{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo With Hugh Hewitt of the Hugh Hewitt Show - China and Myanmar [Burma]", "slug": "secretary-pompeo-with-hugh-hewitt-of-the-hugh-hewitt-show-china-and-myanmar-burma", "text": "
\"QUESTION<\/strong>: Now it seems to me that it\u2019s a very difficult order, but if you could persuade your counterparts in the PRC and Russia that religious freedom practiced by all but the extremes of any faith \u2013 and every faith has extremes and they cannot be allowed to define the religion for which they appear to speak \u2013 but religious liberty is actually a stabilizing force in any country that embraces genuine, broad spectrum religious liberty. Have you made that argument to President Xi or to others who routinely try and control the house church in China, the Catholic Church in China, any other Protestant denomination? And of course, we\u2019ll turn to the Uighurs in a second, but do they get a sense \u2013 do you get a sense that they actually listen to this argument?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO<\/strong>: It\u2019s a good question. We\u2019ve certainly made this argument, not only to the Chinese but to every country that\u2019s not living up to their obligations for their citizens to give them the religious freedom that they have by right of their humanness. It\u2019s absolutely also factually accurate, Hugh, your predicate of your question, which is nations become stronger when they permit their citizens to exercise their core beliefs about who they really are. And we make that case to each country about why this is not something that\u2019s just intrinsically good, but also good for them in terms of their capacity to build out their country, to grow the economy in their nation, to keep their country secure and safe. This central premise of religious freedom makes countries stronger. It doesn\u2019t create risk, which is what I think some of the countries like China are concerned with when they exercise political repression against various religious faiths. That makes their country weaker. And we\u2019ve made this argument, and we will continue to build that argument out and try and convince every country including China that it\u2019s in their best interest to increase the religious freedom in their country.<\/p>\n QUESTION<\/strong>: Well, let\u2019s turn specifically to China for a moment. They have reached some sort of rapprochement with the Vatican, which has left a lot of Catholics unhappy. The house church, though, remains under significant \u2013 Christian church remains under significant restriction. Some churches have been torn down, burned down. But it\u2019s the Uighurs and the Muslim population that is most beleaguered, and by an order of magnitude greater than the others. Can you tell us what it is that\u2019s going on there? Eli Lake has a story today saying that China\u2019s campaign against the Uighurs demands a response. What do you think, Mr. Secretary?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO<\/strong>: So this administration has responded to this threat to the world in ways that no administration has chosen to do. We\u2019ve taken it on. We\u2019ve been very candid about our view. You have some million Muslims \u2013 Uighur Muslims \u2013 there are Kazakhs, there are other \u2013 others there as well that are being detained and put in facilities, camps inside of Xinjiang that the whole world, when they see it, will be repulsed by. Our mission set is to respond \u2013 we have lots of issues that we\u2019re dealing with with respect to our relationship with China \u2013 but to respond in an appropriate way, which always begins, Hugh, with calling it out, with identifying it for what it is, and appealing to people all over the world to respond in the most fundamental way to say this is unacceptable and demand that there be a change in behavior. Other responses how we might get this to change, I don\u2019t want to get out in front of the President. But know that President Trump and the administration take this central core idea of religious liberty as a very important priority for the State Department, and indeed all of our government.<\/p>\n QUESTION<\/strong>: It is the first human right, and I want to quote Eli Lake. He says, \u201cTo be clear, there are no indications that the Chinese state has committed a mass extermination of the Uighurs. But its campaign can fairly be called a \u2018cultural genocide\u2019 \u2013 an attempt to exterminate every shred of the Uighurs\u2019 language, society and history in Xinjiang. There is now vast public evidence that China\u2019s campaign has been accelerating since 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n Is that consistent with your understanding, Mr. Secretary?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO<\/strong>: I might not use exactly the same language, but the risk is very real and it is the contra \u2013 and we tell countries around the world \u2013 it is the exact opposite of what America\u2019s doing today here at the Department of State with our religious freedom ministerial. We\u2019ve got people here who disagree with us on policy, we\u2019ve got people here who have faiths that are very different than mine as a Christian Evangelical, but they\u2019re all here because this mission set, this first freedom is so central to success for every country, and importantly to give every individual the rights that they deserve. And what you\u2019re seeing take place with China is precisely the opposite of that.<\/p>\n QUESTION<\/strong>: And Burma, you have come out against Burma. I want to move, though, to the Commission on Unalienable Rights. Because when Jefferson penned the words \u201clife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,\u201d in the pursuit of happiness is necessarily embedded the inalienable right to religious freedom. Do you believe your new commission will reach that conclusion, led by Mary Ann Glendon \u2013 famed lawyer, legal scholar, and human rights activist? It\u2019s a great development. What do you intend for this commission to do, Secretary Pompeo?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO<\/strong>: So the mission that I have given Professor Glendon and her colleagues that will sit on the panel is to go back to the fundamental grounding of human rights that the founders have set forth for us, to evaluate the various components of those human rights. Which ones are central? Which of this set of rights are core to America\u2019s success, and indeed, more broadly, the success in the world? It\u2019s very easy, Hugh. You\u2019ve seen it. I\u2019ll bet you\u2019ve had 50 people on your show in the last 10 weeks identify some right. And that word gets thrown around loosely, and that\u2019s dangerous.<\/p>\n It\u2019s dangerous for two reasons: one, when you \u2013 when everything is a right, these most fundamental, foundational rights are neglected; and second, when you start to talk about that way \u2013 that way, when you have these broad set of \u2013 because you know that many nations will fall short of that, and it will misdirect American policy. We won\u2019t be focused on those things that are most central to American security around the world.<\/p>\n And so that\u2019s what we\u2019ve tasked them to do, to go back and reground. We had \u2013 the State Department hasn\u2019t done this in decades and decades, and I\u2019m optimistic that they\u2019ll come to a conclusion that will be important for the United States as we move forward, thinking about how to frame how the United States speaks about human rights and fundamental rights all around the world.<\/p>\n QUESTION<\/strong>: I hope it\u2019s a persuasive effort. Again, thinking of President Xi and his close-in circle, if they can be persuaded that Jeffersonian democracy and rights language actually stabilizes governments without risking those at the top\u2019s careers and livelihoods, that \u2013 it doesn\u2019t have to end in the French Revolution, Secretary Pompeo. It can end in the American constitutional order of stability.<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO<\/strong>: That\u2019s absolutely the case. Look, the fear in many of these countries is if they \u2013 if they grant these set of rights, that they will lose political control. But in fact, the opposite is true. Leadership that takes these rights seriously becomes stronger, their people become more capable of helping in the governance of their nation. You get good economic benefits too, but you get enormous social good that comes from the guarantee of this set of rights.\"<\/p>",
"quote": null,
"citation": "