H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H A H
TRUMP ON CHINA
PUTTING AMERICA FIRST
A collection of speeches laying out
the most signicant United States
foreign policy shi in a generation
Edited by Robert C. O’Brien
HHH
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION BY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
ROBERT C. O’BRIEN .............................................1
REMARKS DELIVERED BY VICE PRESIDENT MICHAEL R. PENCE
October 4, 2018 ..............................................5
REMARKS DELIVERED BY DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
MATTHEW F. POTTINGER
May 4, 2020 .................................................23
REMARKS DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
May 30, 2020 ................................................33
REMARKS DELIVERED BY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
ROBERT C. O’BRIEN
June 24, 2020 ...............................................39
REMARKS DELIVERED BY FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY
July 7, 2020 .................................................59
REMARKS DELIVERED BY ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM P. BARR
July 17, 2020 ................................................73
REMARKS DELIVERED BY SECRETARY OF STATE
MICHAEL R. POMPEO
July 23, 2020 ................................................89
REMARKS DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
September 22, 2020 ........................................105
INDEX ........................................................111
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INTRODUCTION
National Security Advisor O’Brien briefs the President and
Vice President at Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
For decades, Donald J. Trump was one of the few prominent Americans
to recognize the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party and its
threat to America’s economic and political way of life. Now, under
President Trump’s leadership, the United States is taking action to
protect our nation and its partners from an increasingly assertive
China. We are no longer turning a blind eye to the People’s Republic of
China’s conduct nor are we hiding our criticism of its Communist Party
behind closed doors.
The speeches included in this book, starting with Vice President Mike
Pence’s groundbreaking remarks on October 2018 and ending with
President Trump’s call to action at the 75th session of the United
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Nations General Assembly, are a key component of the Administration’s
eort to protect the American people.
Until now, senior American oicials had never spoken publicly with
such candor and consistency about the challenge posed by China to
our nation. Earlier this year, President Trump asked four of his most
senior national security oicials, myself, Christopher Wray, William
Barr, and Michael Pompeo, to explain current U.S. policy on China to
the American people. Over the summer of 2020, we did so in a series of
speeches delivered around the country.
Collectively, the remarks contained in this book achieve several import-
ant objectives. They educate our citizens about the threat posed by the
Chinese Communist Party to their livelihoods, businesses, freedoms,
and values.
These speeches also alert our allies and partners so that they, too,
should stand up for their own people, and for our mutual interests and
values. The competition with which we are faced is not China versus
the United States. It is the Chinese Communist Party, with its Marxist-
Leninist and mercantilist vision for the world, versus freedom-loving
people everywhere.
These high-level speeches serve to combat the propaganda machine at
the heart of the Chinese Communist Party’s global strategy. President
Trump understands that it is past time for America to counter China’s
messaging about the supposed strengths of its authoritarian model.
In his 2018 address to the Hudson Institute, Vice President Pence
discussed the whole-of-government approach that the Chinese
Communist Party is employing to advance its inuence in the United
States, using political, economic, military, and propaganda tools.
Following Vice President Pence’s address, Deputy National Security
Advisor Matthew Pottinger spoke to a worldwide Chinese audience
about the populist democracy movement that began a century ago
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in Beijing and is the proud heritage of the Chinese people. He demon-
strated that Chinese history contains another path for China’s people.
Next, I explained the ideology and global ambitions of the Chinese
Communist Party to a business forum in Phoenix, Arizona. Many in the
West, especially in the business community, are not aware that China
today is one of the last few Marxist-Leninist nations on earth.
FBI Director Wray followed with an exposé of the pervasiveness of the
People’s Republic of China’s espionage and intellectual property the
from our government, our companies, and our partners. He noted that
such the constitutes one of the greatest wealth transfers in human
history.
Attorney General Barr, for his part, warned the American business
community of its obligation to protect our national security notwith-
standing the blandishments of the Party and the lure of the Chinese
market.
Secretary Pompeo concluded the series by outlining what has
become the most signicant shi in U.S. foreign policy in a genera-
tion. America’s diplomats and policy makers, he explains are rising
to China’s once-in-a-generation challenge and confronting the threat
across the entire diplomatic spectrum.
President Trump’s two speeches, from May and September 2020, hold
the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the Covid-19 pandemic.
The President made clear that Beijing’s blunders no longer aect only
the Chinese people, as they did under Mao Zedong. They impact the
entire world. President Trump points out that beyond the Covid-19
pandemic, China’s environmental devastation in the Pacic and illegal
over-shing in every ocean are but two examples of how China treats
the rest of the world.
On the occasion of China’s ending of the “one country, two systems”
construct that had guaranteed Hong Kong’s freedom until 2047, the
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President announced a range of signicant penalties, noting the “plain
facts [of what China did] cannot be overlooked or swept aside.”
President Trump made plain in his May speech, “The United States
wants an open and constructive relationship with China, but achieving
that relationship requires us to vigorously defend our national inter-
ests.” This book explains what President Trump means by his call for a
vigorous defense of our national interests vis a vis China.
The Chinese Communist Party prefers not to have the information
and messages contained in this book shared. It does not want people
around the world to know what the Party really believes, is doing, and
is planning.
Taken together, the speeches herein are similar to U.S. diplomat
George Kennan’s 1946 “Long Telegram” to the State Department that
outlined his views on the Soviet Union. This book is dierent from the
“Long Telegram” in two important respects. First, unlike Kennan’s case,
written by an envoy at post, this book contains the words and policies
of the President and his most senior oicials. Second, given China’s
population size, economic prowess, and historic global ambitions,
the People’s Republic of China is a more capable competitor than the
Soviet Union at its height.
Robert C. O’Brien
Assistant to the President for National Security Aairs
The White House
Washington, D.C.
October 9, 2020
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE
The Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C.
OCTOBER 4, 2018
Vice President Pence giving remarks at the Hudson Institute.
Thank you, Ken, for that kind introduction. To the Members of the
Board of Trustees, to Dr. Michael Pillsbury, to our distinguished guests,
and to all of you who, true to your mission in this place, “think about
the future in unconventional ways” —it is an honor to be back at the
Hudson Institute.
For more than a half a century, this Institute has dedicated itself
to “advancing global security, prosperity, and freedom.” And while
Hudson’s hometowns have changed over the years, one thing has been
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constant: You have always advanced that vital truth, that American
leadership lights the way.
And today, speaking of leadership, allow me to begin by bringing
greetings from a great champion of American leadership at home and
abroad—I bring greetings from the 45th President of the United States
of America, President Donald Trump.
From early in this administration, President Trump has made our rela-
tionship with China and President Xi a priority. On April 6th of last year,
President Trump welcomed President Xi to Mar-a-Lago. On November
8th of last year, President Trump traveled to Beijing, where China’s
leader welcomed him warmly.
Over the course of the past two years, our President has forged a strong
personal relationship with the President of the People’s Republic of
China, and they’ve worked closely on issues of common interest, most
importantly the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
But I come before you today because the American people deserve to
know that, as we speak, Beijing is employing a whole-of-government
approach, using political, economic, and military tools, as well as pro-
paganda, to advance its inuence and benet its interests in the United
States.
China is also applying this power in more proactive ways than ever
before, to exert inuence and interfere in the domestic policy and pol-
itics of this country.
Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has taken deci-
sive action to respond to China with American action, applying the
principles and the policies long advocated in these halls.
In our National Security Strategy that the President Trump released
last December, he described a new era of “great power competition.”
Foreign nations have begun to, as we wrote, “reassert their inuence
regionally and globally,” and they are “contesting [America’s] geopo-
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litical advantages and trying [in essence] to change the international
order in their favor.”
In this strategy, President Trump made clear that the United States of
America has adopted a new approach to China. We seek a relationship
grounded in fairness, reciprocity, and respect for sovereignty, and we
have taken strong and swi action to achieve that goal.
As the President said last year on his visit to China, in his words,
“we have an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between
our two countries and improve the lives of our citizens.” Our vision
of the future is built on the best parts of our past, when America
and China reached out to one another in a spirit of openness
and friendship.
When our young nation went searching in the wake of the Revolutionary
War for new markets for our exports, the Chinese people welcomed
American traders laden with ginseng and fur.
When China suered through indignities and exploitations during her
so-called “Century of Humiliation,” America refused to join in, and
advocated the “Open Door” policy, so that we could have freer trade
with China, and preserve their sovereignty.
When American missionaries brought the good news to China’s shores,
they were moved by the rich culture of an ancient and vibrant people.
And not only did they spread their faith, but those same missionaries
founded some of China’s rst and nest universities.
When the Second World War arose, we stood together as allies in the
ght against imperialism. And in that war’s aermath, America ensured
that China became a charter member of the United Nations, and a great
shaper of the post-war world.
But soon aer it took power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party
began to pursue authoritarian expansionism. It is remarkable to think
that only ve years aer our nations had fought together, we fought
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each other in the mountains and valleys of the Korean Peninsula. My
own father saw combat on that frontier of freedom.
But not even the brutal Korean War could diminish our mutual desire to
restore the ties that for so long had bound our peoples together. China’s
estrangement from the United States ended in 1972, and, soon aer, we
re-established diplomatic relations and began to open our economies
to one another, and American universities began training a new genera-
tion of Chinese engineers, business leaders, scholars, and oicials.
Aer the fall of the Soviet Union, we assumed that a free China was inev-
itable. Heady with optimism at the turn of the 21st Century, America
agreed to give Beijing open access to our economy, and we brought
China into the World Trade Organization.
Previous administrations made this choice in the hope that freedom
in China would expand in all of its forms—not just economically, but
politically, with a newfound respect for classical liberal principles,
private property, personal liberty, religious freedom—the entire family
of human rights. But that hope has gone unfullled.
The dream of freedom remains distant for the Chinese people. And
while Beijing still pays lip service to “reform and opening,” Deng
Xiaoping’s famous policy now rings hollow.
Over the past 17 years, China’s GDP has grown nine-fold; it’s become
the second-largest economy in the world. Much of this success was
driven by American investment in China. And the Chinese Communist
Party has also used an arsenal of policies inconsistent with free and fair
trade, including taris, quotas, currency manipulation, forced technol-
ogy transfer, intellectual property the, and industrial subsidies that
are handed out like candy to foreign investment. These policies have
built Beijing’s manufacturing base, at the expense of its competitors—
especially the United States of America.
China’s actions have contributed to a trade decit with the United
States that last year ran to $375 billion—nearly half of our global trade
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decit. As President Trump said just this week, in his words, “We rebuilt
China” over the last 25 years.
Now, through the “Made in China 2025” plan, the Communist Party has
set its sights on controlling 90 percent of the world’s most advanced
industries, including robotics, biotechnology, and articial intelli-
gence. To win the commanding heights of the 21st century economy,
Beijing has directed its bureaucrats and businesses to obtain American
intellectual property—the foundation of our economic leadership—by
any means necessary.
Beijing now requires many American businesses to hand over their
trade secrets as the cost of doing business in China. It also coordinates
and sponsors the acquisition of American rms to gain ownership
of their creations. Worst of all, Chinese security agencies have mas-
terminded the wholesale the of American technology—including
cutting-edge military blueprints. And using that stolen technology,
the Chinese Communist Party is turning plowshares into swords on a
massive scale.
China now spends as much on its military as the rest of Asia combined,
and Beijing has prioritized capabilities to erode America’s military
advantages on land, at sea, in the air, and in space. China wants nothing
less than to push the United States of America from the Western Pacic
and attempt to prevent us from coming to the aid of our allies. But they
will fail.
Beijing is also using its power like never before. Chinese ships routinely
patrol around the Senkaku Islands, which are administered by Japan.
And while China’s leader stood in the Rose Garden at the White House
in 2015 and said that his country had, and I quote, “no intention to
militarize” the South China Sea, today, Beijing has deployed advanced
anti-ship and anti-air missiles atop an archipelago of military bases
constructed on articial islands.
