Pompeo Optimistic on Biden China Sanctions; Actions Matter Over Words

The Biden administration's sanctions against an additional 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials this week gives "hope for optimism," but ultimately, it will be actions, not words, that will matter in the upcoming talks between the U.S. and China, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday.

"They took good action against the senior leaders with respect to Hong Kong," said Pompeo on Fox News' "America Reports," while warning that even with the upcoming meetings in Anchorage, Alaska between U.S. and Chinese officials, "no one should mistake conversations for actions."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that the officials were sanctioned concerning Beijing's continued crackdown on political freedoms in Hong Kong. They came just ahead of the Alaska talks, the first time the Biden administration will meet face-to-face with China.

Blinken said the sanctions reflect Washington's "deep concern" about the autonomy of Hong Kong after changes to its election system that were endorsed by China's ceremonial legislature.

Pompeo pointed out that the Trump administration took several tough actions against China, because "that's what we need to do to secure freedom."

"China does present the greatest existential threat to our country," said Pompeo.

The United States has a responsibility, he added, to concentrate on the commercial issues with China, but also the security matters that are at the center of the threat of the United States.

"We took them on in the cyber world with respect to Huawei...now the United States must be able to exert whatever resources are necessary to make sure we are prepared for whatever the Chinese military does, whether that's on the South China Sea or the activities that they are conducting in space with satellites or whether it's their cyber campaigns (or) ongoing cyber threats to the United States of America."

Pompeo also commented on a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by former President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who appeared to give the Biden administration credit for making China a priority.

In the article, Kushner wrote that the current administration is "making China a priority in its foreign policy, and rightly so" because one of Trump's "greatest legacies will be changing the world's view of China's behavior."

However, he said it would be a mistake for Biden not to build on the progress made in the Middle East through "eliminating the ISIS caliphate and bringing about six peace agreements—between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco, and Kosovo, plus uniting the Gulf Cooperation Council—has changed the paradigm."

"That's a pretty optimistic view," said Pompeo. "I hope it turns out to be right. The evidence today suggests otherwise and I think it's true they've made China a real priority. Unfortunately, I think they've made climate change a priority even over that and I'm afraid they will trade an awful lot of America's security for a false Chinese problem."

He added that he hopes the Biden administration doesn't "give away all the leverage" that has been made with the Iranian regime, as that would "be big mistakes in Israel and Europe as well."

Meanwhile, the Biden administration hasn't said if the Olympic games should be boycotted if they're held in China, said Pompeo, and he sees that as a concern.

"We know the history and those of us who have worked with our friends in Israel and worked on anti-semitism, we talked about never allowing what happened in the 1930s to happen again," said Pompeo. "What was happening in the 1930s is happening in western China today. They are eerie similarities between the two and, the Germans were able to get great credibility to that regime. We ought not to permit that to happen. We make sure the hosts for these games deserve this regime, but they certainly do not."