Secretary Pompeo Keynote address to Copenhagen Democracy Summit.
Transcript
It’s a great pleasure for me to welcome our next speaker. The American Sir Terrorist Ache A Might compel Good morning, Mr Secretary. I think it’s morning in your time zone. I know you’re being traveling from her. Why? Where you met a high ranking Chinese official earlier this year. I listened to your speech at the security conference in Munich, and I enjoyed your upbeat message that the free world is winning. So we look very much forward to listening to you today. Please join me in welcoming the seventies. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Anders, Thank you very much. Thanks. So that warm greeting great to be with you all today and hello to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. It’s an honor to be with you and with Secretary General Rasmussen, a friend of freedom loving people all across the world. I don’t know if you all know this, but when it comes to strengthening transatlantic relations, Anders really walk the walk. Uh, Assad and three beautiful grandchildren live here in the United States. The United States is have the rescues on both sides of the Atlantic bringing bringing us together. Thanks for having me today when I understand the invitation to me. I said yes immediately. So so many of these conferences that you all participated talk about what’s wrong with the world. I want to focus on what’s going right in the world today, what we’ve got, right and thats democracy and we know it, uh, how to preserve it. That is the challenge. There’s no nobler goal for all of us. I spent a few years of my life. It’s been decades when I was a young soldier serving in Germany, patrolling along the Iron Curtain. I’ve seen tyranny first, and and I have dealt with all manner of UN free regimes in my previous role as director of the CIA. Now in my current role with secretary of State of the United States of America First principle, there’s nothing brave or visionary about oppressing your fellow men or women. Democracy is the only system of government that honors human dignity and personal freedom. Progress for mankind corollaries the capitalism is the greatest energy, anti poverty poverty program in all of history. I want to make a few brief remarks that I’m looking forward to taking questions, Uh, first, the idea that Europe is being forced to choose between the United States and China. I want to talk about that at some, like second, the belief that its costless to compromise your values. Everywhere I go, everywhere I go, I talked to my counterparts about It’s like this about the reality of what we see in the world, especially in China, that in Europe that in an Arctic that in Central Asia that in Africa, on the Pacific islands for many years, the West in an Arab hope believe we could change the Chinese Communist Party and improve the lives of the Chinese people along the way. That was the bargain that was the back. A rising tide of democracy in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union 30 years ago made us believe that’s reasonably, that the spread of freedom and every nation was inevitable. So engaged we opened ourselves to authoritarian regime that we knew was hostile to democratic. Along the way, the Chinese Communist Party made about it bet that it could take advantage of our goodwill while assuring us they wanted to cooperative relationship. Then jumping said id you strength and bide your time talked about why this has happened. It’s complicated story fault is not material here. It’s not important. Over decades, Americans, European countries invested in China with enormous optimism. I run a small business. We had an operation in China ourselves outsourced. Our supply changed to places like Shenzen. We opened our education interested institutions, two pl affiliated students. We welcome Chinese state back investment in their own countries. Now we’re deeply intertwined. But even so, even so, we must acknowledge that set of facts about who and what we’re dealing with. And I think we’re seeing that I think all across the world this is becoming more parent each and every day. The Chinese Communist Party to create an enter freedom Hong Kong violating the U. N registered treaty on the rights of its citizens. One of just many international treaties the Chinese Communist Party is violated. General Secretary. She has greenlighted a brutal campaign of repression against Chinese Muslims. Human rights violations out of scale we have not seen since World War two. The pls escalated border tensions. We see them today in India, the world’s most popular populace. Democracy we watch is that militarized is the South China Sea and illegally claims more territory. There threatening vital See lays a promise it broke again. But the CCB isn’t just a rogue actor in its own neighborhood. If it was, we might think differently about it. It impacts us all. It lied about the Corona virus, and it led spread to the rest of the world while pressuring the World Health Organization to assist in a cover up campaign. By the way, a failure of transparency that continues. Even today, hundreds of thousands of people have died and the global economy is decimated. Even now, months into the pandemic, we don’t have access to a live virus. We don’t have access to facilities and information about