China’s aggression was on display this week, when a Chinese naval
vessel came within 45 yards of the USS Decatur as it conducted free-
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dom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, forcing our ship
to quickly maneuver to avoid collision. Despite such reckless harass-
ment, the United States Navy will continue to y, sail, and operate
wherever international law allows and our national interests demand.
We will not be intimidated and we will not stand down.
America had hoped that economic liberalizatio would bring China
into a greater partnership with us and with the world. Instead, China
has chosen economic aggression, which has in turn emboldened its
growing military.
Nor, as we had hoped, has Beijing moved toward greater freedom for
its own people. For a time, Beijing inched toward greater liberty and
respect for human rights. But in recent years, China has taken a sharp
U-turn toward control and oppression of its own people.
Today, China has built an unparalleled surveillance state, and it’s
growing more expansive and intrusive—oen with the help of U.S.
technology. What they call the “Great Firewall of China” likewise grows
higher, drastically restricting the free ow of information to the Chinese
people.
And by 2020, China’s rulers aim to implement an Orwellian system pre-
mised on controlling virtually every facet of human life—the so-called
“Social Credit Score.” In the words of that program’s oicial blueprint,
it will “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven, while
making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”
And when it comes to religious freedom, a new wave of persecution is
crashing down on Chinese Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims.
Last month, Beijing shut down one of China’s largest underground
churches. Across the country, authorities are tearing down crosses,
burning bibles, and imprisoning believers. And Beijing has now reached
a deal with the Vatican that gives the avowedly atheist Communist Party
a direct role in appointing Catholic bishops. For China’s Christians,
these are desperate times.
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Beijing is also cracking down on Buddhism. Over the past decade, more
than 150 Tibetan Buddhist monks have lit themselves on re to protest
China’s repression of their beliefs and their culture. And in Xinjiang,
the Communist Party has imprisoned as many as one million Muslim
Uyghurs in government camps where they endure around-the-clock
brainwashing. Survivors of the camps have described their experiences
as a deliberate attempt by Beijing to strangle Uyghur culture and stamp
out the Muslim faith.
As history attests though, a country that oppresses its own people rarely
stops there. And Beijing also aims to extend its reach across the wider
world. As Hudson’s own Dr. Michael Pillsbury has written, “China has
opposed the actions and goals of the U.S. government. Indeed, China
is building its own relationships with America’s allies and enemies that
contradict any peaceful or productive intentions of Beijing.”
In fact, China uses so-called “debt diplomacy” to expand its inuence.
Today, that country is oering hundreds of billions of dollars in infra-
structure loans to governments from Asia to Africa to Europe and even
Latin America. Yet the terms of those loans are opaque at best, and the
benets invariably ow overwhelmingly to Beijing.
Just ask Sri Lanka, which took on massive debt to let Chinese state
companies build a port of questionable commercial value. Two years
ago, that country could no longer aord its payments, so Beijing pres-
sured Sri Lanka to deliver the new port directly into Chinese hands. It
may soon become a forward military base for China’s growing blue-
water navy.
Within our own hemisphere, Beijing has extended a lifeline to the
corrupt and incompetent Maduro regime in Venezuela that’s been
oppressing its own people. They pledged $5 billion in questionable
loans to be repaid with oil. China is also that country’s single largest
creditor, saddling the Venezuelan people with more than $50 billion in
debt, even as their democracy vanishes. Beijing is also impacting some
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nations’ politics by providing direct support to parties and candidates
who promise to accommodate China’s strategic objectives.
And since last year alone, the Chinese Communist Party has convinced
three Latin American nations to sever ties with Taipei and recognize
Beijing. These actions threaten the stability of the Taiwan Strait, and
the United States of America condemns these actions. And while
our administration will continue to respect our One China Policy, as
reected in the three joint communiqués and the Taiwan Relations
Act, America will always believe that Taiwan’s embrace of democracy
shows a better path for all the Chinese people.
Now these are only a few of the ways that China has sought to advance
its strategic interests across the world, with growing intensity and
sophistication. Yet previous administrations all but ignored China’s
actions. And in many cases, they abetted them. But those days are over.
Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States of America has
been defending our interests with renewed American strength.
We’ve been making the strongest military in the history of the world
stronger still. Earlier this year, President Trump signed into law the
largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald
Reagan—$716 billion to extend the strength of the American military
to every domain.
We’re modernizing our nuclear arsenal. We’re elding and developing
new cutting-edge ghters and bombers. We’re building a new genera-
tion of aircra carriers and warships. We’re investing as never before in
our armed forces. And this includes initiating the process to establish
the United States Space Force to ensure our continued dominance in
space, and we’ve taken action to authorize increased capability in the
cyber world to build deterrence against our adversaries.
At President Trump’s direction, we’re also implementing taris on $250
billion in Chinese goods, with the highest taris specically targeting
the advanced industries that Beijing is trying to capture and control.
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And as the President has also made clear, we will levy even more taris,
with the possibility of substantially more than doubling that number,
unless a fair and reciprocal deal is made.
These actions—exercises in American strength—have had a major
impact. China’s largest stock exchange fell by 25 percent in the rst
nine months of this year, in large part because our administration has
been standing strong against Beijing’s trade practices.
As President Trump has made clear, we don’t want China’s markets
to suer. In fact, we want them to thrive. But the United States wants
Beijing to pursue trade policies that are free, fair, and reciprocal. And
we will continue to stand and demand that they do.
Sadly, China’s rulers, thus far, have refused to take that path. The
American people deserve to know: In response to the strong stand that
President Trump has taken, Beijing is pursuing a comprehensive and
coordinated campaign to undermine support for the President, our
agenda, and our nation’s most cherished ideals.
I want to tell you today what we know about China’s actions here at
home—some of which we’ve gleaned from intelligence assessments,
some of which are publicly available. But all of which are fact.
As I said before, as we speak, Beijing is employing a whole-of-govern-
ment approach to advance its inuence and benet its interests. It’s
employing this power in more proactive and coercive ways to interfere
in the domestic policies of this country and to interfere in the politics
of the United States.
The Chinese Communist Party is rewarding or coercing American busi-
nesses, movie studios, universities, think tanks, scholars, journalists,
and local, state, and federal oicials.
And worst of all, China has initiated an unprecedented eort to inu-
ence American public opinion, the 2018 elections, and the environment
leading into the 2020 presidential elections. To put it bluntly, President
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Trump’s leadership is working; and China wants a dierent American
President.
There can be no doubt: China is meddling in America’s democracy.
As President Trump said just last week, we have, in his words, “found
that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming [midterm]
election[s].”
Our intelligence community says that “China is targeting U.S. state
and local governments and oicials to exploit any divisions between
federal and local levels on policy. It’s using wedge issues, like trade
taris, to advance Beijing’s political inuence.”
In June, Beijing itself circulated a sensitive document, entitled
“Propaganda and Censorship Notice.” It laid out its strategy. It stated
that China must, in their words, “strike accurately and carefully, split-
ting apart dierent domestic groups” in the United States of America.
To that end, Beijing has mobilized covert actors, front groups, and pro-
paganda outlets to shi Americans’ perception of Chinese policy. As a
senior career member of our intelligence community told me just this
week, what the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is
doing across this country. And the American people deserve to know it.
Senior Chinese oicials have also tried to inuence business leaders to
encourage them to condemn our trade actions, leveraging their desire
to maintain their operations in China. In one recent example, China
threatened to deny a business license for a major U.S. corporation if
they refused to speak out against our administration’s policies.
And when it comes to inuencing the midterms, you need only look at
Beijing’s taris in response to ours. The taris imposed by China to date
specically targeted industries and states that would play an import-
ant role in the 2018 election. By one estimate, more than 80 percent
of U.S. counties targeted by China voted for President Trump and I in
2016; now China wants to turn these voters against our administration.
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And China is also directly appealing to the American voters. Last week,
the Chinese government paid to have a multipage supplement inserted
into the Des Moines Register—the paper of record of the home state of
our Ambassador to China, and a pivotal state in 2018 and 2020. The
supplement, designed to look like the news articles, cast our trade pol-
icies as reckless and harmful to Iowans.
Fortunately, Americans aren’t buying it. For example, American farmers
are standing with this President and are seeing real results from the
strong stands that he’s taken, including this week’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada
Agreement, where we’ve substantially opened North American markets
to U.S. products. The USMCA is a great win for American farmers and
American manufacturers.
But China’s actions aren’t focused solely on inuencing our policies
and politics. Beijing is also taking steps to exploit its economic lever-
age, and the allure of their large marketplace, to advance its inuence
over American businesses.
Beijing now requires American joint ventures that operate in China to
establish what they call “party organizations” within their company,
giving the Communist Party a voice—and perhaps a veto—in hiring and
investment decisions.
Chinese authorities have also threatened U.S. companies that depict
Taiwan as a distinct geographic entity, or that stray from Chinese policy
on Tibet. Beijing compelled Delta Airlines to publicly apologize for not
calling Taiwan a “province of China” on its website. And it pressured
Marriott to re a U.S. employee who merely liked a tweet about Tibet.
And Beijing routinely demands that Hollywood portray China in a
strictly positive light. It punishes studios and producers that don’t.
Beijing’s censors are quick to edit or outlaw movies that criticize China,
even in minor ways. For the movie, “World War Z,” they had to cut the
script’s mention of a virus because it originated in China. The movie,
“Red Dawn” was digitally edited to make the villains North Korean, not
Chinese.
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But beyond business and entertainment, the Chinese Communist Party
is also spending billions of dollars on propaganda outlets in the United
States and, frankly, around the world.
China Radio International now broadcasts Beijing-friendly programs on
over 30 U.S. outlets, many in major American cities. The China Global
Television Network reaches more than 75 million Americans, and it
gets its marching orders directly from its Communist Party masters. As
China’s top leader put it during a visit to the network’s headquarters,
and I quote, “The media run by the Party and the government are pro-
paganda fronts and must have the Party as their surname.”
Oicial White House Photo.
It’s for those reasons and that reality that, last month, the Department
of Justice ordered that network to register as a foreign agent.
The Communist Party has also threatened and detained the Chinese
family members of American journalists who pry too deep. And it’s
blocked the websites of U.S. media organizations and made it harder
for our journalists to get visas. This happened aer the New York Times
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published investigative reports about the wealth of some of China’s
leaders.
But the media isn’t the only place where the Chinese Communist Party
seeks to foster a culture of censorship. The same is true across academia.
I mean, look no further than the Chinese Students and Scholars
Association, of which there are more than 150 branches across
America’s campuses. These groups help organize social events for
some of the more than 430,000 Chinese nationals studying in the
United States. They also alert Chinese consulates and embassies when
Chinese students, and American schools, stray from the Communist
Party line.
At the University of Maryland, a Chinese student recently spoke at her
graduation of what she called, and I quote, the “fresh air of free speech”
in America. The Communist Party’s oicial newspaper swily chastised
her. She became the victim of a restorm of criticism on China’s tight-
ly-controlled social media, and her family back home was harassed. As
for the university itself, its exchange program with China—one of the
nation’s most extensive—suddenly turned from a ood to a trickle.
China exerts academic pressure in other ways, as well. Beijing pro-
vides generous funding to universities, think tanks, and scholars,
with the understanding that they will avoid ideas that the Communist
Party nds dangerous or oensive. China experts in particular know
that their visas will be delayed or denied if their research contradicts
Beijing’s talking points.
And even scholars and groups who avoid Chinese funding are targeted
by that country, as the Hudson Institute found out rsthand. Aer you
oered to host a speaker Beijing didn’t like, your website suered a
major cyberattack, originating from Shanghai. The Hudson Institute
knows better than most that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to
undermine academic freedom and the freedom of speech in America
today.
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These and other actions, taken as a whole, constitute an intensify-
ing eort to shi American public opinion and policy away from the
“America First” leadership of President Donald Trump.
