World Powers Unite Against Threat From the Chinese Communist Party: Pompeo

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on July 15, 2020. Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters

The U.S. effort to build a coalition to counter the threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building momentum as more countries become aware that their security and sovereignty are in peril if influence from authoritarian regimes is not curbed.

The United States has done a lot to “demonstrate to the world the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to them” and was able to turn the tide, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday in a conversation at The Economic Club of New York with Marie-Josée Kravis, Chair Emeritus of the Club and a Senior fellow of the Hudson Institute.

However, allies should do their own investigations and come to their own understanding of the CCP threat rather than act because “the United States told them” to do so, Pompeo said.

The UK recently banned Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from supplying its 5G networks and mandated the removal of all existing Huawei equipment from the UK’s telecommunication infrastructure within seven years.

The UK did so “because it conducted a thorough analysis based on a set of information,” some of which was collected and shared through the Five Eyes coalition and concluded that British people’s private information should not travel across untrusted networks and be intercepted by the CCP, Pompeo said.

The European Union has recently realized the unfairness in its trade relationship with China and sought a dialog with the United States to join their efforts in countering the CCP treat.

The European Union has recently sought to address inequities in its relationship with China, according to the White paper adopted by the EU Commission in June, and has sought a dialog with the United States to join efforts in countering the CCP treat.

A person holds a smartphone with Tik Tok logo displayed in this picture illustration taken on Nov. 7, 2019. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

India has ordered its telecommunications companies and internet providers to block over 50 Chinese apps after recognizing a security threat posed by these apps to Indians, Pompeo said.

Also, American businesspeople should assess the risks of operating their businesses in Hong Kong or relying on supply chains in China that can be “poisoned by the human rights violations,” Pompeo said.

The United States is working with many countries such as Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, Israel, and Brazil on China-related issues, Pompeo said, adding that while these countries have different cultures and traditions, they share the same goals of protecting their people and bringing them prosperity.

These sizable economies want the CCP to follow the same rules and reciprocity on the global stage as everybody else, Pompeo said.

Failure of Dialog-at-all-costs Policy toward China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) speaks after reviewing the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy fleet in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. Li Gang/Xinhua via AP

The policy of “diplomatic engagement and dialogue-at-all-costs diplomacy” toward China initiated by then-Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger in the 1970s failed to achieve its goal, Pompeo said.

He described the Chinese regime’s behavior as “unilateral aggression,” providing examples such as China’s notorious intellectual property theft, its broken promises to not militarize the South China Sea, and gaining influence over the World Health Organization (WHO).

“American middle class workers [lost] their jobs because ... good work done by American businesses to create real value [was] destroyed by Chinese thievery,” Pompeo said.

The WHO regularly repeated CCP propaganda during briefings and reports despite evidence that the Chinese regime manipulated information to hide facts related to the outbreak of the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, that first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The United States has since terminated its membership with the WHO.

The United States officially rejected nearly all of Beijing’s major territorial claims in the South China Sea on July 13.

“Every country that has maritime claims that are legal and lawful and recognized under international law ought to be supported by the United States,” Pompeo said adding that this action was taken to support Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

President Donald Trump’s policy goals toward China are “fairness and reciprocity and security for the American people,” Pompeo said, adding that The United States wants China to respect the rule of law.

General Secretary of the CCP Xi Jinping has made a set of unilaterally aggressive decisions and “demonstrated he is unwilling” to meet these expectations, Pompeo added.

Europe Awakens

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 18, 2019. Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned against using unsecure vendors in European 5G networks in his comment published on Wednesday by The Telegraph.

For 5G technology “to serve us well, its implementation must be based on trust and democratic control,“ Morawiecki said. ”We cannot afford for [our 5G network] to fall into the hands of cybercriminals, state-sponsored or otherwise.”

Europe should draw a lesson from the economic recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent “the repetition of economic dependency on unreliable partners,” Morawiecki wrote.

“The pandemic has made us painfully aware of how crucial it is to have our own secure production lines for pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and laboratories. The same goes for 5G decisions, “ he wrote.

“Disregarding the need to secure our critical technology would be a mistake for which Europeans would pay a considerable price,” he added.

In building 5G infrastructure Europeans have a choice between “two trusted European vendors, both world-class firms with transparent business practices based on the rule of law” and “two firms controlled by an authoritarian regime,” Morawiecki said.