patients in December, and Wuhan remains unavailable. It’s pushing disinformation and malicious cyber campaigns to undermine our governments, to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe. And it’s saddling developing nations with that dependency. You’ve seen this all. Everyone in this room knows the Chinese Communist Party, strong arms nations to do business with whywe, an arm of the ccps surveillance state. And it’s flagrantly attacking European sovereignty by buying a ports and critical infrastructure. Greece to Valencia, we must take off golden blinders of economic guys. See that the China Challenge isn’t just at the gates. It’s in every capital. It’s in every borough. It’s in every province. Every investment from a Chinese state on enterprise should be viewed with suspicion. Europe faces a China challenge just as the United States doesn’t as just a czar. South American, African, Middle Eastern and Asian friends do, too. And I had a chance a row this week on Monday to speak with my EU counterparts. I know that there’s fear in Europe that the United States wants you to choose between us in China. But it’s simply not the case. It’s the Chinese Communist Party that’s forcing this choice. The choice is between United States and between freedom and tyranny. Already that wants to throw away the progress we in the free world have made through NATO and other institutions, both formal and informal institutions, and adopt a new set of rules and norms to accommodate them with in Beijing. I don’t believe that there’s a uniquely European or American way to face this choice. There’s also no way to straddle these alternatives without abandoning who we are. Democracies that are dependent authoritarians are not worthy of their name, look, the good news is my European friends, Even this week, I could see it. It’s not uniform. They’re different thoughts in different countries. But they’re waking up to this challenge, and I heard some of them. They questioned whether the democratic way of life can win and Beijing relishes this uncertainty. They shouldn’t be confident we’re winning. This is what you talked about in my remarks in Unit one, CCP Diplomatic France recently said. Quote. Some Westerners beginning to lose confidence in liberal democracy for end of quote and some Western countries have become psychologically weak. But democracy isn’t fragile in the way the Chinese Communist Party believes it. ISS Democracy is strong. We defeated fascism. Cold War. It’s authoritarianism. It is fragile. CCB propagandists work hard to control information, flows and speech to maintain their grip on power. It won’t be satisfied until the digital far wall extends to our nation’s too, you know, in some ways it already does. We could talk about this at some, like Sanders. While I do not believe for a moment, democracy is fragile, it does require careful stewardship and constant vigilance. Been encouraged recently in private conversations with European allies were taking their responsibility seriously in a vigorous discussion earlier this week. As I mentioned earlier, we debated what democracies ought to be engaged in and that’s what we do. That’s precisely the kind of debate we should have. It was a good meeting and we’ll continue our dialogue with the Europeans. On China. Meanwhile, positive steps about the new Inter parliamentary alliance on China, substantially comprised of European leaders, is adding new members weekly. Denmark has bravely stood up to the ccps attempt to censor Danish newspapers. United Kingdom is moving towards securing its networks from wall away. The checks are standing up to the PRC’s coercive diplomacy. Swedes have closed all of their Confucius institutes that reside on their soil, and our NATO allies had committed to increase defense spending by Cuba to $400 million between now and 2024 Nandor successors and enter successor in Brussels. General Secretary Stoltenberg recently gave visionary remarks about the alliance’s mandate to stand up for world built on freedom and democracy to counter China’s malign influence in the Asia Pacific region. Oh, and here So Anderson speak. We all know we’ve lived it. Democracy is not easy. It’s messy the whole world can see how we have tough debates like my country’s having right now. But that struggle reflects commitment to fundamental values and are constants driving towards a more perfect union. So we are and we share those values with our European friends. I hope we’ll hear more public statements from Europe about China challenge because all of our people deserve to know about it and America is ready to stand with you. Let’s speak clearly. And more importantly, let’s act decisively. Let’s not leave any confusion about the choice between tyranny and freedom. Anders, look forward to our conversation. God bless you. Thank you very much, Mike. Thank you, Mr Secretary. And also appreciate your willingness to answer some questions. My first question is regarding China. A few days ago, you met with the Chinese state Councilor Young, who is considered one off the architects off China’s foreign policy. China’s news agency, urging who put a positive spin on the meeting, they wrote, both sides fully elaborated, understands is agreeing that this was a constructive dialogue and to agree to maintain contact and communication. When I read