But our message to China’s rulers is this: This President will not back
down. The American people will not be swayed. And we will continue
to stand strong for our security and our economy, even as we hope for
improved relations with Beijing.
Our administration is going to continue to act decisively to protect
America’s interests, American jobs, and American security.
As we rebuild our military, we will continue to assert American inter-
ests across the Indo-Pacic.
As we respond to China’s trade practices, we will continue to demand
an economic relationship with China that is free, fair, and reciprocal.
We will demand that Beijing break down its trade barriers, fulll its
obligations, fully open its economy—just as we have opened ours.
We’ll continue to take action against Beijing until the the of American
intellectual property ends once and for all. And we will continue
to stand strong until Beijing stops the predatory practice of forced
technology transfer. We will protect the private property interests of
American enterprise.
And to advance our vision of a free and open Indo-Pacic, we’re build-
ing new and stronger bonds with nations that share our values across
the region, from India to Samoa. Our relationships will ow from a
spirit of respect built on partnership, not domination.
We’re forging new trade deals on a bilateral basis, just as last week
President Trump signed an improved trade deal with South Korea. And
we will soon begin historic negotiations for a bilateral free-trade deal
with Japan.
I’m also pleased to report that we’re streamlining international devel-
opment and nance programs. We’ll be giving foreign nations a just
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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and transparent alternative to China’s debt-trap diplomacy. In fact, this
week, President Trump will sign the BUILD Act into law.
Next month, it will be my privilege to represent the United States in
Singapore and Papua New Guinea, at ASEAN and APEC. There, we will
unveil new measures and programs to support a free and open Indo-
Pacic. And on behalf of the President, I will deliver the message that
America’s commitment to the Indo-Pacic has never been stronger.
Closer to home, to protect our interests, we’ve recently strengthened
CFIUS—the Committee on Foreign Investment—heightening our scru-
tiny of Chinese investment in America to protect our national security
from Beijing’s predatory actions.
And when it comes to Beijing’s malign inuence and interference in
American politics and policy, we will continue to expose it, no matter
the form it takes. We will work with leaders at every level of society to
defend our national interests and most cherished ideals. The American
people will play the decisive role—and, in fact, they already are.
As we gather here, a new consensus is rising across America. More busi-
ness leaders are thinking beyond the next quarter, and thinking twice
before diving into the Chinese market if it means turning over their
intellectual property or abetting Beijing’s oppression. But more must
follow suit. For example, Google should immediately end development
of the “Dragony” app that will strengthen Communist Party censor-
ship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers.
It’s also great to see more journalists reporting the truth without fear
or favor, digging deep to nd where China is interfering in our society,
and why. And we hope that American and global news organizations
will continue to join this eort on an increasing basis.
More scholars are also speaking out forcefully and defending aca-
demic freedom, and more universities and think tanks are mustering
the courage to turn away Beijing’s easy money, recognizing that every
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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dollar comes with a corresponding demand. And we’re condent that
their ranks will grow.
And across the nation, the American people are growing in vigilance,
with a newfound appreciation for our administration’s actions and the
President’s leadership to reset America’s economic and strategic rela-
tionship with China. Americans stand strong behind a President that’s
putting America rst.
And under President Trump’s leadership, I can assure you, America will
stay the course. China should know that the American people and their
elected oicials in both parties are resolved.
As our National Security Strategy states: We should remember that
“Competition does not always mean hostility,” nor does it have to. The
President has made clear, we want a constructive relationship with
Beijing where our prosperity and security grow together, not apart.
While Beijing has been moving further away from this vision, China’s
rulers can still change course and return to the spirit of reform and
opening that characterize the beginning of this relationship decades
ago. The American people want nothing more; and the Chinese people
deserve nothing less.
The great Chinese storyteller Lu Xun oen lamented that his country,
and he wrote, “has either looked down at foreigners as brutes, or up
to them as saints,” but never “as equals.” Today, America is reaching
out our hand to China. And we hope that soon, Beijing will reach back
with deeds, not words, and with renewed respect for America. But be
assured: we will not relent until our relationship with China is grounded
in fairness, reciprocity, and respect for our sovereignty.
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that reads, “Men see only the
present, but heaven sees the future.” As we go forward, let us pursue a
future of peace and prosperity with resolve and faith. Faith in President
Trump’s leadership and vision, and the relationship that he has forged
with China’s president. Faith in the enduring friendship between the
American people and the Chinese people. And Faith that heaven sees
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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the future—and by God’s grace, America and China will meet that
future together.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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REMARKS BY DEPUTY
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
MATT POTTINGER
The Miller Center at the University of Virginia
MAY 4, 2020
Deputy National Security Advisor Pottinger describes policy options to President
Trump and Vice President Pence in a July 2020 cabinet meeting about China.
Good morning everyone. I’m Matt Pottinger, the Deputy National
Security Advisor, speaking to you from the White House. I bring warm
greetings from the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
We gather today online, from a thousand dierent places, because a
pandemic still prohibits us from meeting in person. But through the
marvel of the Internet, we have managed to come together as an even
bigger group than if there had been no public health emergency. In
ways big and small, we are all tapping our ingenuity as Americans, as
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Chinese, as human beings, to overcome hardship and preserve our
communities.
“Big” examples of human ingenuity include harnessing biotechnology
and data analytics to develop therapies and vaccines. “Small” examples
of ingenuity include family members guring out how to give each other
haircuts when barbershops are closed. My wife, who is speaking on a
panel later today, is a highly trained virologist. She is new to her role as
the family barber, as you might have guessed by looking at my hair.
This is the second time I’ve had the privilege of addressing an audience
at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. Nearly a decade ago I
was invited to speak about what I’d learned from service in the Marine
Corps and about the relationship between our military and the civilians
it defends. Since that day, I’ve never forgotten the warmth and wisdom
of the Miller Center’s director, Governor Jerry Baliles, who passed
away last October aer a life of public service to the Commonwealth of
Virginia and to our nation. We give thanks for people like Jerry.
Today, I’ve been invited by Professors Harry Harding and Shirley Lin to
share some thoughts about U.S.-China relations. When Professor Lin
told me this event would land precisely on the 101st anniversary of the
start of China’s historic May Fourth Movement, I knew I had a potent
topic for discussing the China of then and now.
On May the fourth, 1919, following the end of World War I, thousands
of university students from across Beijing converged on Tiananmen
Square to protest China’s unfair treatment at the Paris Peace Conference.
Western nations chose to appease Imperial Japan by granting it control
of Chinese territory that Germany had previously occupied, including
the Shandong Peninsula.
The Chinese students who marched to Tiananmen that day shouted
“give us back Shandong!” and “don’t sign the Versailles Treaty!” Police
forced the students to disperse. But, as frequently happens when gov-
ernments close down avenues for peaceful expression, some protesters
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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resorted to violence. In a principled move that acknowledged popular
anger, China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles later that year.
China would regain control of Shandong three years later with the help
of the United States, which brokered an agreement at the Washington
Naval Conference in 1922. But the movement ignited by those students
exactly 101 years ago was about much more than nationalist outrage
at “unequal treaties.” The movement galvanized a long-running strug-
gle for the soul of modern China. As John Pomfret wrote in his ne
history of U.S.-China relations, the May Fourth Movement aimed for
“a wholesale transformation of Chinese politics, society, and culture.”
“Mr. Science” and “Mr. Democracy” were the mottos of this movement
to transport China into modernity. Some called the movement the
“Chinese Enlightenment.” Vera Schwarcz wrote an insightful book by
that title. In fact, there’s a lot of good scholarship on this subject. At least
two eminent historians of modern China are participating in this event
today—Oxford’s Rana Mitter and the University of Virginia’s John Israel.
I refer you to the experts to explore the history and meaning of the May
Fourth Movement.
But I would like to spend a few minutes highlighting a few Chinese
heroes that I believe embody the May Fourth spirit, then and now.
Hu Shih is naturally identied as one of the most inuential leaders
of the May Fourth era. He was already an inuential thinker on mod-
ernizing China. Hu Shih’s family was from Anhui province. Like Lu Xun
and many other leading writers of their generation, Hu Shih traveled
overseas to study. Aer switching his focus at Cornell from agricul-
ture to philosophy, Hu Shih studied at Columbia University under the
American educator John Dewey.
Hu Shih would contribute one of the greatest gis imaginable to the
Chinese people: The gi of language. Up until then, China’s written
language was “classical,” featuring a grammar and vocabulary largely
unchanged for centuries. As many who have studied it can attest, clas-
sical Chinese feels about as close to spoken Chinese as Latin does to
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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modern Italian. The inaccessibility of the written language presented a
gulf between rulers and the ruled—and that was the point. The written
word—literacy itself—was the domain primarily of a small ruling elite
and of intellectuals, many of whom aspired to serve as oicials. Literacy
simply wasn’t for “the masses.”
Hu Shih believed otherwise. In his view, written Chinese—in form and
content—should reect the voices of living Chinese people rather than
the documents of dead oicials. “Speak in the language of the time
in which you live,” he admonished readers. He believed in making
literacy commonplace. He played a key role promoting a written lan-
guage rooted in the vernacular, or baihua—literally “plain speech.” Hu
Shih’s promotion of baihua is an idea so obvious in hindsight that it is
easy to miss how revolutionary it was at the time. It was also highly
controversial.
Gu Hongmin, a Confucian gentleman and Western literature profes-
sor at Peking University, ridiculed widespread literacy for China and
what it implied. In August 1919 he wrote: “Just fancy what the result
would be if ninety percent of [China’s] four hundred million people
were to become literate. Imagine only what a ne state of things we
would have if here in Peking the coolies, mafoos [stable boys], chauf-
feurs, barbers, shop boys, hawkers, hunters, loafers, vagabonds, [etc.]
all became literate and wanted to take part in politics as well as the
University students.”
Such elitist chauvinism was—and some would argue still remains—a
headwind impeding the democratic ideals espoused by the May Fourth
Movement. Hu Shih, wielding the language he had helped bring to life,
skillfully dismantled arguments against broadening the social con-
tract. “The only way to have democracy is to have democracy,” Hu Shih
argued. “Government is an art, and as such it needs practice.” Hu Shih
didn’t have time for elitism.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 27 H
Deputy National Security Advisor Pottinger delivering remarks in
Mandarin Chinese to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
Still, May Fourth leaders were constantly sapped of energy by accusa-
tions, sometimes leveled by government oicials or their proxies
among the literati, that the movement was slavishly pro-Western,
insuiciently Chinese, or even unpatriotic.
The life and contributions of P.C. Chang make a mockery of the notion
that the May Fourth ideals weren’t “Chinese” enough. Like his friend Hu
Shih, Chang had studied in the United States on a scholarship. Attracted
to the theater, he was the rst to adapt the Chinese story of Mulan for
the stage. He brought Western plays to Nankai University, which his
brother helped found. And he organized a tour of the United States by
the Peking Opera star Mei Lanfang, adapting the music and dance to
Western tastes. In China’s philosophy of moral cultivation and rigorous
education, Chang saw advantages that could be combined with ideas
from the West to form something new.
This culminated in Chang’s crowning achievement: His decisive con-
tributions to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This was the
document draed aer World War II by an international panel chaired
by Eleanor Roosevelt. Chang, who was by then a veteran diplomat rep-
resenting China, was a member of the panel. The declaration’s aim was
to prevent despotism and war by morally obligating governments to
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 28 H
respect fundamental rights. The rights enshrined in the 1948 declara-
tion include life, liberty, and security; the right not to be held in slavery
or subjected to torture; the right to freedom of religion; and the right to
freedom of thought.
“Marrying Western belief in the primacy of the individual with Chinese
concern for the greater good” Chang helped cra a document that
would be relevant to all nations, John Pomfret wrote. A declaration
on human rights was not simply about the rights of the individual, in
Chang’s view. It was also about the individual’s obligations to society.
Chang’s biographer, Hans Ingvar Roth of Stockholm University, high-
lighted the weight of Chang’s contributions to the Declaration: “Chang
stands out as the key gure for all of the attributes now considered
signicant for this document: its universality, its religious neutrality,
and its focus on the fundamental needs and the dignity of individual
human beings.”
