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Foreign Policy Update

CHINA

In a recent interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show Secretary of State Michael Pompeo discussed US-China trade relations, pointing out that the US understands the long game that China is playing and that Washington is prepared for it. He said the United States wants China “to stop stealing our stuff, to stop forcing our companies to transfer technology if they just simply want to do business and serve the Chinese market.  We want our trade barriers gone.  They want – we want zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers.  We want a fair trading relationship.” The Secretary was firm saying that Washington will be successful in pushing back the Chinese challenge. Recently, Beijing announced it was not imposing additional tariffs on the United States, a strong indication that China is aware it is running out of American goods to tax.

In a separate interview on the Tony Katz Show the Secretary spoke again about the US-China relationship and how the Administration is pushing back. He noted that Washington’s view is that the US “can’t allow China to continue to take money from the United States.” Pompeo said: “We watch their military build up as well. That is, as they steal our intellectual property, including our intellectual property connected to our things like airplanes and helicopters and telecommunications, and all the things that provide security for people in our country – as we watch them grow their security on our backs, we recognize that’s not sustainable….”

According to Pompeo, the US is working on multiple fronts. While the most visible is the trade effort, the Administration also is “pushing back against them [China] to make sure that there’s not Chinese telecommunications” stealing Americans’ private data by having their information traverse across a Chinese network with Chinese equipment.   

AFGHANISTAN

Concerning the ongoing negotiations with the Taliban, Secretary Pompeo reinforced previous statements that the two objectives President Trump has set out continue to be in place. He noted the first is “the President has said we, given the geostrategic challenges that the country faces, we have to make sure that the resources we deploy in every theater are appropriate for the time, and he has talked about these endless wars in places like the Middle East and said we need to reduce our cost and our risk to the young men and women we send there.”

The second objective, he added, is that we “ensure that we protect the American people.” In Afghanistan that means reducing the risk of terrorism emanating from the region. 

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IRAN

Secretary Pompeo called President Trump “very forward-leaning” when it came to dealing with foreign leaders such as North Korean President Kim and the Iranian leadership. He added it presents the US with a “conundrum” as the President has stated that having conversations creates value. “You can understand each other.  You know what the positions are more clearly rather than talking through the press or having some intermediary,” Pompeo pointed out.

“With respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran, we took over two and a half years ago with them on a pathway to a nuclear weapon.  They had this JCPOA, which protected them and gave them that clear pathway.  They had money.  The previous administration had given them an enormous amount of wealth and allowed them to trade with the world so that they could grow their wealth, which they would use to conduct terror campaigns all around the world.  We flipped all of that.  We got out of the JCPOA.  We’re aiming to find a deal that actually protects the American people from the potentiality of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, said Pompeo.”

Washington put economic sanctions in place against the revolutionary regime with the specific goal of starving Tehran’s capacity to underwrite Hizballah, which threatens Israel, and to underwrite militias in Iraq that threaten Americans around the world, and to take down their machine. Pompeo said it takes wealth and resources to conduct terrorism. “We’re trying to deny them the wealth and resources” to prevent them from fomenting terror around the world.   

Pompeo pointed that it is the Iranian people who will drive the destiny of their nation.  And in the end, he added, the “Iranian people will demand that their leaders behave in ways that don’t undermine their economy and threaten them from a security perspective, deny them the most basic fundamental rights.” 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay