On Monday (Jan. 11), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Voice of America’s Washington headquarters and addressed the entire U.S. General Administration for Global Media (USAGM) staff, where he spoke about the importance of U.S. foreign broadcasting in the face of new threats to American values and U.S. interests, and named the Chinese government for its disdain for human rights.
Communist China is a unique threat to core Western values
In his speech, Pompeo reaffirmed U.S. respect for freedom, democracy and human rights, and criticized centralized governments such as the Chinese Communist Party for their contempt for universal human dignity.
Pompeo made several references to China in his speech, including the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of atrocities against the Uighur people. In particular, he praised the Voice of America reporters for their coverage of the democracy movement in Hong Kong under pressure of intimidation, harassment and attacks.
Pompeo noted that China is a unique threat to Western values. “President Trump rightly identified this (China) as a unique threat in the world to the core Western idea that we would have a rules-based system that respects property rights and human dignity when he was still beginning his campaign in 2015.”
Pompeo said U.S. policy toward China is a bipartisan consensus among Republicans and Democrats. “I do think there is a consensus on that. I’ve worked with Democrats on a lot of important issues, the Hong Kong issue, and what I call Uighurs and Xinjiang and the atrocities that have been committed there. So I hope that will remain the same.”
“Distrust and verify” is at the heart of the strategy to protect U.S. freedoms
Pompeo noted that the principle of “mistrust and verify” in U.S. policy toward China is “an important part of this strategy of how to protect and maintain the freedom of the American people in the face of the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party. That’s one of the core issues.”
Pompeo said the principle is fact-based and thoughtfully developed. He cited Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea as examples, “The Communist Party of China made a promise to the people of Hong Kong, but they broke their word. The Communist Party of China has a commitment, a series of understandings that we have reached on Taiwan affairs. We also need to hold the parties accountable to those promises. The Chinese Communist Party promised President Obama that they would not arm the islands in the South China Sea, but they turned around and did so, and it cost them almost nothing. We tried to give them a clear understanding of what we expect of the Chinese Communist Party in terms of how they should behave, and frankly, it’s no different than what we expect of any country when it comes to dealing with the United States. We do that because we have a responsibility to preserve and protect the security and prosperity of the American people.”
The Chinese Communist Party’s threat is comprehensive
Pompeo noted that the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party to the United States is comprehensive. “Our administration started with the economy on this. The president has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods in an effort to stop the intellectual property theft that is costing the United States tens of millions of jobs because they will steal information, take it back to China, manufacture it, and then bring it back to the United States to dump it.”
Pompeo went on to point out the global challenge that China poses in the new coronavirus pandemic. “Take the Wuhan virus, for example. I understand that the Chinese Communist Party will now give the World health Organization permission to find out where it all started, but it took months of work to do that. It’s now been more than a year, and we still can’t get the most important information about the origin of the virus. It’s important for health and safety and to make sure that something like this doesn’t come from China again.”
Finally Pompeo noted that countries around the world are facing challenges from China. He said that the State Department’s “every ambassador, every head of mission understands that wherever they are, China poses a challenge to the countries where they are. Wherever they are, in Africa, in Latin America, and certainly in Southeast Asia. My teams on the ground are working to protect the security of the United States from the Chinese Communist Party in the countries where they are posted.”
Secretary of State Pompeo, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat, has repeatedly announced sanctions against China on behalf of the Trump administration, including recent announcements of restrictions on travel to the U.S. by Communist Party members and relatives and the termination of five U.S.-China exchange programs to counter China’s major outreach efforts.
Recent Comments