{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo's Remarks to the World Economic Forum - China", "slug": "secretary-pompeos-remarks-to-the-world-economic-forum-china", "text": "
\"MR BRENDE:<\/strong> Thank you, Secretary. We\u2019re very pleased that you have joined us, and it does look brisk there. And you also mentioned China in your short intervention, and I know from all participants here in Davos there is huge interest in the Sino-U.S. relationship. We see that growth is slowing in China. We also know that there will be a trade delegation visiting DC later this year. So from your perspective as Secretary of State, how do you see the role of China in the world today as an emerging regional and global power, and also in relationship to the U.S.-Sino relationship?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>Borge, there are those who say that conflict, superpower conflict between our two countries, is inevitable. We don\u2019t see it that way. We want to find places where we can work together. You talked about the trade delegation coming. I am optimistic that we\u2019ll receive them well and that we\u2019ll have a good outcome from those conversations. But remember, the course of the relationship will be determined by the principles that America standbys \u2013 stands by: free and open seas, the capacity for nations to take their goods around the world, fair and reciprocal trade arrangements where every country has the opportunity to compete on a fair, transparent, and open basis. These principles of democracy, these things that have created so much wealth for the whole globe, will drive the relationship between the United States and China in the years ahead, and we hope that China will adopt policies that are consistent with that. If they do, I am very confident that our two nations can thrive and prosper together.<\/p>\n MR BRENDE:<\/strong> Thank you, Secretary. It\u2019s interesting to hear that you are optimistic. I know that you are an optimistic person. Last year in Davos, the big discussion was the future of NAFTA. There you found a solution. So when you\u2019re saying \u201coptimistic,\u201d you think we will say another breakthrough this year on the trade side between the U.S. and China? I think a lot of our business CEOs are very curious about that here.<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO: <\/strong>I don\u2019t want to get ahead of the conversations, the negotiations that are taking place. There\u2019s lots of hard work to do. There are certainly issues around trade balances; those certainly matter. But the central premises of the trade arrangements, the structures at the WTO, the tariff levels that will be set, the capacity for American businesses to operate in China without risk that their trade secrets and their intellectual property will be stolen, the understandings that investments in our two countries will be reciprocal. A country \u2013 a Chinese company that want to \u2013 wants to invest here in the United States should have every opportunity to do so, so long as they\u2019re coming here to compete fairly. In the same sense, American companies should be permitted to do that as well without having to have a mechanism by which the technology that they\u2019re providing will be forced to be transferred.<\/p>\n Those aren\u2019t fair arrangements, they\u2019re not reciprocal agreements, they\u2019re not the way free and fair trade ought to be conducted, and so I am hopeful that each of those issues can be dealt with constructively and that China is prepared to compete on those terms. And if they are, I am very confident that there will be a bright future not only for the United States and its people but for the Chinese people as well.\"<\/p>",
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