A few short years aer the Declaration was adopted by the United
Nations, Chang resigned his post as a Chinese diplomat, having
grown dismayed by the lack of democracy in China. In diagnosing the
problem, it is easy to imagine P.C. Chang prescribing a closer reading
not of ancient Greek philosophy, but of traditional Chinese ideals
about virtuous leadership. The cliché that Chinese people can’t be
trusted with democracy was, as both P.C. Chang and Hu Shih knew, the
most unpatriotic idea of all. Taiwan today is a living repudiation of that
threadbare mistruth.
So who embodies the May Fourth spirit in China today? To my mind,
the heirs of May Fourth are civic-minded citizens who commit small
acts of bravery. And sometimes big acts of bravery. Dr. Li Wenliang was
such a person. Dr. Li wasn’t a demagogue in search of a new ideology
that might save China. He was an ophthalmologist and a young father
who committed a small act of bravery and then a big act of bravery. His
small act of bravery, in late December, was to pass along a warning via
WeChat to his former medical school classmates that patients alicted
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 29 H
by a dangerous new virus were turning up in Wuhan hospitals. He urged
his friends to protect their families.
When his warning circulated more widely than he intended, Dr. Li was
upset and anxious—and with good reason. Supervisors at his hospital
quickly admonished him for leaking word of the coronavirus cases.
Dr. Li was then interrogated by the police, made to sign a “confes-
sion,” and threatened with prosecution if he spoke out again. Anyone
tempted to believe this was just a case of overzealous local police,
take note: China’s central government aired a news story about Dr. Li’s
“rumor-mongering.”
Then Dr. Li did a big brave thing. He went public with his experience
of being silenced by the police. The whole world paid close attention.
By this time, Dr. Li had contracted the disease he’d warned about. His
death on February 7 felt like the loss of a relative for people around the
world. Dr. Li’s comment to a reporter from his deathbed still rings in our
ears: “I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society,
and I don’t approve of using public power for excessive interference.”
Dr. Li was using Hu Shih-style “plain speech” to make a practical point.
It takes courage to speak to a reporter—or to work as one—in today’s
China. Even nding an investigative reporter in China, foreign or local,
is getting hard. Citizen journalists who tried to shed light on the out-
break in Wuhan went missing, including Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li
Zehua. More foreign reporters were expelled in recent months than
the Soviet Union expelled over decades. Dr. Ai Fen, a colleague of Dr.
Li Wenliang who also raised the alarm about the outbreak in Wuhan,
reportedly can no longer appear in public aer she spoke to a reporter.
When small acts of bravery are stamped out by governments, big acts
of bravery follow.
We have seen big acts of moral and physical courage recently by
people pursuing the ideals that Hu Shih and P.C. Chang championed a
century ago. Some are political insiders; some have devoted their lives
to God. Others follow the long tradition of scholars serving as China’s
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 30 H
conscience. Many are regular citizens. Xu Zhangrun, Ren Zhiqiang, Xu
Zhiyong, Ilham Tohti, Fang Fang, 20 Catholic priests who have refused
to subordinate God to the Communist Party, and the millions of Hong
Kong citizens who peacefully demonstrated for the rule of law last year.
The list goes on.
As the May Fourth Movement today marks the inaugural year of its
second century, what will its ultimate legacy be? It is a question only
the Chinese people themselves can answer. The May Fourth Movement
belongs to them. Will the movement’s democratic aspirations remain
unfullled for another century? Will its core ideas be deleted or distorted
through oicial censorship and disinformation? Will its champions be
slandered as “unpatriotic,” “pro-American,” “subversive”? We know
the Communist Party will do its best to make it so. Aer all, Mao Zedong
had limited tolerance even for Lu Xun, China’s most celebrated modern
writer and one of the minority of May Fourth heroes whose writing
wasn’t heavily censored by the Party. In 1957, an oicial named Luo
Jinan asked Chairman Mao: “What if Lu Xun were alive today?” Mao’s
reply about the national hero surprised many in the audience: “He
could either sit in jail and continue to write or he could remain silent.”
Those with the fortitude to seek and speak the truth in China today
may take comfort, however, in something Lu Xun wrote: “Lies written
in ink can never disguise facts written in blood.”
One nal thought, from a U.S. perspective: Hu Shih famously preferred
solving concrete problems to wallowing in abstract political theory. But
let me break his rule against discussing “isms” to ask whether China
today would benet from a little less nationalism and a little more
populism. Democratic populism is less about le versus right than top
versus bottom. It’s about reminding a few that they need the consent
of many to govern. When a privileged few grow too remote and self-in-
terested, populism is what pulls them back or pitches them overboard.
It has a kinetic energy. It fueled the Brexit vote of 2015 and President
Trump’s election in 2016. It moved the founder of your university to
pen a declaration of independence in 1776. It is an admonition to the
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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powerful of this country to remember who they’re supposed to work
for: America rst.
Wasn’t a similar idea beating in the heart of the May Fourth Movement,
too? Weren’t Hu Shih’s language reforms a declaration of war against
aristocratic pretension? Weren’t they a broadside against the Confucian
power structure that enforced conformity over free thought? Wasn’t the
goal to achieve citizen-centric government in China, and not replace
one regime-centric model with another one? The world will wait for the
Chinese people to furnish the answers.
Thank you.
This is the English-language version of a speech that was delivered by Deputy
National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger in Mandarin Chinese.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
The White House Rose Garden
MAY 30, 2020
President Trump giving remarks in the White House Rose Garden.
Thank you very much. Good aernoon. Thank you. I’m here today to
talk about our relationship with China and several new measures to
protect American security and prosperity.
China’s pattern of misconduct is well known. For decades, they have
ripped o the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds
of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with China, especially
over the years during the prior administration. China raided our fac-
tories, oshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual
property, and violated their commitments under the World Trade
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Organization. To make matters worse, they are considered a develop-
ing nation getting all sorts of benets that others, including the United
States, are not entitled to.
But I never solely blamed China for this. They were able to get away
with a the like no one was able to get away with before because of
past politicians and, frankly, past presidents. But unlike those who
came before, my administration negotiated and fought for what was
right. It’s called: fair and reciprocal treatment.
China has also unlawfully claimed territory in the Pacic Ocean, threat-
ening freedom of navigation and international trade. And they broke
their word to the world on ensuring the autonomy of Hong Kong.
The United States wants an open and constructive relationship with
China, but achieving that relationship requires us to vigorously defend
our national interests. The Chinese government has continually vio-
lated its promises to us and so many other nations.
These plain facts cannot be overlooked or swept aside. The world is
now suering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese govern-
ment. China’s cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to
spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost
more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide.
Chinese oicials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health
Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead
the world when the virus was rst discovered by Chinese authorities.
Countless lives have been taken, and profound economic hardship
has been inicted all around the globe. They strongly recommended
against me doing the early ban from China, but I did it anyway and was
proven to be 100 percent correct.
China has total control over the World Health Organization, despite
only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States
has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them
directly, but they have refused to act. Because they have failed to make
the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminat-
ing our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting
those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent, global public
health needs.
The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have trans-
parency. Why is it that China shut o infected people from Wuhan to all
other parts of China? It went nowhere else. It didn’t go to Beijing; it went
nowhere else. But allowed them to freely travel throughout the world,
including Europe and the United States.
The death and destruction caused by this is incalculable. We must have
answers not only for us but for the rest of the world.
This pandemic has underscored the crucial importance of building
up America’s economic independence, reshoring our critical supply
chains and protecting America’s scientic and technological advances.
For years, the government of China has conducted illicit espionage to
steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many. Today, I will issue
a proclamation to better secure our nation’s vital university research
and to suspend the entry of certain foreign nationals from China who
we have identied as potential security risks.
I am also taking action to protect the integrity of America’s nancial
system—by far, the best in the world. I am instructing my Presidential
Working Group on Financial Markets to study the diering practices of
Chinese companies listed on the U.S. nancial markets, with the goal of
protecting American investors.
Investment rms should not be subjecting their clients to the hidden
and undue risks associated with nancing Chinese companies that
do not play by the same rules. Americans are entitled to fairness and
transparency.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 36 H
Several of the most signicant actions we’re taking pertain to the
deeply troubling situations unfolding in Hong Kong.
This week, China unilaterally imposed control over Hong Kong secu-
rity. This was a plain violation of Beijing’s treaty obligations with the
United Kingdom in the Declaration of 1984 and explicit provisions of
Hong Kong’s Basic Law. It has 27 years to go.
Oicial White House Photo.
The Chinese government’s move against Hong Kong is the latest in a
series of measures that are diminishing the city’s longstanding and
very proud status.
This is a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, the people of China, and
indeed the people of the world. China claims it is protecting national
security. But the truth is that Hong Kong was secure and prosperous as
a free society. Beijing’s decision reverses all of that. It extends the reach
of China’s invasive state security apparatus into what was formerly a
bastion of liberty.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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China’s latest incursion, along with other recent developments that
degraded the territory’s freedoms, makes clear that Hong Kong is no
longer suiciently autonomous to warrant the special treatment that
we have aorded the territory since the handover.
China has replaced its promised formula of “one country, two systems”
with “one country, one system.”
Therefore, I am directing my administration to begin the process of
eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong dierent and
special treatment.
My announcement today will aect the full range of agreements we
have with Hong Kong, from our extradition treaty to our export controls
on dual-use technologies and more, with few exceptions.
We will be revising the State Department’s travel advisory for Hong
Kong to reect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment
by the Chinese state security apparatus.
We will take action to revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment as a
separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China.
The United States will also take necessary steps to sanction PRC and
Hong Kong oicials directly or indirectly involved in eroding Hong
Kong’s autonomy and—just if you take a look, smothering—absolutely
smothering Hong Kong’s freedom. Our actions will be strong. Our
actions will be meaningful.
More than two decades ago, on a rainy night in 1997, British soldiers
lowered the Union Flag, and Chinese soldiers raised the Chinese ag in
Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong felt simultaneously proud of their
Chinese heritage and their unique Hong Kong identity. The people of
Hong Kong hoped that in the years and decades to come, China would
increasingly come to resemble its most radiant and dynamic city. The
rest of the world was electried by a sense of optimism that Hong Kong
was a glimpse into China’s future—not that Hong Kong would grow into
a reection of China’s past.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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In every decision, I will continue to proudly defend and protect the
workers, families, and citizens of the United States of America.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
ROBERT C. O’BRIEN
The Arizona Commerce Authority
in Phoenix, Arizona
JUNE 24, 2020
National Security Advisor O’Brien delivering remarks at the
Arizona Commerce Authority in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Ideology and Global Ambitions
Thank you Governor Ducey. That was an extraordinarily kind intro-
duction. I appreciate you mentioning Kayla Mueller and her parents.
We had Carl and Marsha at the State of the Union. That was a very
special occasion for the President and for all of us as Americans. What
happened to Kayla should never happen to anyone, especially an
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 40 H
American. Thank you for remembering her today and for the support
you have given her family.
It is great to be here in Phoenix. Congratulations on the TSMC factory
that is coming to Arizona.
1
I can tell you there are 49 other governors
that wished they had been Governor Ducey on this one. What a tremen-
dous accomplishment for your administration, Governor. Our national
security depends on bringing our supply chain home. This is especially
true when we are dealing with critical technology, computer chips,
that are not only important to our civilian world—the phones we use,
the computers we use, the dishwashers, the refrigerators we use—but
also to our military.
2
You have some great aerospace companies who
are doing work in Arizona that will benet from having their suppliers
closer to home.
3
Congratulations to the people of Arizona.
It is wonderful to be here at the Arizona Commerce Authority.
Congratulations to you as well for the excellent support you gave the
governor and his administration in not only bringing the Taiwanese
here but also many other manufacturing companies returning to
America, many of which are coming to Arizona, with its great weather
and sunshine.
