U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ripped Chinese state-controlled media for attacks against him, U.S. lawmakers, U.S. states, and U.S. media outlets in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News that aired on Saturday.
Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, Pompeo lit into the Communist Party of China’s state-controlled media outlets that have been attacking him and a variety of American lawmakers and media outlets—and even now U.S. states.
In recent days, the Global Times—a Chinese government-controlled propaganda outlet—has intensified attacks on Americans, including the publication of a threat of sanctions against U.S. lawmakers for criticizing China. The lawmakers singled out include Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), as well as Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), and Lance Gooden (R-TX), among others. Other Chinese Communist Party propaganda, like China Central Television (CCTV), has targeted Breitbart News, falsely calling this publication home to “racist speech.”
Asked to respond to these attacks by Chinese state media, Pompeo told Breitbart News that they show the Chinese Communist Party knows it handled the coronavirus pandemic that emanated from Wuhan badly. He noted that the Chinese government is trying to shift blame away from themselves and that these attacks fit a broader pattern of misinformation that the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in spreading around the world.
“They’ve come at me too. All kinds of names,” Pompeo said. “I think this shows that the Chinese Communist Party understands the risk that they’ve put on top of their own nation. Those attacks demonstrate weakness, not resolve, by the Chinese Communist Party. You and I are both old enough to remember how Communist regimes, how autocracies behave. Once they know they have done things that are wrong, they strike out. They try to blame others. I think that’s what you’re seeing. They also try to maneuver around the world through disinformation. We have been clear—President Trump, myself, the State Department—have been clear about making sure that everyone understands the facts surrounding the Chinese Communist Party.”
While this information warfare seems to have escalated during the pandemic, Pompeo noted that this has been a battle that the United States has been fighting for a much longer period than just the past few months.
“We were at this long before the coronavirus, where we called out the fact that they kicked out American journalists. We had been talking about the fact they haven’t followed their own promises or their commitment not to arm the South China Sea to put weapons,” Pompeo said. “They promised they wouldn’t do it—they’ve done it. They promised a commitment to the people of Hong Kong, with One Country, Two Systems. They continue to diminish that commitment with Hong Kong. What the Chinese Communist Party is doing, it goes so far beyond what’s happened in the time of this coronavirus. I think the American people, and I hope people all across the world, understand the risk to the globe—to freedom-loving countries and democracies around the world—that are presented by the actions of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The latest escalation on China’s part in the Global Times was an article this week in response to efforts by the state of Missouri to sue China and other efforts by American lawmakers—all Republicans—to hold China accountable for the coronavirus.
In it, the Global Times said that China is “extremely dissatisfied” with what it called “the abuse of litigation by the US,” citing the state of Missouri’s lawsuit against the Chinese Communist Party over the coronavirus. The article said China is “considering punitive countermeasures against US individuals, entities and state officials,” including Missouri’s attorney general Eric Schmitt. It also said Cotton and Hawley would be “put on China’s sanctions list” as well.
“China won’t just strike back symbolically, but will impose countermeasures that will make them feel the pain, analysts said,” the Global Times Chinese Communist Party propaganda piece continues.
The piece also criticizes Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who filed a lawsuit against China, as well as several other U.S. lawmakers and organizations who have criticized the Chinese Communist Party. It also said that claims to “hold China accountable” by Republicans are a “political farce.”
“Republicans who have been groundlessly accusing China and inflaming the ‘holding China accountable’ political farce will face severe consequences, sources said, noting that the aftermath will also impact the upcoming November elections, while business and trade between Missouri and China will be further soured,” the Global Times article added.
These threats come in the wake of the CCTV attacks on Breitbart News, part of a long line of Chinese Communist Party attacks on this company. As Breitbart News’s National Security Editor Frances Martel noted in a piece about the latest attacks on Breitbart News, the Chinese Communist Party has a history of attacking this outlet:
The Chinese Communist Party has attacked Breitbart News similarly in the past. In an alleged “Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States” published in March, the Chinese government listed Breitbart News’s existence as one of those human rights violations. In that report, the Party used false information from the discredited “Southern Poverty Law Center” to similarly claim that Breitbart News was publishing “material drawn from prominent white nationalists, Islamophobes, and far-right websites.”
It is not just Pompeo responding to the Chinese state media attacks. Banks, the Indiana congressman who has emerged as a leading China critic, issued a statement responding to the threat of sanctions from the regime in Beijing.
“The Chinese government is lashing out at those in the U.S. who are appropriately trying to hold them accountable for intentionally misleading us about the nature of the novel coronavirus, where it was spreading and how quickly things were getting out of control,” Banks said. “I consider their threats a badge of honor.”
LISTEN TO SECRETARY MIKE POMPEO ON BREITBART NEWS SATURDAY:
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