{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo With Simon Conway of Newsradio 1040 - China", "slug": "secretary-pompeo-with-simon-conway-of-newsradio-1040-china", "text": "
\"QUESTION:<\/strong> Right. I\u2019m very pleased that that\u2019s the situation we\u2019re looking at so far.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also, though, the misinformation or disinformation. It\u2019s coming from places like Iran. It\u2019s coming from Russia. It\u2019s coming from China. What are we doing about that and how dangerous is it?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> It\u2019s always very dangerous when countries think they can manipulate the information space with real fake news about what\u2019s taking place. We respond. We always correct the record. We do our best to convince those countries that it\u2019s not in anyone\u2019s best interests for them to out-and-out push out disinformation. It\u2019s especially dangerous when it\u2019s with respect to something like this virus, when we know what happened here. We know this came from Wuhan, China. We don\u2019t know precisely how. That\u2019s what we need an investigation to determine.<\/p>\n But we know where the virus originated, and when they tell stories, when they use disinformation to suggest somehow that this was a European thing or the Americans started it, that\u2019s dangerous. Not only dangerous because it fails to inform, but dangerous because we need to know the answers to these questions so that we can save lives and get the economy started back up and, frankly, to make sure that something like this can never happen again.<\/p>\n QUESTION:<\/strong> Right. I mean, because I\u2019m sure they\u2019re watching as well what we\u2019ve done \u2013 the reaction. I mean, we had an absolute booming economy. It\u2019s never happened in history where we \u2013 we ourselves \u2013 said shut it all down. And that has not gone unnoticed by the likes of China and Russia.<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Absolutely true. The cost that has been posed on the United States economy not only monetary but, right, we\u2019ve had now more than 50,000 people whose lives have been lost. We\u2019ve got to get the economy cranked back up, but all of this is a direct result of the fact that this virus came out of China. The Chinese Communist Party has a special responsibility to explain how this happened, to let the world come in to see what took place.<\/p>\n They tell me all the time they want to be our partner, they want to cooperate with us. Reliable partners, reliable countries share information; they open up. They don\u2019t \u2013 when a doctor wants to report on what\u2019s happening in their hospital, they don\u2019t shut them down and tell them you can\u2019t talk about that. That\u2019s not how reliable partners work, how cooperating countries work. We need the Chinese Communist Party to begin to be a better partner here for lots of reasons.<\/p>\n QUESTION:<\/strong> Right. I mean, some of those doctors have been disappeared as well, Mr. Secretary. It is very serious stuff. Now, if it did escape from a laboratory in Wuhan, is it potential \u2013 is the potential there that they know how to cure it and maybe are about to make a huge killing \u2013 the most bad choice of words \u2013 financially on the cure? Or am I being naive here?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Well, we don\u2019t know precisely where it began. We don\u2019t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We don\u2019t know if it emanated from the wet market or yet some other place. We don\u2019t know those answers. It\u2019s why President Trump has made clear we need to get those answers. The people who know the answer to that, or at least most likely to know the answer to that, reside inside of China. It\u2019s the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. I hope we can get to a better place.<\/p>\n Look, the Chinese scientists, Chinese doctors, if they were operating here in a democracy, we\u2019d have information being exchanged. You\u2019ve seen it as we try to prepare a vaccine \u2013 good idea, some of them don\u2019t work, and that\u2019s how democracies and freedom-loving people work. We don\u2019t shut down information. We don\u2019t (inaudible) out journalists. We don\u2019t (inaudible) doctors. We engage in the exchange of ideas, and that\u2019s how you keep people safe.<\/p>",
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