China and Russia are the two biggest threats to democratic countries, and taking over Taiwan would shift the global balance of power in China’s favor, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said yesterday in a speech in Taipei.
Pompeo’s visit came as Ukrainians were fighting a Russian invasion.
US engagement with communist China over the past 50 years has presumed that free trade and a free exchange of ideas would make China a freer and more open country, Pompeo said in a keynote speech at an event hosted by the government-affiliated Prospect Foundation think tank.
Photo: CNA
Although, citing former president Richard Nixon, it “may have created a Frankenstein,” he said.
Much of the world agrees that the danger posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the central threat of our time, he added.
The CCP’s inability to fulfill its decades-long goal of occupying Taiwan is a major stain on the party’s reputation within China, Pompeo said.
“Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP’s ideological hubris has reached new heights, thus taking over Taiwan is not only to boost Xi’s egomaniac claim of greatness... China believes it is stronger than the West, and America is in the decline,” he said.
“The very belief that [the People’s Republic of China] could prevail at diplomatic, economic and military confrontations puts our allies and friends at risk and makes conflicts that much greater. Taking over Taiwan will change the global balance of power in the most fundamental ways, decidedly in the CCP’s favor,” he said, adding that the brutal takeover of Hong Kong boosted Xi’s pride and made him feel more powerful, he said.
“I am convinced he will not be satisfied stopping at Hong Kong. He has talked about Taiwan being the integral part of the ‘one country, two systems’ scheme championed by his nation. Making good on those ambitions is essential to Xi as it would maintain his grip on the Chinese people,” he said.
The same ambition is seen in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin, with absolutely no regard for freedom, decided he would invade Ukraine and begin redrawing the borders of Russia by force, taking land and lives from its neighbors,” Pompeo said. “He will not stop in Ukraine. He has told us as much and will not stop until he establishes what he views as the rightful imperial legacy of his regime, a greater Russia.”
Chinese aggressions must be challenged, and not standing up to them would enable China to expand its influence further, from Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan — to other parts of the world, he said.
As such, the administration of former US president Donald Trump, in which Pompeo served, reversed the direction of US foreign policy in dealing with China by renegotiating trade agreements between countries, he said.
The US ordered the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, to close following accusations of espionage activities, he said.
The administration strengthened US military prowess and its diplomatic ties with Asia-Pacific region nations, and decreased its dependence on China, he said, adding that it called the atrocities committed against more than 1 million Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region a “genocide.”
“We made the world a little less naive about engagement with the CCP, an engagement that ultimately cannot lead [Xi] to change his ways,” he said.
Aside from breaking a promise to Hong Kongers, China broke another promise to Ukrainians in the past week: the China-Ukraine strategic partnership, a document signed by the CCP. Under the agreement, each promised to “offer support for each other on issues concerning national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
The Trump administration established a model of deterrence, where any threat to transparency, freedom, independence and human dignity would be pushed back.
“It is the central underpinning of making sure Xi does not get one free pass. It should make it incredibly clear that Xi would pay an enormous price if he decides to use aggression against Taiwan or others,” he said.
Regarding how the war between Russia and Ukraine could affect China’s actions, Pompeo said it depends on how the war ends and how the world responds.
“I don’t know how Xi would interpret what is taking place in Ukraine today because we are not certain how the war would end. And if this ends with the freedom side of the freedom-tyranny line, and the perception is that we are more united than ever, I think this would cause Xi to reconsider,” he said.
“[Xi] has surely seen the loss of Russian soldiers as well, and he would want to know if the world prepares to defend the thing that matters the most: humanity. If he concludes that it is, then he would be less likely to move militarily to some place in the world,” Pompeo said.
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