{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo at a Press Availability - China", "slug": "secretary-pompeo-at-a-press-availability-china", "text": "
Now, turning to the substance of my remarks today, and I want to talk about one of the world\u2019s most unfree countries.<\/p>\n
Yesterday the Chinese Communist Party implemented its draconian national security law on Hong Kong, in violation of commitments that it made to the Hong Kong people and to the United Kingdom, in a UN-registered treaty \u2013 and in contravention of Hong Kongers\u2019 human rights and fundamental freedoms.<\/p>\n
Free Hong Kong was one of the world\u2019s most stable, prosperous, and dynamic cities. Now it will be just another communist-run city, where its people will be subject to the party elite\u2019s whims. It\u2019s sad.<\/p>\n
Indeed, this is already happening. Security forces are already rounding up Hong Kongers for daring to speak and think freely. The rule of law has been eviscerated. And as always, the Chinese Communist Party fears its own people more than anything else.<\/p>\n
The United States is deeply concerned about the law\u2019s sweeping provisions and the safety of everyone living in the territory, including Americans.<\/p>\n
Article 38 of the new law also purports to apply to offenses committed outside of Hong Kong by non-residents of Hong Kong, and this likely includes Americans. This is outrageous and an affront to all nations.<\/p>\n
On Friday, we implemented visa restrictions on those responsible for the Hong Kong crackdown. On Monday, we announced that we would end defense equipment and dual-use technology exports of U.S. origin going to the territory.<\/p>\n
We will continue to implement President Trump\u2019s directive to end Hong Kong\u2019s special status.<\/p>\n
Other federal agencies are involved as well. I applaud FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for designating Huawei and ZTE as national security risks.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re also continuing to take action to build on President Trump\u2019s signing of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.<\/p>\n
Today, the United States Department of State, along with Treasury, Commerce, and DHS, are issuing a business advisory to companies with supply chain links to entities complicit in forced labor and other human rights abuses in Xinjiang and throughout China.<\/p>\n
CEOs should read this notice closely and be aware of the reputational, economic, and legal risks of supporting such assaults on human dignity.<\/p>\n
I want to call attention to recent, credible, and deeply disturbing new reports that the Chinese Communist Party is imposing forced sterilization and abortions on Uyghurs and other minorities in western China.<\/p>\n
This shocking news is sadly consistent with the CCP\u2019s decades-long callous disregard for the sanctity of human life. I call on all nations, women\u2019s advocates, religious groups, and human rights organizations to stand up for the Chinese people\u2019s basic human dignity.<\/p>\n
The Chinese Communist Party\u2019s brutality affects the rest of the world, too.<\/p>\n
We welcome India\u2019s ban on certain mobile apps that can serve as appendages of the CCP\u2019s surveillance state. India\u2019s Clean App approach will boost India\u2019s sovereignty. It will also boost India\u2019s integrity and national security, as the Indian Government itself has stated.<\/p>\n
Today, Canada\u2019s national day celebrations are dimmed by the CCP\u2019s recent decision to bring trumped-up espionage charges against Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.<\/p>\n
The CCP\u2019s propagandists have implied that these two Canadian citizens are hostages, held in retaliation for Canada\u2019s lawful arrest of Huawei\u2019s executive. She is charged by the Department of Justice with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.<\/p>\n
I commend the Canadian Government for standing firm and backing their independent legal system. Hostage-taking for political gains puts China in league with the Irans and Venezuelas of the world. The two Mikes need to come home now. [...]<\/p>
QUESTION:<\/strong> Mr. Secretary, Nirmal Ghosh from Straits Times.<\/em> In remarks about a week ago at the Brussels Forum, you mentioned a review of American resources abroad, force postures and so forth, reordering. Could you tell us a little bit more about that, and specifically does the Indo-Pacific and Asia in particular figure in that?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>So I\u2019ll leave specifics about force posture to Secretary Esper, but there\u2019s important foreign policy ramifications, how we think about resource allocation, how we secure American freedom. And so this is something that\u2019s been going on frankly since the National Security Strategy was laid down at the \u2013 roughly the beginning outset of the administration. And so we have consistently been looking for not only how we deploy our forces, Department of Defense forces, but all of the assets that we have. How do we think about our cyber capability? How do we think about where our embassies ought to be?<\/p>\n So we have the \u2013 the State Department\u2019s undergone a parallel process of thinking about: How do we engage diplomatically? Where do we need to be? Where do we need to devote our resources as well? So this has been a broad, national security strategic review that\u2019s thinking about how do we focus on the threats that challenge us today and not those that challenge us 10 or 20 or 30 years ago.