Mike Pompeo: Chinese Communist Party ‘Central threat of our times’

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 January 2020, 20:27 GMT]
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting London this week to discuss US-UK bilateral ties at the height of Brexit and the British decision on involving the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei in the deployment of UK's 5G mobile network amidst repeated US warnings. The former CIA director said the Chinese Communist Party was the “central threat of our times” after 20 years of post 9/11 counterterrorism problem. On the British decision on Huawei, Mr Pompeo said: “This isn’t about any one company. This is about a model that the Chinese Communist Party has where they place requirements on these businesses that say thou shalt do, and there’s not only a legal requirement but there’s deep financial investment. You have senior leaders in these companies that are tied to the Chinese Communist Party. We think that – it’s not about a technical back door. They have the front door.”

However, with respect to intelligence sharing among the “Five Eyes” relationship the USA was having with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Mr Pompeo said that the relationship was deep, strong and that would remain.

Australia and New Zealand have already decided not to allow Huawei to build their 5G networks while Canada is yet to announce its decision.

Recently, New Delhi made a decision to allow Huawei to participate in India's 5G trial phase.

The US Secretary of State also said he was traveling and talking about Chinese telecommunications infrastructure in Africa and in Asia and that the world was waking up to this risk.

Mike Pompeo, along with his British counterpart Dominic Raab, was addressing a discussion on the “Future of the Special Relationship” at Policy Exchange in London.

“For the last now coming on 20 years, we spent an awful lot of time staring at the counterterrorism problem. Post 9/11, we developed systems, processes, capabilities, tools to reduce the risk to the West and in particular to our own country from terrorism. I just talked about that work that we do together. It is phenomenal, extraordinary. The risk of terrorism in the world is lower today because of the good work we did in the United States, because of the remarkable work that happened here in the United Kingdom, and many partners who share our value set and know the risk from terror,” Mr Pompeo said.

“But times move on. And while we still have to be enormously vigilant about terror, there’s still challenges all across the world. The Chinese Communist Party presents the central threat of our times. It is an enormous economy to which the American economy is deeply tied. There is huge opportunity for us to do really great, creative, innovative business work between our two countries. But the Chinese Communist Party, under President Xi, has made clear that they have an agenda that is not always consistent with the very values that Dominic and I have been speaking about this morning.”

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External Links:

US Department of State :		Future of the Special Relationship
ABC News:		Pompeo visits UK amid disagreements over US diplomat's wife, Huawei