test like this, I might be thinking something is going on. So my question to you is Could it be that the United States and China secretly are preparing new initiatives to reduce tensions wide? Publicly, you are maintaining a tough stands, and the one in the organs has asked the question on whether we could expect the US to take new initiatives. Reza v. China. So Anders. It was a a long overdue meeting. It was a long meeting. We met for some six hours or so. Each side staked out what I think for each was pretty familiar positions. As for me, I articulated that they just exactly what I articulated here this morning. America is engaging in a response to Chinese Communist Party and aggression away that America is not done for the past 20 years. It’s not political. We’ve had Republican presidents, Democrat presidents who who simply allowed China to have deeply don reciprocal relationships, not just on trade, which of course, is true. Uh, but we responded to their military east use of military force by moving back. We responded to their use of diplomatic coercion by retreating. Donald Trump’s not gonna permit that, and we made that clear. You referenced statements, those air statements what I spent a good deal of my time speaking with. Don’t you share about Waas The fundamental idea that we’re just watching actions. It’s no longer enough toe. Listen to what the Chinese Communist Party is saying. We can see their actions. I take through a few of them Hong Kong so bad, Shin job, what they’re doing in India, what they’ve done in the economic zones along the Philippines, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnam, the coercion on Australia when they had when they had the audacity to demand that there would be an investigation of how this virus Scott from Wuhan to Milan at this virus got for move onto Terra, have this virus got from Wuhan, uh, Oklahoma City and to Belgium into Spain and decimating the global economy. Look, way had to be where I was a very frank conversation. We still don’t have the answers the medical professionals epidemiologists need to take on this challenge. If the Chinese Communist Party can’t rise to that, get what they say, they can’t rise to that level. What every democratic nation would have done in response to a virus that began in our nation. We would have we would have participated in a global response where we shared information openly. We learned together and we resolved the problems that together. Instead, they did what authoritarian regimes do. They disappeared doctors. They swirled information away, and they denied the world the access it needed to respond to this virus in a way that could have produced a lot of risk and a lot of costs that that’s the nature of the conversation that we had. I think, as America’s most senior diplomat, that is always useful to be in a room together, to have a conversation and to share the you indicated that the United States might consider to withdraw the special status for Hong Kong. Which measures? Could you American regarding trade, travel, currency exchange its effort? Will Hong Kong plea treated like all other Chinese cities? It appears that that’s China’s intention, And I always when I hear my European counterparts say, uh, what we don’t want to choose, I always remind them the other side gets to choose to. So when you ask, well, Hong Kong be treated as any other Chinese city. It will be to the extent that the Chinese Joe choose to treat it that way. Look, I haven’t seen what happened overnight. But the Chinese Communist Party appeared intent on passing a national security law that will deny significant matter freedoms that the Chinese Communist Party had promise to the people of our gun would last 50 years. There are a set of elections scheduled for September. We should all watch closely. That’s not that far off. Now. We should all watch it very closely where those elections are permitted to take place in a free and fair fashion. To the extent those elections were delayed, postponed, canceled or somehow not treated in a way that is fair and open, I think that will tell us everything we need to know about the Chinese Communist Party’s intentions. With respect to freedom in Hong Kong, President Trump has for a policy. President Trump’s made very, very clear to the extent that Chinese calm this morning tweets Hong Kong as it as it does Yeah, Shenzhen and Shanghai. We will treat them the same. We have many agreements that are unique between the United States and Hong Kong, separate different from those we have with Beijing. Uh, we will move away from every one of those and then second, the president’s made clear to We have a responsibility to hold accountable those inside of China who failed to live up to those agreements as well. So we are working our way through a decision making process to determine who those decision makers were and what the appropriate mechanism is to hold them accountable. No, we don’t want to harm the people of Hong Kong. They’re the freedom loving people that we aim to, uh, to get the benefit of the bargain they made with the United Kingdom. To the extent the Chinese Communist Party denies that we’re responsible to hold the relevant parties accountable. But what will happen if the security law leads to imprisonment off democracy activists? Uh, etcetera in the autumn? What could