<\/p>\n And then as your question suggested, we have certainly raised our game with respect to thinking about the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to the United States of America, and you will see that resources and strategy will be the result of the objective that President Trump laid out. [...]<\/p> QUESTION:<\/strong> Yes. Thank you, Morgan. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. My question is: You just mentioned about the report written by Dr. Adrian Zenz regarding the forced sterilization and abortion of the Uyghur population there by China, assimilating the Uyghur people. In the report, actually, Dr. Zenz \u2013 he presented compelling evidence that the Chinese Government\u2019s severe human rights violation of the Uyghur people meet the criteria of genocide as defined by the UN Convention on Genocide. And also, former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten called China\u2019s policy toward the Uyghurs as also genocide. In addition to that, the European Parliament Chair Reinhard Butikofer and his first Vice-Chair Evelyne Gebhardt, in their joint statement yesterday, also said their report further corroborate the assessment that we may be witnessing the implementation of genocide. I know you also issued a statement regarding this report. So do you believe China is committing genocide towards the Uyghur people?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> The United States has taken the strongest action of any nation in the world to protect the human rights of all Chinese people, including the Uyghur people. We\u2019ll continue to do that. I hope our European allies, allies in the region will take this seriously. We hope other Muslim nations will take this seriously as well and respond in a way that has the opportunity to protect those people\u2019s human rights.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll evaluate how we think about the Chinese actions and what it is we ought to call them. We\u2019ve worked closely with Congress to pass legislation \u2013 legislation that, if I recall correctly, passed nearly unanimously on Capitol Hill. President signed that legislation. The United States takes seriously our obligation to preserve human rights, the human rights of the people in China. We\u2019ll continue to do that and we\u2019re constantly evaluating those actions against the legal norms and standards for the world. [...]<\/p> QUESTION:<\/strong> [...] And if I may on Hong Kong, obviously, China has passed the national security law, and the punitive measures that have been taken so far don\u2019t appear to have prevented them from taking these actions. So how far is the U.S. willing to go, and are you willing to take the mandatory actions laid out \u2013 or mandatory sanctions laid out in the Hong Kong Autonomy Act?<\/p>\n\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Well, if they\u2019re mandatory, we\u2019ll do it. We always comply with the law here at the State Department, right? It\u2019s what we do. And so we will absolutely implement those laws both consistent with the letter and the spirit of what those statutes require. So we will certainly do that. And there is more work to do for sure, but in the end, in the end, General Secretary Xi gets to make the decision about whether he wants to move his nation closer to something that is disconnected from the world in the most fundamental ways.<\/p>\n They talk about \u2013 when I was in Honolulu, they talk about wanting to be good stewards, international players that comply with multilateral obligations. But when you\u2019re violating citizens\u2019 most fundamental freedoms, we should look to your actions, not to your words. And so that\u2019s what we will continue to do. We\u2019ll continue to do all the things that we can. And importantly, we will continue to build out a global coalition that understands the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party threat places on freedom-loving peoples all across the world. This isn\u2019t a U.S-China challenge. This is a challenge that is between freedom and authoritarianism. And so long as we keep that foremost in our minds, I\u2019m confident that the freedom-loving peoples of the world will prevail. [...]<\/p> QUESTION: <\/strong>On Hong Kong, in your opening remarks you called it now, after the security law was imposed, just another city subjected to the CCP\u2019s whims. Is Hong Kong lost? And how far is this administration willing to go to try to prevent that or to try to bring the situation back to where it once was?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>Well, whether it\u2019s lost or not is entirely dependent upon the decisions that General Secretary Xi makes. And when you say \u201clost,\u201d you mean has it lost its freedoms, is it no longer an autonomous place. I signed a certification a couple weeks back now that suggested that it was not. I suppose these things are always reversible. The actions of the last 48 hours suggest that the Chinese Government \u2013 at least at this point, the Chinese Communist Party has no intention of reversing that trend. And as for how far we\u2019ll go, I\u2019ll just repeat what the President said. He wants to ensure, with a handful of exceptions, that Hong Kong is treated just like mainland China because that\u2019s the way that General Secretary Xi has chosen to treat that place as well.\"
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