Hawkish US VP Mike Pence will speak on China – and is expected to slam it over its human rights and religious freedom record
- Pence spoke last year in confrontational tones, condemning Beijing for the ‘control and oppression’ of its citizens
- The vice-president is reportedly planning to censure China for its record on religious freedom and human rights
US Vice-President Mike Pence will deliver a speech on US-China relations at Washington’s Wilson Centre on June 24, eight months after he condemned Beijing for the “control and oppression” of its citizens.
The date and venue of the speech were confirmed Thursday by Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Centre’s Kissinger Institute on the United States and China.
Pence’s China speech would come at a low point in bilateral relations, which have been damaged by a trade war that started nearly a year ago and comments the vice-president made in his earlier address.
In that speech – delivered in October at the Hudson Institute, another Washington think tank – Pence accused China of trying to interfere in the US midterm elections, which were then a month away.
“Our intelligence community says that China is targeting US state and local governments and officials to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy,” Pence said at Hudson.
“What the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country,” he added.