U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Prague called upon the young democracies of Central and Eastern Europe to embrace their hard-won freedoms as they face threats from Russia and China.
Pompeo said that Russia threatens Czechia’s democracy and security through disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks. “It’s even trying to rewrite your history,” he added.
However, the threat “posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its campaigns of coercion and control” is greater, Pompeo said.
In Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic, the CCP influences politicians and security forces, steals Czech “industrial data created through innovation and creativity,” and stifles freedom, Pompeo said.
After Prague, the Czech Republic’s capital, ended its sister city relationship with Beijing because of pressure by the CCP to add a “one China” provision to the partnership agreement one year ago, it established a sister city partnership with Taipei, reported Taiwan News.
Beijing considers Taiwan a province of China with no right to state-to-state relations.
Pompeo said that the Senate speaker will make that trip to Taiwan as he planned “fulfilling the wishes of his late predecessor.”
Countering the CCP Threat
“The [Chinese] regime has a Marxist-Leninist core no less than the Soviet Union did, and indeed, perhaps more so,” Pompeo said.“What’s happening now isn’t Cold War 2.0. The challenge of resisting the CCP threat is in some ways much more difficult. That’s because the CCP is already enmeshed in our economies, in our politics, in our societies in ways the Soviet Union never was. And Beijing is not likely to change course in the near future,” said Pompeo.
Pompeo noted that Europe has started to recognize the CCP threat, adding that “there are plenty of European leaders eager to lean into freedom.” He assured Czechs that the United States will support the Czech Republic on its quest for freedom.
“And remember too that today, tomorrow, and forever, America will be with you as we champion those precious human rights and freedoms,” he said.
Expanding American-Czech Economic Cooperation
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Wednesday that both countries can also cooperate in science and development as Czech scientists have world-class achievements in various fields of research.Babis criticized China for not investing the way the European country had expected. Trade with China is unbalanced and the Czech Republic needs to examine why it’s not successful enough, he said.
On the other side, U.S. investment “is enormous,” noting that about 2,500 U.S. investors in the country “gave jobs to more than 55,000 people here,” Babis said.
Pompeo met earlier on Wednesday with a group of startup leaders, saying at the Czech Senate: “their nimble enterprises—once unthinkable under Soviet commissars—are bringing value to both the United States and the Czech economies.”
He also warned the country that “partnering with Russian and Chinese state-owned companies” to build a new reactor for its Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant “will, in fact, undermine the Czech Republic’s national sovereignty.”
America’s private sector can provide for Czechs an opportunity to get energy at a reasonable price, distributed according to the Czech national interest, and based on the western business model that upholds the rule of law, property rights, and contracts are transparent, Pompeo said.
Russian, Chinese, French, and South Korean companies, U.S. group Westinghouse, and a French-Japanese joint venture are expected to participate in a CEZ tender to build the new unit.
Pompeo also praised the nation for leading the international 5G security initiative to eliminate untrusted vendors from national 5G networks thus preventing the CCP from infiltrating them.
Babis announced that the next 5G security conference will take place in September and has invited Pompeo to attend.
