Pompeo Slams Biden for Allowing Beijing’s Propaganda to ‘Dictate’ to Americans

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference at The Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 25, 2022. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alerted President Joe Biden about kowtowing to Beijing, accusing his administration of lacking support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) potential Taiwan visit. ​

In the latest phone call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Biden on Thursday, Xi warned Washington should not meddle in its affairs with Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as its own. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” claimed the Chinese Communist Party head, who is seeking an unprecedented third term in November.

Allowing “America to be bullied by Chinese propaganda ... would send a really bad message to our friends in the region: the Australians, the South Koreans, the Japanese,” Pompeo said this Sunday on WABC 77 AM’s “Cats Roundtable.”

“But mostly, it would tell the American people that it’s okay if the United States permits … [the Chinese] communist party … to dictate how Americans will behave, where we will travel, the things we will say,” Pompeo said.

The call came not long after Pelosi confirmed that she was leading a congressional delegation to four countries in Asia this week, but made no mention of stopping in Taiwan.

Declining to share her travel plans citing security reasons, Pelosi told reporters on July 21 that deterring China from attacking Taiwan is “a very major issue,” and “it’s important for us to show support for Taiwan.”

​“I don’t agree with Speaker Pelosi very often. But she made it clear that she wanted to go visit [Taiwan], an independent, sovereign nation,” Pompeo said in a rare Republican defence of the House speaker.

Kowtowing to the CCP

“We’ve seen … where Hollywood has kowtowed to the Chinese communist party. The NBA has kowtowed to the Chinese communist party. It should not be the case where an American administration, the president of the United States, should do the same thing,” Pompeo said in an interview.

Shortly after China’s foreign ministry had warned it would take “forceful measures,” Biden said that the Pentagon “thinks it’s not a good idea right now” for Pelosi to visit the democratic island.

Chinese military conducted live-fire exercises off its coast opposite Taiwan on July 30. Hu Xijin, the former chief editor of the CCP’s state-run tabloid Global Times, also suggested military retaliation should U.S. fighter jets escort Pelosi on a Taiwan visit.

Under its one China policy, Washington maintains no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

The proposed trip has won bipartisan support in Congress as lawmakers on both sides urge the top Democrat to carry out her plan. Pompeo sent a message to Pelosi on Twitter last week saying that he would like to visit Taiwan with her if she decides to go in August.

His recent remarks, however, are in sharp contrast to those of former President Donald Trump, who slammed Pelosi’s trip. “Everything she touches turns to Chaos, Disruption, and ‘Crap,'” he wrote on social media site Truth Social on July 29.