4
As manufacturing returns to this country, Arizona will
be at the top of many companies’ list.
I bring you greetings from the 45th President of the United States,
Donald J. Trump. I know he was here yesterday. It is privilege to follow
in his wake. I think there is some other good news; the Vice President of
1
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, “TSMC Announces Intention to Build and
Operate an Advanced Semiconductor Fab in the United States,” May 15, 2020, https://www.
tsmc.com/tsmcdotcom/PRListingNewsAction.do?action=detail&newsid=THGOANPGTH
2
Don Clark, “Pentagon, With an Eye on China, Pushes for Help From American Tech,” New
York Times, October 25, 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/technology/pentagon-taiwan-tsmc-chipmaker.html
3
Arizona Commerce Authority, “Aerospace & Defense,”
https://www.azcommerce.com/industries/aerospace-defense
4
Evan Cohen, “Manufacturers Bringing the Most Jobs Back to America,” USA Today, June
28, 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/06/28/
manufacturers-bringing-most-jobs-back-to-america/36438051/
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 41 H
the United States Mike Pence, my close friend, whose oice is down the
hall in the West Wing, will be here next week.
I appreciate the kind invitation to come discuss an issue of great
importance to American national security with you, Governor and
your colleagues here in Arizona: the challenge the Chinese Communist
Party poses to the United States and our allies is of critical importance
to us right now. My remarks are the rst of several speeches senior
Administration oicials will give on this matter over the next few weeks.
You will soon hear from Secretary of State Pompeo, Attorney General
Barr, and FBI Director Chris Wray on the subject.
America, under President Trump’s leadership, has nally awoken to
the threat the Chinese Communist Party’s actions pose to our very way
of life.
5
For decades, conventional wisdom in both U.S. political parties,
the business community, academia, and media, has held that it was
only a matter of time before China would become more liberal, rst
economically and, then, politically.
6
The more we opened our markets
to China, the thinking went, the more we invested capital in China, the
more we trained PRC bureaucrats, scientists, engineers, and even mili-
tary oicers, the more China would become like us.
7
Prior to President Donald J. Trump taking oice, it was under this
premise that we welcomed China into the World Trade Organization
in 2001 with vast concessions and trade privileges.
8
We overlooked-
China’s gross human rights abuses, including Tiananmen Square.
9
We
5
White House, “United States Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China,” May
20, 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/
U.S.-Strategic-Approach-to-The-Peoples-Republic-of-China-Report-5.20.20.pdf
6
American Enterprise Institute, “The Paradox of Chinese Liberalism,” November 13, 2019,
https://www.aei.org/society-and-culture/the-paradox-of-chinese-liberalism/
7
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, “Full Text of Clinton’s Speech on China Trade
Bill,” March 9, 2000, https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/les/
Full_Text_of_Clintons_Speech_on_China_Trade_Bi.htm
8
United States Trade Representative, “2018 Report to Congress on China’s WTO Compli-
ance,” February 2019, https://ustr.gov/sites/default/les/
2018-USTR-Report-to-Congress-on-China%27s-WTO-Compliance.pdf
9
History, “Tiananmen Square Protests,” June 4, 1989,
https://www.history.com/topics/china/tiananmen-square
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
H 42 H
turned a blind eye to China’s widespread technology the that eviscer-
ated entire sectors of the American economy.
10
As China grew richer and stronger, we believed, the Chinese Communist
Party would liberalize to meet the rising democratic aspirations of its
people.
11
This was a bold, quintessentially American idea, born of our
innate optimism and by the experience of our triumph over Soviet
Communism. Unfortunately, it turned out to be very naïve.
We could not have been more wrong—and this miscalculation is the
greatest failure of American foreign policy since the 1930s. How did we
make such a mistake? How did we fail to understand the nature of the
Chinese Communist Party?
The answer is simple: because we did not pay heed to the Chinese
Communist Party’s ideology. Instead of listening to what Chinese
Communist Party leaders were saying, and reading what they wrote
in their key documents, we closed our ears and our eyes. We believed
what we wanted to believe—that the Party members were communist
in name only.
12
Let us be clear, the Chinese Communist Party is a Marxist-Leninist orga-
nization.
13
The Party General Secretary Xi Jinping sees himself as Josef
10
The Guardian, “China The of Technology is Biggest Law Enforcement Threat to US, FBI
Says,” February 6, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/
china-technology-the-fbi-biggest-threat
11
See, for example, Samuel Berger, “Building a New Consensus on China,” June 6, 1997,
https://astro.temple.edu/~rimmerma/building_a_new_consensus_on_chin.htm. Also see
New York Times, “In Bush’s Words: ‘Join Together in Making China a Normal Trading Part-
ner,’” May 18, 2000, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/18/world/
in-bush-s-words-join-together-in-making-china-a-normal-trading-partner.html?
referringSource=articleShare. Also see Robert Zoellick, “Whither China? From Membership
to Responsibility,” September 21, 2005, https://www.ncuscr.org/sites/default/les/
migration/Zoellick_remarks_notes06_winter_spring.pdf. Also see “Bush Lauds Taiwan’s
Democracy Ahead of China Visit,” November 16, 2005,
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015189.
12
Richard McGregor, “Five Myths About the Chinese Communist Party,” Foreign Policy,
January 3, 2011,
https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/03/5-myths-about-the-chinese-communist-party/
13
See, for example, Tanner Greer, “Xi Jinping in Translation: China’s Guiding Ideology,” May
31, 2019,
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Stalin’s successor.
14
In fact, as the journalist and former Australian gov-
ernment oicial John Garnaut has noted, the Chinese Communist Party
is the last “ruling communist party that never split with Stalin, with the
partial exception of North Korea.”
15
Yes, Stalin —the man whose brutal
dictatorship and disastrous policies killed roughly 20 million Russians
and others through famine, forced collectivization, executions, and
labor camps.
16
As interpreted and practiced by Lenin, Stalin, and Mao,
communism is a totalitarian ideology.
17
Under communism, individuals are merely a means to be used toward
the achievement of the ends of the collective nation state. Thus, indi-
viduals can be easily sacriced for the nation state’s goals.
18
Individuals
do not have inherent value under Marxism-Leninism. They exist to
serve the state; the state does not exist to serve them.
These ideas sound remote and outdated to us. They are, aer all, old
ideas—they were born a century and a half ago in Europe. They were
implemented a century ago by Russia, and then discarded 30 years ago
as the most costly failed political experiment in history. But in China,
these ideas remain as fundamental to the Chinese Communist Party as
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are to us as Americans.
19
https://palladiummag.com/2019/05/31/xi-jinping-in-translation-chinas-guiding-ideology/,
and “Full text of Xi Jinping’s report at the 19th CPC National Congress,” November 4, 2017,
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/19thcpcnationalcongress/2017-11/04/
content_34115212.htm
14
John Pomfret, “Xi Jinping’s quest to revive Stalin’s communist Ideology,” The Wash-
ington Post, October 16, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/
wp/2017/10/16/xi-jinpings-quest-to-revive-stalins-communist-ideology/
15
John Garnaut, “Engineers of the Soul: Ideology in Xi Jinping’s China,” January 16, 2019,
https://sinocism.com/p/engineers-of-the-soul-ideology-in
16
Bill Keller, “Major Soviet Paper Says 20 Million Died As Victims of Stalin,” The New York
Times, Feb. 4, 1989, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/04/world/
major-soviet-paper-says-20-million-died-as-victims-of-stalin.html
17
John Garnaut, “Engineers of the Soul: Ideology in Xi Jinping’s China,” January 16, 2019,
https://sinocism.com/p/engineers-of-the-soul-ideology-in
18
Center for European Studies at UNC, “Communism: Karl Marx to Joseph Stalin,”
https://europe.unc.edu/iron-curtain/history/communism-karl-marx-to-joseph-stalin/
19
Eleanor Albert, Beina Xu, and Lindsay Maizland, “The Chinese Communist Party,” Council
on Foreign Relations,” June 9, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/
chinese-communist-party
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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The Chinese Communist Party seeks total control over the Chinese
people’s lives. This means economic control, it means political control,
it means physical control, and, perhaps most importantly, it means
thought control.
20
“In Classical Chinese statecra,” Garnaut has noted, “there are two
tools for gaining and maintaining control over ‘the mountains and the
rivers’: the rst is wu ( ), weapons and violence, and the second is
wen ( ), language and culture. Chinese leaders have always believed
that power derives from controlling both the physical battleeld and
the cultural domain.” “For Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Xi,” Garnaut writes,
“words are not vehicles of reason and persuasion. They are bullets.
Words are for dening, isolating, and destroying opponents.”
21
Propaganda plays a central political role for the Chinese Communist
Party.
22
Beijing’s eorts to dominate political thought are stated
openly and pursued aggressively.
23
In 1989, the party began organiz-
ing itself around ‘ideological security,’ a term repeated frequently since
then by Chinese Communist Party leaders.
24
More recently, in April
2013, the Party issued a policy on what they call the “current state of
ideology.” It held that there should be “absolutely no opportunity or
outlets for incorrect thinking or viewpoints to spread.”
25
20
Amy Qin, Javier Hernandez, “How China’s Rulers Control Society: Opportunity, National-
ism, Fear,” New York Times, November 25, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/
interactive/2018/11/25/world/asia/china-freedoms-control.html
21
John Garnaut, “Engineers of the Soul: Ideology in Xi Jinping’s China,” January 16, 2019,
https://sinocism.com/p/engineers-of-the-soul-ideology-in
22
David Shambaugh, “China’s Propaganda System: Institutions, Processes and Eicacy,”
The China Journal, no. 57 (2007): 25-58.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20066240?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
23
Stephen McDonell, “China Congress: How Authorities Censor Your Thoughts,” BBC,
October 16, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-41523073
24
Qiushi Theory, “Closely Watch Out for Ideology Security on the Internet,” June 15, 2014,
http://chinascope.org/archives/3283?doing_wp_cron=1593280261.9284429550170898437
500. Also see Jack Hu and Oiwan Lam, “In quest for ‘ideological security,’ China Pushes to
Extend Communist Party Inuence Inside Tech Firms,” September 10, 2017,
https://hongkongfp.com/2017/09/10/quest-ideological-security-china-pushes-extend-
communist-party-inuence-inside-tech-rms/
25
Chris Buckley, “China Takes Aim at Western Ideas,” New York Times, August 20, 2013,
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Within China, this policy means mandatory study sessions on
Communist ideology and the required download and use of smart-
phone apps that teach so-called “Xi Jinping Thought.” It also means
complete Party control of all state media.
26
Outside sources of informa-
tion are banned—from foreign newspapers to Twitter, Facebook, and
WhatsApp. All content generated within China is censored. It means
jailing everyone from citizen bloggers, reporters, and lawyers to activ-
ists and religious believers for expressing any views contrary to the
Party line.
27
And indeed, just recently, between January 1 and April 4 of this year,
nearly 500 individuals were charged with crimes just for speaking out
about the Wuhan coronavirus, its eects upon the Party, and the Party’s
cover-up of the disease.
28
The Chinese Communist Party reinterprets religious texts, including
the Bible, to support communist party ideology.
29
It locks up millions of
Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities in reeducation camps where they
are subjected to political indoctrination and forced labor, while their
children are raised in Party-run orphanages.
30
For those caught up in
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/asia/
chinas-new-leadership-takes-hard-line-in-secret-memo.html.
