Jha Washington: Launching a scathing attack on the Chinese Community Party, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said the CCP and its proxies aim to make Americans receptive to Beijing’s form of authoritarianism. The remarks came against a backdrop of deepening mistrust and sharply deteriorating relations between the US and China.
“The CCP has a much more sinister vision of engagement. The Party and its proxies aim to make Americans receptive to Beijing’s form of authoritarianism, Pompeo said in his speech titled ‘State Legislatures and the China Challenge’ at the Wisconsin State Senate. Pompeo said he said CCP because he wants to draw a distinction between China’s leaders and the Chinese people who want to live in freedom, peace and prosperity and “whose vibrancy is also evident in the many Chinese-American communities wonderfully woven into the fabric of America”. Beijing’s best-laid plans are no match for American determination, he said, asserting that the Trumps administration rejects the idea that China is destined for hegemony. “No top-down totalitarian regime can ever best the ingenuity, will, and power of the American people,” he said.
Pompeo said CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping in August told a group of government economists and sociologists in Beijing that China must actively develop cooperation with all countries, regions and enterprises willing to cooperate with it, including states, localities and enterprises in the US. This, Pompeo said, means that Xi knows that the federal government is pushing back the CCP’s malign influence. “He (Xi) sees that here in the US, and increasingly, around the world.” Xi thinks you’re the weak link. For him, ‘cooperation’ and ‘opening-up’ means the CCP wants to create arrangements that only benefit it. We know that because for decades, the CCP deployed friendly language while stealing from our innovators, building military strength, and co-opting our elites, he said. Later in that same speech, Xi explicitly confirmed that the purpose of his entreaties is to put China “in an undefeatable and invincible position”, the top American diplomat said.
“This isn’t the Cold War. It’s different in kind. The CCP’s effort is more sophisticated, multi-layered, and nuanced. That’s why we have to have a conversation in our state legislatures about this China challenge. It’s as important in Wisconsin as it is in Washington, he asserted. Pompeo said all over America, Chinese sister-city programmes fall under the authority of the Chinese People’s Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries. That group is part of China’s United Front Work Department the CCP’s official overseas propaganda tool. It’s one of the CCP’s three Magic Weapons, in the words of Chairman Mao, along with armed struggle and party-building. In other words, it’s not so friendly to American interests, he said.
While the US has formally designated the Confucius Institute’s US headquarters as a foreign mission, Pompeo said right now the State Department is reviewing the activities of two United Front Work Department organisations operating in America — the US-China Friendship Association and the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification. Our concerns include their apparent attempts to exert influence on groups across the public sphere, including schools, business associations, local politicians, media outlets and Chinese diaspora, he said.
Observing that protecting American interests requires vigilance, starting with all state legislators, regardless of party, Pompeo told the State senators that they should know when they are approached by a Chinese diplomat, it is likely not in the spirit of true cooperation or friendship. Know that if you are offered a trip to China when pandemic travel restrictions are lifted, you should ask who is paying for that trip, and if they are linked directly or indirectly to the CCP, he said.
Pompeo urged State Assemblies to pass laws to codify closer cooperation with federal agencies in IP protection, investment screening and counter infiltration operations. He also urged them to ignore CCP threats and encourage mayors and business people to engage with a free and democratic Taiwan.
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