you American to do? You know, I just I just don’t want to get into particular decisions I want. I don’t want to foreclose anything that the president may choose to do or not to do. We’re still working our way through that process. Uh, two things to think about. That one is What will the people of Hong Kong do? We’ve watched them. They have simply asked with the mainland Chinese to live up to the commitments that were made were on your 27 of a 50 year deal. You wouldn’t take that. You signed up for deal for 50 years. Somebody walks away at the halfway point. You could not be happier. You’re 23. I guess it is. Um, so it will be interesting to see how the people of Hong Kong respond. And frankly, the people, the freedom loving people in the mainland as well they’re watching to never forget that while we see a unitary face from the Chinese Communist Party that that 1,000,000,000 1/2 people also have ideas that are different and they will be watching how this transpires is Well, I know the people of Taiwan are certainly watching how this transpires on Second, As for how the United States will find out, I want to leave. I want to leave open the range of possibilities. But the president has made clear to the extent Hong Kong mistreated by the Chinese Communist Party as just another piece of mainland China, there’s no reason for the United States to treat the mentally differently as well. We have a law that requires that as well. I m you want to mention Taiwan? I think we agree that Taiwan is a beacon on democracy, a real contrast with mainland communist China. What more do you think we could do to defend the Taiwanese democracy and shouldn’t I won be allowed, for instance, to join W H o on maybe all the international organizations. So it’s widely known how hard many countries the United States amongst the work diligently to allow them. I will need government to participate, at least is an observer. As part of this most recent World Health Assembly, there’s another scheduled for November. We think it both appropriate for them to do so and perhaps even more importantly, very useful and have a great deal of knowledge they handled. This Corona virus very, very well may have high end technology. I am pharmaceutical capabilities. I and scientists. We think it would be very useful for them to be part of the conversation that surrounds how the world is going to respond to the continued continuing endemic. As for how we deal with Taiwan, the United States is at a clear set of policies that extend back to, uh, depending where you want to start the clock back to the early 19 nineties is a reasonable place to start. President Trump has adhered to those commitments. I will continue to do so, Yeah, they’re set out very clearly and we will continue to abide by them. If I may. Let’s turn to to Europe. The White House has announced an intention to reduce the U. S troop presence in Germany. May I ask you, with a possible reduction in Germany, be compensated by an increase in the U. S. Presence in Eastern Europe? Princeton’s involvement. So as for troop deployments numbers, I will leave that to my colleague Secretary Esper, too, to talk about. I tried Teoh maintain these these boundaries. But as for us, Paul said, I could speak to that very clearly. I’ve been here is a secretary state now for just over two years. I’ve been part of the administration since the beginning. We set out back in early 2000 18. Um, excuse me back in early 2017 in the spring of 2017 to evaluate our entire the entire structure about how we engaged in the world, and that certainly has a component about troop station where we will put people how we will deploy them. It has two dimensions, one their location and second and dimension of Cindy’s be permanent bases. Are we better off in a more modern world rotational deployments where we can get the right equipment at the right time? We always think of our soldiers on the ground. Much. Much of modern conflict today involves things disconnected from I Was a tanker as Army Guy. I love that dearly. I wish the whole world just revolved around them. One, but it doesn’t now revolves around big air forces, big cyber capabilities, big capabilities that air in different pockets. Uh, we tried. We’re trying to make sure we get all of this right, so it’s no longer. It’s no longer reasonable just to think about. Hey, do we have 1000 soldiers or 5000 soldiers? 10,000 soldiers? But what’s the threat that’s posed to the United States of America and our friends? Now I on How is it that we collectively could best response? So what? You saw the president and CEO that it was part of that review process. It is extensive and extends not only to Europe throughout the Middle East. We’re thinking you seem decisions the President has made there, but how it is that we can do the right things to meet the challenges of the day. And then lastly, this is very much connects up to the topic I spoke about today. Make no mistake about it, the United States does believe that it has a real responsibility, sure that we have the capability and the capacity to challenge any threat that the Chinese Communist Party should make militarily to the United States of America. So we are constantly thinking about how we engaged diplomatically economic and militarily to meet that challenge. So is the president thinks about Europe, the Middle East and our soldiers at a station Africa. We’re ever mindful that a free and open Indo Pacific matters to all of us, including to Europe. We want to make sure that we have allocated resource is appropriately to address those concerns. I’ve got a question from the audience. I read it. Do you understand if European friends and allies see a threat to democracy generates from the U. S. Due to a slow and dangerous breakdown of state institutions and democratic principles, No, that’s a key on, All right. 