See also “Document 9: A ChinaFile Translation,” November 8, 2013,
https://www.chinale.com/document-9-chinale-translation
26
The Guardian, “Xi Jinping Asks for ‘Absolute Loyalty’ from Chinese State Media,” February
19, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/
xi-jinping-tours-chinas-top-state-media-outlets-to-boost-loyalty
27
Alexandra Ma, “Barging Into Your Home, Threatening Your Family, or Making You Disap-
pear: Here’s What China Does to People Who Speak Out Against Them,” Business Insider,
August 19, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-deals-with-dissent-threats-
family-arrests-2018-8
28
Bradford Betz, “China Has Arrested Hundreds for Speaking Out About Coronavirus,
Reports Show,” May 13, 2020, https://www.foxnews.com/world/
china-arrested-hundreds-speaking-out-coronavirus
29
Nectar Gan, “China’s Religion Chiefs to Double Down on Bringing Doctrine in Line with
Socialist Dogma,” Novebmer 27, 2019,
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3039636/
chinas-religion-chiefs-double-down-bringing-doctrine-line
30
Sigal Samuel, “China’s Jaw-Dropping Family Separation Policy,” The Atlantic, September
4, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/
china-internment-camps-uighur-muslim-children/569062/
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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camps, this process annihilates family, religion, culture, language, and
heritage.
31
Under the Chinese Communist Party, information istightly
controlled and expression is constantly surveilled, so that it can be
quashed or shaped by the state.
32
Americans should be concerned. We should not be concerned only
for the Chinese people but also for ourselves. Xi Jinping’s ambitions
for ideological control are not limited to his own people. The Chinese
Communist Party’s stated goal is to create a “Community of Common
Destiny for Mankind,” and remake the world in its image. The eort to
control thought beyond the borders of China is well under way.
33
Over the past decade, the Party has invested billions of dollars into over-
seas propaganda operations to great eect. The Chinese Communist
Party has moved to eliminate ‘unfriendly’ Chinese language media
outlets worldwide, and is close to succeeding.
34
Nearly every Chinese
31
Congressional-Executive Commission on China, “Forced Labor, Mass Internment, and
Social Control in Xinjiang,” October 17, 2019,
https://www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/forced-labor-mass-internment-and-social-control-
in-xinjiang. See also International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, “China Cables,”
November 2019, https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/?gclid=
Cj0KCQjw3Nv3BRC8ARIsAPh8hgLXPhPHJydiGsyuMpKTlK1JE-
CDJc2bIkMz9ef6VCiHpiD7EunoE8IaAj-CEALw_wcB. Also see “Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Indo-Pacic Security Aairs Shriver Press Brieng on the 2019 Report on Military and
Security Developments in China,” May 3, 2019, https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/
Transcripts/Transcript/Article/1837011/assistant-secretary-of-defense-for-indo-pacic-
security-aairs-schriver-press/
32
Freedom House, “Chinese Communist Party’s Media Inuence Expands Worldwide,”
January 14, 2020, https://freedomhouse.org/article/chinese-communist-partys-media-
inuence-expands-worldwide
33
See, for example, Samantha Homan, “China’s Tech-Enhanced Authoritarianism,” May
16, 2019, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG00/20190516/109462/
HHRG-116-IG00-Wstate-HomanS-20190516.pdf and “Engineering global consent,” October
14, 2019, https://www.aspi.org.au/report/engineering-global-consent-chinese-
communist-partys-data-driven-power-expansion. Also see Sarah Cook, “Beijing’s Global
Megaphone,” 2020, https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2020/
beijings-global-megaphone. Also see Hal Brands, “What Does China Really Want? To Domi-
nate the World,” May 20, 2020,
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-20/
xi-jinping-makes-clear-that-china-s-goal-is-to-dominate-the-world.
34
Louisa Lim, Julia Bergin, “Inside China’s Audacious Global Propaganda Campaign,” The
Guardian, December 7, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/dec/07/
china-plan-for-global-media-dominance-propaganda-xi-jinping
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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language news outlet in the U.S. is either owned by, or works closely
with the Party—and the Chinese Communist Party is making inroads
into English language media as well. Americans hear subtle pro-Beijing
propaganda on more than a dozen FM radio stations in cities across the
country.
35
President Trump and National Security Advisor O’Brien arrive at Air Force One
Recently, Chinese propaganda persuaded so many Americans that a
U.S. solider had brought the coronavirus to Wuhan—as opposed to
Wuhan sending the virus to the rest of the world (a complete fabrica-
tion by the Chinese Communist Party) that this soldier and her family
needed a personal security detail to protect them from death
threats. This situation occurred in Maryland.
36
35
Hoover Institution, 2018, “Chinese Inuence & American Interests: Promoting Construc-
tive Vigilance,” https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/les/research/docs/
chineseinuence_americaninterests_fullreport_web.pdf. Also see Sarah Cook, “Beijing’s
Global Megaphone,” 2020, https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2020/
beijings-global-megaphone
36
Steven Meyers, “China Spins Tale That the U.S. Army Started the Coronavirus Epidemic,”
New York Times, March 13, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/asia/
coronavirus-china-conspiracy-theory.html
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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On TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media platform with over 40 million
American users—probably a lot of your kids and younger colleagues—
accounts criticizing Chinese Communist Party policies are routinely
removed or deleted.
37
Last week, Twitter announced the suspension of more than 23,000
Chinese Communist Party linked accounts for spreading propaganda
on Hong Kong and COVID-19.
38
This latest suspension was in addition to
last August’s removal of more than 150,000 Chinese Communist Party
linked accounts that were used to spread anti-American disinforma-
tion and generate the illusion of popular support for Beijing’s policies
in the United States.
39
These are just the accounts Twitter caught. How
many are still out there undetected?
In March, the Chinese Communist Party expelled American journal-
ists working for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the
Washington Post,
40
almost fully eliminating independent reporting
from within China on the Wuhan virus.
In addition to inuencing what information American citizens receive
regarding China, the Chinese Communist Party is increasingly using its
leverage to police American speech.
41
When the University of California
37
See, for example, Sara Morrison, “TikTok is Accused of Censoring Anti-Chinese Govern-
ment Content, Again,” November 27, 2019, https://www.vox.com/
recode/2019/11/27/20985795/tiktok-censorship-china-uighur-bytedance, and Drew Harwell
and Tony Romm, “TikTok’s Beijing roots fuel censorship suspicion as it builds a huge U.S.
audience,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/15/
tiktoks-beijing-roots-fuel-censorship-suspicion-it-builds-huge-us-audience/
38
Twitter Safety, “Disclosing Networks of State-linked Information Operations We’ve Re-
moved,” June 12, 2020, https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/
information-operations-june-2020.html
39
Twitter Safety, “Information Operations Directed at Hong Kong,” August 19, 2019,
https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/information_operations_
directed_at_Hong_Kong.html
40
Wall Street Journal, “China Banishes U.S. Journalists from Wall Street Journal, New York
Times and Washington Post,” March 18, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
china-bans-all-u-s-nationals-working-for-the-wall-street-journal-new-york-times-
washington-post-whose-press-credentials-end-in-2020-11584464690
41
Michael Pompeo, “On the Chinese Communist Party’s Obscene Propaganda,” U.S. Depart-
ment of State, June 6, 2020,
https://www.state.gov/on-the-chinese-communist-partys-obscene-propaganda/
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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at San Diego hosted the Dalai Lama as a commencement speaker in
2017, Beijing banned Chinese students from visiting UCSD on govern-
ment funds.
42
When the general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted his support
for the peaceful Hong Kong protesters, the Chinese Communist Party
announced its team’s games would not be shown on Chinese TV. The
Party used its economic power to pressure others in basketball, includ-
ing star players, to criticize the tweet on behalf of Beijing.
43
Under pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, American, Delta,
and United Airlines all removed references to Taiwan from their cor-
porate websites.
44
Mercedes Benz even apologized for posting an
inspirational quote from the Dalai Lama on social media.
45
Beijing has also used its nancial might and market access to pressure
Hollywood into self-censorship, incentivizing directors and producers
to avoid topics that might not make it past the country’s censors in
China. For example, the Japanese and Taiwanese ags were dropped
from Tom Cruise’s ight jacket in the upcoming Top Gun sequel
“Maverick.”
46
MGM digitally changed the identities, post-production,
of the invading military from China to North Korea in the “Red Dawn”
remake.
47
42
Stephanie Saul, “On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye,” New
York Times, May 4, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/us/chinese-students-
western-campuses-china-inuence.html
43
Sopan Deb, “N.B.A. Commissioner: China Asked Us to Fire Daryl Morey,” New York Times,
October 17, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/sports/basketball/
nba-china-adam-silver.html
44
Daniel Shane, “US airlines give in to China’s demands over Taiwan,” CNN, July 25, 2018,
https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/25/news/companies/taiwan-china-airlines/index.html
45
Peil Li and Adam Jourdan, “Mercedes-Benz Apologizes to Chinese for Quoting Dalai
Lama,” Reuters, February 6, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-mercedes-benz-china-gae/mercedes-benz-apologizes-to-chinese-for-quoting-
dalai-lama-idUSKBN1FQ1FJ.
46
Adam Kredo, “Cruz: ‘Top Gun’ Censorship for China Proves ‘Hollywood is Afraid to Stand
Up for Free Speech,’” July 26, 2019,
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/cruz-top-gun-censorship-for-china-proves-
hollywood-is-afraid-to-stand-up-for-free-speech/
47
Ben Fritz, John Horn, “Reel China: Hollywood Tries to Stay on China’s Good Side,” Los
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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The Chinese Communist Party is seeking leverage over individual
Americans as well. The Party is collecting your most intimate data—
your words, your actions, your purchases, your whereabouts, your
health records, your social media posts, your texts, and mapping your
network of friends, family, and acquaintances.
48
The Chinese Communist Party accomplishes this goal, in part, by sub-
sidizing hardware, soware, telecommunications, and even genetics
companies.
49
As a result, corporations such as Huawei and ZTE undercut
competitors on price and install their equipment around the globe at a
loss.
50
This has the side eect of putting out of business American man-
ufacturers of telecom hardware and has made it very diicult for Nokia
and Ericsson.
51
Why do they do it? Because it is not telecom hardware or
soware prots the Chinese Communist Party are aer, it is your data.
They use “backdoors” built into the products to obtain that data.
When the Chinese Communist Party cannot buy your data, it steals
it. In 2014, the Chinese hacked Anthem insurance, collecting sensi-
Angeles Times, March 16, 2011,
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-china-red-dawn-20110316-story.html
48
Samantha Homan, “Why You Should Worry if You Have a Chinese Smartphone,” October
26, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/26/china-technology-
social-management-internet-social-credit-system. Also see Emile Dirks and James Leibold,
“Genomic surveillance,” June 17, 2020, https://www.aspi.org.au/report/
genomic-surveillance. Also see Danielle Cave, Samantha Homan, Alex Joske, Fergus Ryan
and Elise Thomas, “Mapping China’s Tech Giants, April 18, 2019,
https://www.aspi.org.au/report/mapping-chinas-tech-giants
49
On Chinese tech rms’ links to the Chinese Communist Party and government, see, for
example, Dr. Christopher Ashley Ford, September 11, 2019, “Huawei and Its Siblings, the
Chinese Tech Giants: National Security and Foreign Policy Implications,”
https://www.state.gov/huawei-and-its-siblings-the-chinese-tech-giants-national-
security-and-foreign-policy-implications/. Also see Chuin-Wei Yap, “State Support Helped
Fuel Huawei’s Global Rise,” December 25, 2019,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-support-helped-fuel-huaweis-global-rise-11577280736.
50
Brian Fung, “How China’s Huawei Took the Lead Over U.S. Companies in 5G Technology,”
The Washington Post, April 10, 2019,
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2206871501/citation/2D74B574CE9949D0PQ/
1?accountid=45205
51
Tarmo Virki, Angela Moon, “In Push to Replace Huawei, Rural U.S. Carriers Are Talking
with Nokia and Ericsson,” Reuters, June 25, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-huawei-tech-usa-nokia-ericsson-exclus/exclusive-in-push-to-replace-huawei-rural-
us-carriers-are-talking-with-nokia-and-ericsson-idUSKCN1TQ1VV
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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tive information on 80 million Americans.
52
In 2015, China hacked the
Oice of Personnel Management, which holds security clearance infor-
mation, acquiring sensitive data on 20 million Americans who work
for the federal government.
