United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on "free nations" to triumph over the threat of what he said was a "new tyranny" of China, in a provocative speech that is likely to worsen relations between the United States and China.
"Today China is increasingly authoritarian at home and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom anywhere else," Pompeo said in a speech Thursday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California.
"If the free world doesn't change Communist China, Communist China will change us," he said, Pompeo said Nixon's concern about what he had done in opening the world to the Chinese Communist Party in the 1970s had been prophetic.
"President Nixon once said he feared he had created a" Frankenstein "by opening the world to the CCP," said Pompeo. "And here we are."
Pompeo's comments come as the rivalry between the United States and China has sharply deteriorated in recent weeks. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying described Pompeo as an "ant trying to shake a tree" in a "futile" attempt to "launch a new crusade against China."
On Friday, the ministry announced that it had ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, in southwest China, in response to the U.S. shutting down a Chinese mission in Houston earlier this week.
On Thursday, the United States Department of Justice accused four Chinese investigators of visa fraud, alleging that they lied about their ties to China's army, the People's Liberation Army. Three have been arrested and one has taken refuge in the San Francisco consulate.
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The department said the four were part of a Chinese effort to "infiltrate" US institutions to gain scientific and technological knowledge.
Deputy Attorney General John Demers said: "This is another part of the Chinese Communist Party's plan to take advantage of our open society and exploit academic institutions."
All four face up to 10 years in prison and fines of $ 250,000 if convicted.
Beijing previously condemned reports of the charges as "naked political persecution."
The United States government "has arbitrarily monitored, harassed and even detained Chinese students and academics in the United States, and charged Chinese academics on the presumption of guilt," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. "China will take the necessary measures to safeguard the security and legitimate rights of Chinese citizens."
From NDTV News
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