200 plus years on, we have the most. And it should be careful because I tend to want to brag about the United States. But this is this is the democracy that is, with the enormous challenges the Radisys and our institutions have was the enormous job. And as the world changes, I am confident we will still have a job. But I know this. Our founders nailed it. Our founders got it right. The principles laying down a set of God given rights for the American people saying that the United States government is designed for to preserve those rights has provided both a textual and a structural mechanism for democracy in the United States To survive each and every one of these child doesn’t mean it happens automatically. I now is a secretary state of my steward for this very set of rights, have a responsibility duty to ensure that I do everything every day to be part of furthering the capacity for our republic. Continue to remain strong. But if you ask the question, can I understand how anyone would stare at this and think that American democracy was at risk. It’s a really simple answer. I m very often We see the Chinese government use divide and rule tactics where they single out individual countries for punishment. If they don’t listen true, Beijing follow the instructions from baking or are going against begging. I will ask you, Shouldn’t the world’s democracies form a united front and the lines off democracies that can stand up against the autocracies, protect each other and promote freedom and prosperity? Anders. It’s an incredibly important question, a number of thoughts. But I’ll start with this. You’ll recall, you said, Should we create a united front? This is China’s. This is China’s name, the United front. This is what is in your countries. Uh, so maybe we’ll choose just a slightly different name. But conceptual. You you nailed it. You’ve got it exactly right. And I think the wonderful news for democracies and freedom loving peoples is that I see that happening. I can tell you that when I met with my Chinese counterpart, he could see it happened while we were sitting in the room. While we were meeting a statement from all G seven members came out about Hong Kong. The timing I love to claim was intentional. Uh, very well thought thought out. But the truth of the matter is, we were just doing what freedom loving peoples do continuing to demand and ever and ever more expensive conception of freedom and forcing as best we can, other countries to honor commitments. So your core point, uh, China’s objective is in fact, to single out in a deep to threaten to single out more, more directly, not just European countries. We’ve seen them do it in the Middle East. We’ve seen them do it in Africa. We see them doing in Southeast Asia closer to their nation. What I have begun to see over my 2.5 years of secretary of state is the world awakening to this threat. Right now, many of these conversations about just what you describe what happened to be privately calls are a my. Here’s what we’re observing the Chinese Communist Party engaged in here. How can you help? We do our best in each case to provide them the type of a system that makes most sense. We need to raise this to another level to her country’s air prepared and in position to respond to these things in a public way. When we do that, uh, the Chinese Communist Party will be more isolated, and I hope because my objective isn’t bad things for the Chinese people. I hope that the Chinese Communist Party will begin to recognize that if they want to rise, if they want to continue, uh, to build out of their nation, that they need to do so on a Western rule. Set a rule set that honors the rule of law and honors freedom and respect for sovereignty. If they if they can flip, if they can make that difference, because the rest of the world demands that of them, just like we do of every other nation with which we interact. It’s not unique in simply reciprocal. We, you know, ask the Chinese government do anything. We don’t ask the Belgian government to do just honor sovereignty, engaging the world lot, compete fairly around the world without subsidization of state owned enterprises. If they will do those things, then uh, then I think the world will be in a better place. The freedom loving nations could be secure in their freedom. Thank you. Thank you. Very much, Mr Secretary. Thank you, Mike, for taking time to talk to us. It’s a very important conclusion off two days democracy summit here in Copenhagen. We appreciate very much your support for freedom and democracy and your dedication. Two American leadership. So I feel confident that my three grand each American grandchildren will be raced in March. Better world. Thank you very much, Anders. Thank you very much, sir. Thanks to everyone for giving me this time. So are thank you.