53
In 2017, the Chinese government hacked
Equifax, obtaining the names, birthdates, social security numbers, and
credit scores of 145 million Americans.
54
In 2019, Chinese hackers attacked Marriott, gathering information on
383 million guests, including their passport numbers.
55
And, in 2016,
a Chinese company even bought the dating app Grindr to harvest its
data, including the HIV status of users, before the U.S. government-
forced a divestiture on national security grounds.
56
These are just a few
of the instances we know about.
How will the Chinese Communist Party use this data? In the same way
it uses data within China’s borders: to target, to atter, to cajole, to
inuence, to coerce, and to even blackmail individuals to say and do
things that serve the Party’s interests. This is ‘micro targeting’ beyond
an advertiser’s wildest dreams. China, unlike advertisers, will not be
stopped by government regulations. The Chinese Communist Party
simply wants to know everything about you—just as it likes to know
almost everything about every individual living in China.
52
Erik Larson, “Chinese Citizen Indicted in Anthem Hack of 80 Million People,” Bloomberg,
May 9, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-09/
chinese-national-indicted-by-u-s-grand-jury-over-anthem-hack
53
Ellen Nakashima, “Hacks of OPM Databases Compromised 22.1 Million People, Federal
Authorities Say,” The Washington Post, July 9, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/
news/federal-eye/wp/2015/07/09/hack-of-security-clearance-system-aected-21-5-million-
people-federal-authorities-say/
54
Katie Benner, “U.S. Charges Chinese Military Oicers in 2017 Equifax Hacking,” New York
Times, February 10, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/us/politics/equifax-hack-china.html
55
David Sanger, “Marriott Data Breach Is Traced to Chinese Hackers as U.S. Readies Crack-
down on Beijing,” New York Times, December 11, 2018,
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/us/politics/trump-china-trade.html
56
David Sanger, “Grindr Is Owned by a Chinese Firm, and the U.S. Is Trying to Force It to
Sell,” New York Times, March 28, 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/politics/grindr-china-national-security.html
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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In addition to propaganda and inuence operations, the Chinese
Communist Party uses trade to coerce compliance with its dic-
tates. When Australia called for an independent investigation of the
coronavirus’ origins and spread, the Chinese Communist Party threat-
ened to stop buying Australian agricultural products and to prevent
Chinesestudents and tourists from traveling to Australia.
57
When
Australia refused to relent, Beijing put these threats into force, impos-
ing an 80% tari on Australian barley exports.
58
International organizations are also part of China’s plan. China has
sought leadership positions within many global bodies.
59
China now
heads four out of een UN specialized agencies, more than the U.S.,
UK, France, and Russia, the other members of the permanent members
of the U.N. Security Council, combined.
60
The PRC uses these positions
to force the international bodies to parrot Beijing’s talking points and
to install Chinese telecommunications equipment in their facilities.
For example, since Houlin Zhao took his post at the International
Telecommunications Union, he has aggressively promoted Huawei
sales.
61
Secretary-General Fang Liu of the International Civil Aviation
Organization has blocked Taiwan’s participation in General Assembly
meetings and covered up a Chinese hack of the organization.
62
The
57
Daniel Hurst, “Australia-China Trade Tensions Raise Fears Over Future of Agricultural-
Exports,” The Guardian, May 12, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/
australia-china-trade-tensions-raise-fears-over-future-of-agricultural-exports
58
VOA News, “China Imposes Massive Taris on Australia Barley Imports, Sparking Fears of
Trade War,” May 19, 2020, https://www.voanews.com/economy-business/
china-imposes-massive-taris-australia-barley-imports-sparking-fears-trade-war
59
Tung Cheng-Chia and Alan H. Yang, “How China Is Remaking the UN In Its Own Image,”
April 9, 2020,
https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/how-china-is-remaking-the-un-in-its-own-image/
60
Courtney Fung, ShingHon Lam, “China Already Leads 4 of the 15 U.N. Specialized Agen-
cies—and is Aiming for a 5th,” The Washington Post, March 3, 2020,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/03/china-already-leads-4-15-un-
specialized-agencies-is-aiming-5th/
61
Tom Miles, “Huawei Allegations Driven by Politics Not Evidence, U.N. Telecoms Chief,”
Reuters, April 5, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei-tech-un/
huawei-allegations-driven-by-politics-not-evidence-u-n-telecoms-chief-idUSKCN1RH1KN
62
Gerrit van der Wees, “China Continues to Block Taiwan in the International Arena,” The
Diplomat, May 18, 2017, https://thediplomat.com/2017/05/china-continues-to-block-
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Party has also used China’s membership on the UN Human Rights
Council to prevent criticism of its abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
63
The Chinese Communist Party’s reach extends to heads of international
organizations who are not themselves Chinese oicials. Under Beijing’s
thumb, and at an unacceptable cost to human life, Director-General
Tedros of the World Health Organization dutifully used Chinese talking
points on the Wuhan virus.
64
As late as mid-January, he claimed there
was no human-to-human transmission of the disease. He opposed
international travel restrictions.
65
At the same time, Tedros praised
China’s own domestic travel restrictions on Wuhan residents. In other
words, they could travel overseas, but they could not travel and poten-
tially take the virus to Beijing or Shanghai.
66
These Chinese Communist
Party tactics in international organizations, as we have seen with the
coronavirus, are a major cause of concern not just for the United States,
but to the world.
The good news is that under President Trump’s leadership, we know
what the Chinese Communist Party is doing, we are calling it out, and
we are taking decisive action to counter it across the board.
67
First, President Trump prevented certain companies that answer to the
Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence and security apparatus—such
as Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei—from accessing your
taiwan-in-the-international-arena/
63
Lindsay Maizland, “Is China Undermining Human Rights at the United Nations?” Council
on Foreign Relations, July 9, 2019,
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/china-undermining-human-rights-united-nations
64
Michael Collins, “The WHO and China: Dereliction of Duty,” Council on Foreign Relations,
February 27, 2020,
https://www.cfr.org/blog/who-and-china-dereliction-duty
65
Stephanie Nebehay, “WHO Chief Says Widespread Travel Bans Not Needed to Beat China
Virus,” Reuters, February 3, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/
who-chief-says-widespread-travel-bans-not-needed-to-beat-china-virus-idUSKBN1ZX1H3
66
Stephanie Yang, “Travel Barriers Rise as WHO Chief Praises Beijing’s Coronavi-
rus Response,” Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
who-chief-praises-beijings-coronavirus-response-as-travel-barriers-rise-11580227640
67
White House, “United States Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China,” May
20, 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/U.S.-
Strategic-Approach-to-The-Peoples-Republic-of-China-Report-5.20.20.pdf
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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personal and private data.
68
The Administration also imposed restric-
tions on U.S. semiconductor technology from going to Huawei.
69
Second, the State Department designated the U.S. operations of 9
Chinese state-controlled propaganda outlets as foreign missions.
70
These organizations are the mouthpieces of the Chinese Communist
Party. This designation places reporting requirements and visa restric-
tions on these so-called media outlets.
71
Third, President Trump imposed export restrictions on 21 Chinese
government entities and 16 Chinese companies complicit in China’s
campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and
high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs and other minorities,
and we have blocked oicials complicit in these abuses from travelling
to the United States.
72
The Administration has also stopped the illegal
68
White House, “Executive Order on Securing the Information and Communications Tech-
nology and Services Supply Chain,” May 15, 2019, https://www.whitehouse.gov/
presidential-actions/executive-order-securing-information-communications-
technology-services-supply-chain/ and White House, “Executive Order on Establishing the
Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunica-
tions Services Sector,” April 4, 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/
executive-order-establishing-committee-assessment-foreign-participation-
united-states-telecommunications-services-sector/
69
Department of Commerce, “Commerce Addresses Huawei’s Eorts to Undermine Entity
List, Restricts Products Designed and Produced with U.S. Technologies,” May 15, 2020,
https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2020/05/commerce-addresses-
huaweis-eorts-undermine-entity-list-restricts
70
Department of State, “Designation of Additional Chinese Media Entities as Foreign Mis-
sions,” June 22, 2020, https://www.state.gov/designation-of-additional-chinese-media-
entities-as-foreign-missions/
71
Kate O’Keee, Jonathan Cheng, “State Department Names Five Chinese Media Outlets as
Foreign Missions in U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2020,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-department-names-ve-chinese-media-outlets-as-
foreign-diplomatic-missions-in-u-s-11582062002
72
White House, “United States Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China,”
May 20, 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/U.S.-Strategic-
Approach-to-The-Peoples-Republic-of-China-Report-5.20.20.pdf; also see Department of
Commerce, “Commerce Department to Add Nine Chinese Entities Related to Human Rights
Abuses in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the Entity List,” May 22, 2020,
https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2020/05/commerce-
department-add-nine-chinese-entities-related-human-rights
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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import of goods produced by Chinese companies known to use Uyghur
forced labor.
73
Fourth, President Trump le the United Nations Human Rights Council
to protest its cooptation by China.
74
He has terminated the U.S. rela-
tionship with the World Health Organization, because its response to
the pandemic showed that it is entirely beholden to China.
75
Instead
of funding the corrupt WHO in Geneva with over $400 million per year,
the United States and its generous taxpayers will now send that money
directly to where it is needed most—frontline healthcare workers
serving in developing countries around the world.
76
Fih, President Trump limited the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to
use student visa programs to place its oicers and employees in our
colleges and universities to steal U.S. technology, intellectual property,
and information.
77
Sixth, the President moved to halt the investment of U.S. federal
employee retirement funds into PRC companies, including Chinese mil-
itary contractors and manufacturers of surveillance equipment used to
73
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, “CBP Issues Detention Order on Hair Products Manufac-
tured with Force Labor in China,” May 1, 2020, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/
national-media-release/cbp-issues-detention-order-hair-products-manufactured-forced-
labor; also see June 17, 2020, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/
cbp-issues-detention-order-hair-products-manufactured-forced-labor-0
and October 1, 2019
74
White House, “President Donald J. Trump is Standing Up for Human Rights at the U.N.,”
June 21, 2018, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briengs-statements/
president-donald-j-trump-standing-human-rights-u-n/
75
White House, “Remarks by President Trump on Actions Against China,” May 30, 2020,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briengs-statements/remarks-president-trump-actions-
china/
76
Alice Ollstein, “Trump Halts Funding to World Health Organization,” Politico, April 14,
2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/14/trump-world-health-organization-
funding-186786
77
White House, “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain
Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China,” May 29, 2020,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspension-entry-
nonimmigrants-certain-students-researchers-peoples-republic-china/
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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oppress religious minorities.
78
He is also examining the opaque account-
ing practices of Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
79
Finally, this week, the Defense Department is submitting to Congress
a list of People’s Liberation Army-linked companies with operations in
the United States so that the American people are fully informed about
exactly with whom they are doing business.
80
Now, these steps are just the start as America corrects 40 years of a
one-sided, unfair relationship with China that has severely aected
our nation’s economic and, recently, political well-being. Just like the
taris that were imposed by the President on unfair trade practices
early in his Administration, there is more to come.
President Trump understands that lasting peace comes through
strength. We are the strongest nation on earth, and we will not bend to
the Chinese Communist Party. As the foregoing actions demonstrate,
the Trump Administration is countering Chinese Communist Party’s
malign activity. The Trump Administration will speak out and reveal
what the Chinese Communist Party believes, and what it is planning—
not just for China and Hong Kong and Taiwan, but for the world.
Together with our allies and partners, we will resist the Chinese
Communist Party’s eorts to manipulate our people and our govern-
ments, damage our economies, and undermine our sovereignty. The
days of American passivity and naivety regarding the People’s Republic
of China and its communist rulers are over.
