Mike Pompeo: Communist China and the Future of the Free World

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has implored democracies to work together to defend against expansive threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), calling it a choice between “freedom and tyranny.” “We, the free nations of the world, must induce change in the CCP’s behavior in more creative and assertive ways, because Beijing’s actions threaten our people and our prosperity,” Pompeo said during a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California on July 23. “The free world must triumph over this new tyranny,” he said, describing it as the “mission of our time.” Pompeo called on Americans and partner countries to recognize that the CCP is fundamentally a Marxist-Leninist regime, saying the “ideology informs this decades-long desire for global hegemony of Chinese communism.” On this basis, the United States should approach the regime from the standpoint of “distrust and verify,” he said, adapting former President Ronald Reagan’s famous words regarding negotiations with the Soviet Union, “trust, but verify.” “The only way to truly change Communist China is to act not on the basis of what Chinese leaders say, but how they behave,” he said.