trump declares 'big success' in Syria, lifts sanctions on Turkey

"Amid a global backfire against Trump's decision to withdraw 1,000 troops from Syria and Turkey's attacks on the Kurdish forces, Pence has to fulfill his obligation to ease the burden on Trump and try to stabilize Trump's approval rating," reads an op-ed published earlier this week in a news outlet controlled by China's ruling Communist Party.

Trump's White House is plagued by internal "chaos" and his policy toward China is driven by domestic politics ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign, the op-ed states.

"Trump doesn't have a stable policy toward China as his so-called stance against China is in service of his political purpose, which is reelection now," the piece says. "Trump himself blows hot and cold one day to another."

Pence's speech on Thursday landed at another delicate moment in the trade talks.

Earlier this month, Trump said the U.S. and Chinese negotiators had a deal "in principle" to prevent intellectual property theft and for China to buy $40 billion to $50 billion of U.S. agricultural goods. He agreed then to delay tariff hikes on China as the two sides continued to hammer out that limited deal.

The details of that partial trade agreement still have not been put to paper. Pence said the administration remains optimistic that Trump and Xi will agree on specifics when they meet at an economic summit in Chile in mid-November.

"We are not seeking to contain China’s development," Pence said. "We seek a level playing field, open markets, fair trade, and a respect for our values ... We want a constructive relationship with China’s leaders like we have enjoyed for generations with China’s people."

More:Amnesty International calls on China to end campaign forcing mostly Muslims into 're-education camps'

Pence only made a short reference to the Chinese government's repression campaign against the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group living in northwest China. Chinese authorities have subjected an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslims to mass internment, political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation, according to Amnesty International and other human-rights groups.

"The Communist Party in China has arrested Christian pastors, banned the sale of Bibles, demolished churches, and imprisoned more than one million Muslim Uyghurs," the vice president said.

He said Trump had "held Beijing accountable" for its treatment of the Uyghurs by imposing visas restrictions on and sanctions on Chinese officials and entities complicit in the persecution campaign.

Thursday's remarks, made at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan policy forum, were Pence's second major address on China in the last year. Last October, Pence accused the Chinese government of orchestrating an aggressive military, economic and political campaign to expand its influence inside the United States and across other regions of the world.

“China has initiated an unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion, the 2018 elections, and the environment leading into the 2020 presidential elections,” Pence said then in remarks at a conservative Washington think tank, the Hudson Institute.

Contributing: John Bacon and David Jackson