US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to reporters following a meeting with UN Security Council members on Iran’s alleged failure to comply with a nuclear deal and calls for the restoration of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations headquarters in New York, FS, August 20, 2020.
Mike Segar | Reuters
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed a number of issues across the United States and China on Friday, ranging from tight trade ties to national security threats to the November presidential election.
Asked in a CNBC interview whether the relationship between the world’s two largest economies could be restored, he said the Trump administration is open to talks with Beijing. However, he added that the US would maintain its tough stance in the interests of US national security.
“This is a serious attempt. This is a serious risk and President Trump is serious about protecting our information, our networks and the American people,” Pompeo said in an interview with Squawk Box.
When asked about the Chinese property TikTok, Pompeo would not discuss specifications of a US tech company taking over the platform. He reiterated the importance of such a sale to protect personal US data.
“I predict that TikTok will no longer share his private information belonging to the American people with the Chinese Communist Party. I am sure they will not do so,” Pompeo said of the potential American acquisition.
“I promise you when we get to the end of this that will not happen,” he added.
Pompeo also promised “by going to” China if the country pursues a policy that all Chinese companies “look after their security apparatus.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced that it would remove “untrusted” Chinese tech apps like TikTok and WeChat from US app stores. Pompeo detailed the new five-point “clean network” effort, aimed at limiting potential national security risks.
“With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok and WeChat and others, are major threats to US citizens’ personal data, and not to mention tools for Chinese Communist Party’s sense of content,” Pompeo said in a Aug. 5 press release.
U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese intellectual property has cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars in turnover and thousands of jobs and threatens national security. Beijing maintains that it does not engage in theft of intellectual property.
Pompeo added that the State Department would work with the Department of Commerce and Defense to limit the ability of Chinese cloud service providers to collect, store and process data in the United States.
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