Secretary of state Mike Pompeo
Michael (Mike) Richard PompeoUS Praises Britain’s Huawei Ban on China After Overnight Defense Campaign: Panel Passes 4.6B Bill Addressing Border Wall Funds, Confederation Name Changes | Fire from Navy ship enrages Trump says he has no plans to speak to Chinese president He said Wednesday that the world will “absolutely” make China pay a price for the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic, saying the cost will likely be reflected in changing relationships with the world’s second-largest economy.
“I think the world will absolutely pay them a price,” Pompeo said in an interview with the editor-in-chief of The Hill. Bob Cusack
Robert (Bob) Cusack Hill’s coronavirus report: California backs down on reopening as cases skyrocket across the country; SoapBox CEO David Simnick says agile firms can work around supply chain bottlenecks to access supplies for disinfectants and sanitary supplies. The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Argentum – California. The Trump team was not aggressive enough at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis; Tensions between the White House and Fauci boil MORE.
“You can see, every place I go, every foreign minister I speak to, they recognize what China has done to the world,” Pompeo said.
The interview took place as part of The Hill’s New Threats, New Defense summit, where the secretary identified China as the Trump administration’s No. 1 national security priority if Trump is elected to a second term.
“I am very sure that the world will see China differently and will engage with them in fundamentally different terms than they did before this catastrophic disaster,” the secretary said, referring to the pandemic.
Pompeo said the Trump administration’s strategy in China is to roll back “to make sure we have a fair and reciprocal set of relations with the Chinese Communist Party.”
That has taken the form of a series of recent actions against Beijing and cold communication at the highest levels, with President Trump
Donald John TrumpIvanka Trump launches Goya Foods products on Twitter Sessions defends the challenge: “I leave the elected office with my integrity intact” Former White House doctor Ronny Jackson wins the second round of Texas MORE On Tuesday, he said he has no plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump also told CBS News that he “is not interested” in seeking a second-phase trade deal with the country.
Pompeo, who met with his Chinese counterpart in Hawaii last month, said the United States is “engaged in dialogue,” but that the Trump administration’s strategy for dealing with China is to respond to movements that the views of the United States they consider threatening and seek “behavioral change”. “
“This is a Chinese Communist Party acting in a way that poses real threats to the world, and the United States will respond in each of those places to ensure that it preserves American national security and imposes costs on the Chinese Communist.” Participate to achieve the behavior change that will have a good result, ”he said.
This includes a move by Pompeo this week to align the United States with a 2016 international court ruling dismissing China’s claims in the South China Sea, and the secretary said the United States wants a “free Indo-Pacific and open”.
Pompeo said a decision will be made “shortly” on whether to ban China’s TikTok social media app in the US It also follows the State Department’s decision to apply visa restrictions to employees of telecommunications companies. , including Huawei, if the company supports regimes involved in human rights abuses.
The administration argues that the 2017 Chinese law requiring communication companies to share data as part of security investigations represents a threat to users’ privacy.
“Whether it’s TikTok or any of the other Chinese communications platforms, applications, infrastructure, this administration is taking seriously the requirement to protect the American people from having their information end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo said.
Another key area of dispute between the US and China is Beijing’s highest authority over Hong Kong, with Trump on Tuesday formally ending the United States’ special relationship with the territory.
Pompeo said Wednesday that the president has not made a decision on whether the United States will grant refugee status to people in Hong Kong.
Lawmakers last month introduced bipartisan legislation that would allow Hong Kong residents to seek refugee status in the United States in response to Beijing’s national security law.
The Trump administration has reduced the number of refugees allowed in the United States to 18,000 by 2020, the lowest amount since the program began in 1980.
Pompeo said there are “fewer people seeking asylum,” requests from people already in the US to stay for fear that their safety will return to their home country, and that the coronavirus pandemic further hampered the delay in the US
“It has been a little slower. Fewer people seeking asylum and our ability to process asylum claims has been somewhat reduced by the virus emanating from China. We will come back to that shortly, ”he said.
The State Department said by 2020 that it expects to process up to 350,000 individual asylum cases.
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