Mike Pompeo promises US will meet China’s strategies with ‘strong and vigorous response’
- In a radio interview, US secretary of state says Beijing ‘shows up with bribes’ for countries’ leaders as part of Belt and Road Initiative
- Cites efforts in South China Sea, trade policies and crackdown on religious minorities as examples of malign Chinese activities
Threatening to “oppose [China] at every turn”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated Washington’s hardening stance against Beijing during a wide-ranging radio interview on Friday.
Pompeo cited China’s trade policies, military activity in the South China Sea, a crackdown on religious minorities and efforts to influence other countries through infrastructure investment as evidence that Beijing’s economic and diplomatic initiatives had become more malign in the past two to three years.
“Whether that’s a risk through the stealing of intellectual property or trade rules that are unfair or activity in the South China Sea or their continued expansion in space and their efforts to develop their military, each of those actions has been met with a strong and vigorous response from the [US] and we’ll continue to do so,” Washington’s top diplomat said on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
“If you go look at President [Xi Jinping’s] stated intentions, you can clearly see that China has a plan that is different than the one that they had five years ago or even two or three years ago,” Pompeo said.
The Trump administration “has recognised the difference in China’s behaviour and the requirement for an American response to that changed behaviour”, the top US diplomat said.