U.S. must 'distrust and verify' when dealing with Beijing, Pompeo says in stern speech about China

America no longer can ignore fundamental differences with China, and must change how it engages with the communist regime in Beijing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday.

Citing aggressive and oppressive behavior from the China Communist Party, including economic espionage abroad and human rights violations at home, Pompeo said that the United States and the rest of the world must act to preserve freedom.

Pompeo made his remarks during an outdoor speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California.

“We opened our arms to Chinese citizens, only to see the CCP exploit our free and open society,” Pompeo said.

Elsewhere in the speech, he added: “The free world must triumph over this new tyranny. The old paradigm of blind engagement with China has failed. We must not continue it. We must not return to it.”

The only way to change China is to act not on what Beijing says, but on how it behaves, Pompeo said. Over the years, China has acted in bad faith, he said. Not all Chinese students are normal workers and students, he said, noting that 'too many come here to steal our intellectual property." Additionally, he said, China's Peoples' Liberation Army is "not a normal army." Its goal is not to protect the Chinese people, he said, but to expand the empire.

“President Reagan dealt with the Soviets on the basis of ‘trust but verify.’ When it comes to the CCP, I say, ‘distrust and verify.' ”

Speaking well of the Chinese people, Pompeo said that the Communist Chinese Party leader, Xi Jinping, is a “true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology,” and said that the party “fears the Chinese people’s honest opinions more than any foreign foe.”

The speech comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, including back-to back allegations about Chinese government actions inside the United States.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced charges against two Chinese nationals who allegedly tried to steal U.S. coronavirus research and proprietary information. On Wednesday, citing concerns about economic espionage and visa fraud, the U.S. ordered China to shutter its consulate in Houston by 4 p.m., July 24. 

Last month, the FBI charged a Chinese scientist in California with visa fraud, and believe she is evading arrest by hiding inside Beijing’s consulate in San Francisco. 

Thursday’s speech follows similar remarks Pompeo made on June 19 at a virtual conference in Denmark.

“America is engaging in a response to Chinese Communist Party and aggression in a way that America has not done for the past 20 years,” Pompeo said at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. 

In response to the recent actions from the United States, Beijing has accused the U.S. of smearing China and has threatened to retaliate over the Houston consulate incident.

In a Thursday press conference in Beijing, a government official vigorously defended China and briefly discussed the retaliation threat. 

“China will make necessary reactions to the US unreasonable actions and safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. He did not specify what that would entail.