LONDON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo applauded Britain’s hardened stance toward China on Tuesday and appealed to a global coalition against the country, blaming the Chinese Communist Party for what it described as exploiting the coronavirus pandemic “to promote its own interests”.
Pompeo made the comments on a visit to Britain, which itself was a victory lap for the Trump administration. He had previously indicated that Britain had to choose whether to side with Beijing or Washington on issues such as China’s role in telecommunications infrastructure.
The secretary of state praised Dominic Raab, Britain’s foreign secretary, for his government’s decision last week to ban equipment supplied by Chinese tech giant Huawei from the country’s high-speed wireless network, among others. stuff.
“I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the British government on its principled responses to these challenges,” said Pompeo. “Well done.”
The two men dismissed suspicions that Britain’s decisions had come at the behest of a US government locked in a mounting confrontation with China. But analysts said Pompeo’s embrace of his British counterparts would only make it harder for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to back down on the brink of an increasingly deep rift with Beijing.
China’s ambassador to London Liu Xiaoming lashed out at Britain on Monday night, accusing him of interfering in Chinese internal affairs and violating international law in his opposition to China’s crackdown on Hong Kong.
Analysts said Pompeo’s comments could further exacerbate Britain’s ties to China.
“Pompeo’s kind of praise of how the British government has been working with the Americans is likely to hinder the Chinese response,” said Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. “Now that may be what Pompeo wants to see. But that’s not what Dominic Raab or Boris Johnson want to see. “
Professor Tsang said Huawei’s rejection of Britain seemed tailored not to provoke a gargantuan response from Beijing, as Johnson gave Huawei five months to continue selling equipment for Britain’s 5G networks before the ban comes into effect. validity. Johnson, a self-styled “Synophile”, has praised efforts in the past to take advantage of business opportunities through trade with China.
“Johnson is trying to minimize the damage,” said Professor Tsang.
But Mr Johnson has been forced to change course in recent months as British public opinion and the mood of his own Conservative Party hardened in response to China’s crackdown on Hong Kong and its handling of the pandemic.
Some conservative lawmakers, including the same politicians who once pressed a hard line on Britain’s exit from the European Union, have organized what they call the China Research Group, demanding that the government take a more aggressive approach to China. for several reasons.
Among them are China’s harsh treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and fears that a trade deal between the United States and Britain, one of the desired Brexit outcomes, would be jeopardized if Johnson rejected President Trump’s impulses. for a more combative China policy.
Pompeo met with some of Britain’s Conservative Party lawmakers against China on Tuesday. Among them was Iain Duncan Smith, a prominent Brexit supporter, who has recently called on the British government to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, arguing that it represents as great a threat as Huawei.
Pompeo said the United States was seeking to ban TikTok and other Chinese social media platforms.
With tensions rising between Western countries and China, Britain has taken a series of more aggressive measures in recent days. On Monday, she suspended an extradition treaty with Hong Kong to protest the new security law that tightened China’s control over the former British colony and is viewed by critics as a danger to the long-held freedoms there.
The suspension, apparently carried out in response to fears that anyone extradited to Hong Kong from Britain could be sent to mainland China for prosecution, was another indication that the willingness of Western countries to confront China has been strengthened since that Beijing adopted general security last month. law.
For Pompeo, who described China as the “central threat of our time,” the visit was an opportunity to solidify Britain’s support for a more confrontational approach to China.
“It is not about language, it is not about words,” Pompeo said at a news conference with Raab on Tuesday. “We want all nations to work together to reject the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party in all dimensions that I described to you today.”
He added: “That certainly includes the UK.”
Also in Britain there are signs that the pressure on Johnson to continue his campaign against China will not lessen. Anti-Chinese lawmakers in Britain are said to be preparing to try to block the efforts of a Chinese state-owned nuclear power company to expand its presence in Britain.
