{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo With Simon Conway of The Simon Conway Show - China", "slug": "secretary-michael-r-pompeo-with-simon-conway-of-the-simon-conway-show-china", "text": "
\"QUESTION:<\/strong> All right, let\u2019s get to some very serious stuff regarding China. Of course, we saw the President yesterday in the Rose Garden talking about our tougher approach. Why are we getting tough with China right now?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> For now 40 years, Simon, the American people have been fed a bill of goods that if we simply engage with China, that they would leave us alone and behave in a way that was consistent with how other large nations behaved. That hasn\u2019t happened. We thought they would open up politically. That was the theory of the foreign policy establishment. It didn\u2019t happen. President Trump has recognized that now, the actions that General Secretary Xi, the leader of China\u2019s Communist Party, is taking are really having an impact, whether that\u2019s on Iowa farmers or manufacturers from the Southwest or citizens who are traveling to Hong Kong. The risk is increasing, and to our democratic allies in the region, the risk to them is increasing as well. And so President Trump has simply said we\u2019re going to respond by the simple demand that they engage in trading relationships that are fair and reciprocal; that they \u2013 when they participate in international organizations around the world they\u2019re going to do so in a way that is transparent and open, the way that democracies do; and that when they engage in behavior like they did around the virus that emanated from Wuhan, China, that\u2019s now killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world and destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth and has got people that can\u2019t go back to work, can\u2019t go back to their churches \u2013 when that happens, we\u2019re going to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their errant behavior.<\/p>\n QUESTION:<\/strong> So the last time you and I spoke, I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019ll remember this, but it was right after you talked about the favored nation status \u2013 you took it away, literally the day you and I spoke. So he also went after Hong Kong yesterday because of the way the Chinese have been behaving.<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> So the Chinese Communist Party made a commitment to \u2013 both to the United Kingdom and to the people of Hong Kong, and indeed, to the world \u2013 this was an international treaty that said that there would be a separate system there in Hong Kong and that they would be guaranteed certain rights that weren\u2019t available in other parts of China. Now the Chinese Communist Party has welched on that deal. They\u2019ve declined to follow through on their promise. And so to the extent China treats the people of Hong Kong as it\u2019s a single country, we\u2019re going to do that too. The United States will no longer give preferential treatment to Hong Kong because, frankly, it\u2019s just going to become another communist-run city and there\u2019s no reason to live with the fiction of all the things that we have done alongside Hong Kong because they were a place with more rule of law, more democracy, more freedom. We\u2019d given them a certain set of benefits that were different from the remaining people inside of China. That\u2019s no longer true, so we\u2019ll no longer treat them any differently than we do other people inside of China.<\/p>\n QUESTION: <\/strong>Because they were supposed to have \u2013 Hong Kong was supposed to have autonomy. It clearly \u2014<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>Yes, 50 years, roughly. Yes.<\/p>\n QUESTION: <\/strong>Yeah. Clearly doesn\u2019t do that anymore. They don\u2019t do it. So it makes sense that we don\u2019t treat them differently, right?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>That\u2019s pretty straightforward. I think \u2013 I think everyone can understand that if it\u2019s one country in the eyes of China, it ought to be one country in the eyes of the world and of the United States.<\/p>\n QUESTION: <\/strong>Why is the United States the \u2013 what appears to be the lone voice in the world trying to hold China accountable for their treatment of their Muslim population?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>Well, the good news is I think many countries are starting to see the magnitude of the human rights violations that are taking place there. These \u2013 there are forced sterilizations of women, forced abortions, hundreds of thousands of people held in the worst of conditions. I think the rest of the world is starting to come alongside and see this as well. I\u2019ve talked with our friends in the United Kingdom and in Europe. I think they\u2019re starting to understand that this is unacceptable in this century that those kinds of violations of the most fundamental rights of the citizens of China are something that impacts not only those people and not only the people of China, but it denigrates our lives as well. And so we ought to do the things that we can to convince the Chinese Communist Party not to engage in that kind of barbaric behavior.<\/p>\n QUESTION: <\/strong>Right, because as you pointed out, it\u2019s sterilization, it\u2019s forced abortion, it\u2019s mandatory birth control. All that stuff is going on and almost no one\u2019s reporting it. Certainly our mainstream media is ignoring it largely.<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>I hope, too, Simon, your \u2013 I think your point is well taken. And I hope, too, that Muslim countries will see that a good deal of this activity is related to the Muslims who aren\u2019t Han Chinese, and I hope other countries will see that this is about the most fundamental, basic rights for every human being and for religious freedom and liberty. I hope other nations will come alongside. I \u2013 I\u2019m \u2013 I observe that the tide is turning here and I\u2019m counting on that being the case. I know there are good peoples all around the world that will share our horror at what\u2019s taking place there.<\/p>\n QUESTION: <\/strong>Have you spoken to Senators Rubio or Cruz over the \u2014<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>(Laughter.)<\/p>\n QUESTION: <\/strong>\u2014 over the sanctions that the Chinese have imposed on them for this very reason, for speaking out about this particular population in China?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>So I have not. They also threatened to sanction Representative Chris Smith, a great defender of freedom, and then my \u2013 one of my ambassadors, governor \u2013 former Governor Sam Brownback, who runs our Religious Freedom Program here at the State Department.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t had a chance to speak with them yet, but this is indicative of the way the Chinese Communist Party sees this. The sanctions that we imposed were because there were gross violations on \u2013 for national security matters and of human rights, and they impose sanctions on the very people that were working to ensure that those citizens had those rights. It\u2019s very perverse and I think the world will see that America is a force for good in this case, as well as many others.\"<\/p>",
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