U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at Georgia Tech on Dec. 9, 2020, about the Communist Party’s undermining of U.S. national security and academic freedom.
As President Trump said he would make an orderly transition of power, Secretary of State Pompeo sent several tweets on Jan. 7 that hit the Communist Party directly.
The first tweet read, “We have released more information about the threat the Chinese Communist Party poses to the American people and American businesses. Information = better decisions.
The second tweet read, “and warned institutional investors and endowment managers not to fund Communist Party military companies that pose a national security risk to the United States.
The third tweet, “We stand with our friends in Taiwan. In the past three years, the Trump administration has authorized more than $15 billion in arms sales to Taiwan. And the Obama administration? Generated $14 billion in sales over an eight-year period.
On the same day, Pompeo also retweeted his own opinion piece published in Newsweek on Jan. 4, “Communist China’s Nuclear Build-Up Should Worry the West,” with Billingslea, the U.S. president’s special envoy for arms control, as co-author.
The following is a translation of the article.
The COVID-19 (Chinese Communist Virus (also known as the New Coronavirus, COVID-19) outbreak) tells the world that the lies of the Chinese Communist Party can have enormous and terrible consequences. As the United States, our allies, and our partners renew their calls for transparency about the virus, we urge Beijing to come clean about another danger: China’s (CCP’s) opaque and threatening nuclear weapons buildup.
Today, China (CCP), which has the world’s fastest growing nuclear arsenal, is not allowed to reveal how many nuclear weapons it has, how many it plans to develop, or what it plans to do with them. It is the least transparent of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Despite Beijing’s secrecy about its nuclear activities, we know that China (CCP) is pursuing a triad of land, air, and sea nuclear capabilities, and that it is rapidly developing and updating its capabilities. Shortly after taking office in 2012, General Secretary Xi Jinping embraced this build-up, describing China’s Nuclear Weapons Command as “supporting China’s great power status. He then elevated the command to a separate military service called the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, as part of his plan to build a “world-class” military by 2049.
Satellite images show the PLA’s advance toward this goal, with nuclear-capable missiles on display at a military parade in Beijing in 2019. The display stretched nearly 3 miles – nearly 10 times longer than the same section 10 years ago – and was of course only a small part of the total arsenal. The parade also showcased the Dongfeng-41 missile, which can strike the U.S. coast in 30 minutes. The PLA will deploy such missiles in silos and mobile platforms in the near future, and we expect – if current trends hold – that China (the Communist Party) will at least double its total nuclear arsenal in the next decade.
The PLA has more than 1,000 theater-range ballistic missiles deployed near its coast. Many of these weapons have dual capabilities, meaning they can be armed with both nuclear and conventional warheads. They are designed to target U.S. forces in East Asia and intimidate and coerce U.S. allies.
China launched more ballistic missiles in both 2018 and 2019 than the rest of the world combined. in 2020, China test-fired more than 220 ballistic missiles, more than the total for any of the previous two years. Commercial satellite imagery shows year-round activity at China’s (Communist Party of China) nuclear weapons testing site, Lop Nur.
In tandem with its weapons modernization, Beijing’s nuclear posture has become increasingly aggressive, threatening even its non-nuclear neighbors and undermining confidence in its so-called “no first use” policy. The Defense Department report also shows evidence that the PLA is shifting to a “warning-is-launch” posture.
We have asked the Chinese (Communist) government to be more transparent and to work with the United States and Russia to develop a new arms control agreement that covers all categories of nuclear weapons. The United States has done its part to reduce nuclear dangers; it is time for China (the Communist Party) to stop posturing and start acting responsibly.
Over the past four years, the Trump administration has awakened the world to the challenge of China (CCP). We have informed our allies, partners and even the highest levels of the Russian government about China’s (CCP’s) nuclear build-up.
History has taught us a valuable lesson about the best way forward. The United States, the Soviet Union and others learned early on that great powers must be responsible with the world’s most dangerous weapons. Today, so must any nation that claims to be great.
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