78
Blake Burman, “Trump Orders Federal Retirement Money Invested in Chinese Equities to
Be Pulled,” Fox Business, May 11, 2020,
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trump-orders-federal-retirement-money-
invested-in-chinese-equities-to-be-pulled
79
White House, “Remarks by President Trump on Actions Against China,” May 30, 2020,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briengs-statements/remarks-president-trump-actions-
china/
80
Department of Defense, Letter to Tom Cotton from Deputy Secretary of Defense, June 24,
2020, https://www.cotton.senate.gov/les/documents/Sen%20Cotton%20NDAA%20FY%20
1999%20Sec%201237%20Response%2006242020.pdf
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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We will stay true to our principles—especially freedom of speech—
which stand in stark contrast to the Marxist-Leninist ideology embraced
by the Chinese Communist Party. Under President Trump’s leadership,
we will encourage diversity of thought, resist eorts to police speech
or encourage self-censorship, protect Americans’ personal data,
and above all, continue to proclaim that all women and men are enti-
tled by God to liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness.
As I close, let me be clear—we have deep respect and admiration for
the Chinese people. The United States has a long history of friendship
with the Chinese nation. But the Chinese Communist Party does not
equal China or her people.
To the Chinese Communist Party, I say, as the recent Phase One trade
deal has shown, it is possible for our governments to have a productive
relationship. We want a good relationship with China, but we do not
want relations on the terms currently on oer from Beijing.
As Americans, I am certain that we will rise to successfully meet the
challenge presented by the Chinese Communist Party, just as we have
responded to all the great crises in our history. President Trump is
leading the way. And like President Trump, I rmly believe that our best
days as a country remain ahead of us.
Again, thank you for joining me here today. It is a privilege to be here
in Phoenix, Arizona. May God bless you and may God bless the United
States of America.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION DIRECTOR
CHRISTOPHER WRAY
The Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C.
JULY 7, 2020
FBI Director Wray speaking at the Hudson Institue in Washington, D.C.
Good morning. I realize it’s challenging, particularly under the current
circumstances, to put on an event like this, so I’m grateful to the Hudson
Institute for hosting us today.
The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellec-
tual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence
and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our eco-
nomic security—and by extension, to our national security.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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As National Security Advisor O’Brien said in his recent remarks, we
cannot close our eyes and ears to what China is doing—and today, in
light of the importance of this threat, I will provide more detail on the
Chinese threat than the FBI has ever presented in an open forum. This
threat is so signicant that the attorney general and secretary of state
will also be addressing a lot of these issues in the next few weeks. But
if you think these issues are just an intelligence issue, or a government
problem, or a nuisance largely just for big corporations who can take
care of themselves—you could not be more wrong.
It’s the people of the United States who are the victims of what amounts
to Chinese the on a scale so massive that it represents one of the
largest transfers of wealth in human history.
If you are an American adult, it is more likely than not that China has
stolen your personal data.
In 2017, the Chinese military conspired to hack Equifax and made o
with the sensitive personal information of 150 million Americans—
we’re talking nearly half of the American population and most American
adults—and as I’ll discuss in a few moments, this was hardly a stand-
alone incident.
Our data isn’t the only thing at stake here—so are our health, our liveli-
hoods, and our security.
We’ve now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-
related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours. Of the nearly
5,000 active FBI counterintelligence cases currently underway across the
country, almost half are related to China. And at this very moment, China
is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharma-
ceutical companies, and academic institutions conducting essential
COVID-19 research.
But before I go on, let me be clear: This is not about the Chinese people,
and it’s certainly not about Chinese Americans. Every year, the United
States welcomes more than 100,000 Chinese students and researchers
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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into this country. For generations, people have journeyed from China
to the United States to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves
and their families—and our society is better for their contributions. So,
when I speak of the threat from China, I mean the government of China
and the Chinese Communist Party.
To understand this threat and how we must act to respond to it, the
American people should remember three things.
First: We need to be clear-eyed about the scope of the Chinese govern-
ment’s ambition. China—the Chinese Communist Party—believes it is
in a generational ght to surpass our country in economic and techno-
logical leadership.
That is sobering enough. But it’s waging this ght not through legiti-
mate innovation, not through fair and lawful competition, and not by
giving their citizens the freedom of thought and speech and creativity
that we treasure here in the United States. Instead, China is engaged in
a whole-of-state eort to become the world’s only superpower by any
means necessary.
The second thing the American people need to understand is that
China uses a diverse range of sophisticated techniques—everything
from cyber intrusions to corrupting trusted insiders. They’ve even
engaged in outright physical the. And they’ve pioneered an expansive
approach to stealing innovation through a wide range of actors—includ-
ing not just Chinese intelligence services but state-owned enterprises,
ostensibly private companies, certain kinds of graduate students and
researchers, and a whole variety of other actors working on their behalf.
To achieve its goals and surpass America, China recognizes it needs
to make leaps in cutting-edge technologies. But the sad fact is that
instead of engaging in the hard slog of innovation, China oen steals
American intellectual property and then uses it to compete against the
very American companies it victimized—in eect, cheating twice over.
They’re targeting research on everything from military equipment to
wind turbines to rice and corn seeds.
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Through its talent recruitment programs, like the so-called Thousand
Talents Program, the Chinese government tries to entice scientists to
secretly bring our knowledge and innovation back to China—even if
that means stealing proprietary information or violating our export
controls and conict-of-interest rules.
Take the case of scientist Hongjin Tan, for example, a Chinese national
and American lawful permanent resident. He applied to China’s
Thousand Talents Program and stole more than $1 billion—that’s with
a “b”—worth of trade secrets from his former employer, an Oklahoma-
based petroleum company, and got caught. A few months ago, he was
convicted and sent to prison.
Or there’s the case of Shan Shi, a Texas-based scientist, also sentenced
to prison earlier this year. Shi stole trade secrets regarding syntactic
foam, an important naval technology used in submarines. Shi, too, had
applied to China’s Thousand Talents Program, and specically pledged
to “digest” and “absorb” the relevant technology in the United States.
He did this on behalf of Chinese state-owned enterprises, which ulti-
mately planned to put the American company out of business and take
over the market.
In one of the more galling and egregious aspects of the scheme, the
conspirators actually patented in China the very manufacturing
process they’d stolen, and then oered their victim American company
a joint venture using its own stolen technology. We’re talking about an
American company that spent years and millions of dollars developing
that technology, and China couldn’t replicate it—so, instead, it paid to
have it stolen.
And just two weeks ago, Hao Zhang was convicted of economic espi-
onage, the of trade secrets, and conspiracy for stealing proprietary
information about wireless devices from two U.S. companies. One of
those companies had spent over 20 years developing the technology
Zhang stole.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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These cases were among more than a thousand investigations the
FBI has into China’s actual and attempted the of American tech-
nology—which is to say nothing of over a thousand more ongoing
counterintelligence investigations of other kinds related to China. We’re
conducting these kinds of investigations in all 56 of our eld oices.
And over the past decade, we’ve seen economic espionage cases with
a link to China increase by approximately 1,300 percent.
The stakes could not be higher, and the potential economic harm
to American businesses and the economy as a whole almost dees
calculation.
As National Security Advisor O’Brien discussed in his June remarks,
the Chinese government is also making liberal use of hacking to steal
our corporate and personal data—and they’re using both military
and non-state hackers to do it. The Equifax intrusion I mentioned just
a few moments ago, which led to the indictment of Chinese military
personnel, was hardly the only time China stole the sensitive personal
information of huge numbers of the American public.
For example, did any of you have health insurance through Anthem or
one of its associated insurers? In 2015, China’s hackers stole the personal
data of 80 million of that company’s current and former customers.
Or maybe you’re a federal employee—or you used to be one, or you
applied for a government job once, or a family member or roommate
did. Well, in 2014, China’s hackers stole more than 21 million records
from OPM, the federal government’s Oice of Personnel Management.
Why are they doing this? First, China has made becoming an articial
intelligence world leader a priority, and these kinds of thes feed right
into China’s development of articial intelligence tools.
Compounding the threat, the data China stole is of obvious value
as they attempt to identify people for secret intelligence gathering.
On that front, China is using social media platforms—the same ones
Americans use to stay connected or nd jobs—to identify people with
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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access to our government’s sensitive information and then target those
people to try to steal it.
Just to pick one example, a Chinese intelligence oicer posing as a
headhunter on a popular social media platform recently oered an
American citizen a sizable sum of money in exchange for so-called
“consulting” services. That sounds benign enough until you realize
those “consulting” services were related to sensitive information the
American target had access to as a U.S. military intelligence specialist.
Now that particular tale has a happy ending: The American citizen
did the right thing and reported the suspicious contact, and the FBI,
working together with our armed forces, took it from there. I wish I
could say that all such incidents ended that way.
It’s a troublingly similar story in academia.
Through talent recruitment programs like the Thousand Talents
Program I mentioned just a few moments ago, China pays scientists at
American universities to secretly bring our knowledge and innovation
back to China—including valuable, federally funded research. To put it
bluntly, this means American taxpayers are eectively footing the bill
for China’s own technological development. China then leverages its
ill-gotten gains to undercut U.S. research institutions and companies,
blunting our nation’s advancement and costing American jobs. And we
are seeing more and more of these cases.
In May alone, we arrested both Qing Wang, a former researcher with the
Cleveland Clinic who worked on molecular medicine and the genetics
of cardiovascular disease, and Simon Saw-Teong Ang, a University of
Arkansas scientist doing research for NASA. Both of these guys were
allegedly committing fraud by concealing their participation in Chinese
talent recruitment programs while accepting millions of dollars in
American federal grant funding.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Oicial FBI Photo.
That same month, former Emory University professor Xiao-Jiang Li pled
guilty to ling a false tax return for failing to report the income he’d
received through China’s Thousand Talents Program. Our investigation
found that while Li was researching Huntington’s disease at Emory, he
was also pocketing half a million unreported dollars from China.
In a similar vein, Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard’s Department of
Chemistry and Chemical Biology, was indicted just last month for
making false statements to federal authorities about his Thousand
Talents participation. The United States has alleged that Lieber con-
cealed from both Harvard and the NIH his position as a strategic
scientist at a Chinese university—and the fact that the Chinese govern-
ment was paying him, through the Wuhan Institute of Technology, a
$50,000 monthly stipend, more than $150,000 in living expenses, and
more than $1.5 million to establish a laboratory back in China.
There’s more. Another tool China and the Chinese Communist Party
use to manipulate Americans is what we call malign foreign inuence.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Now, traditional foreign inuence is a normal, legal diplomatic activ-
ity typically conducted through diplomatic channels. But malign
foreign inuence eorts are subversive, undeclared, criminal, or coer-
cive attempts to sway our government’s policies, distort our country’s
public discourse, and undermine condence in our democratic pro-
cesses and values.
China is engaged in a highly sophisticated malign foreign inuence
campaign, and its methods include bribery, blackmail, and covert
deals. Chinese diplomats also use both open, naked economic pressure
and seemingly independent middlemen to push China’s preferences
on American oicials.
Just take one all-too-common illustration: Let’s say China gets wind
that some American oicial is planning to travel to Taiwan—think a gov-
ernor, a state senator, a member of Congress. China does not want that
to happen, because that travel might appear to legitimize Taiwanese
independence from China—and legitimizing Taiwan would, of course,
be contrary to China’s “One China” policy.
So what does China do? Well, China has leverage over the American oi-
cial’s constituents—American companies, academics, and members
of the media all have legitimate and understandable reasons to want
access to Chinese partners and markets. And because of the authoritar-
ian nature of the Chinese Communist Party, China has immense power
over those same partners and markets. So, China will sometimes start
by trying to inuence the American oicial overtly and directly. China
might openly warn that if the American oicial goes ahead and takes
that trip to Taiwan, China will take it out on a company from that oi-
cial’s home state by withholding the company’s license to manufacture
in China. That could be economically ruinous for the company, would
directly pressure the American oicial to alter his travel plans, and the
oicial would know that China was trying to inuence him.
That would be bad enough. But the Chinese Communist Party oen
doesn’t stop there; it can’t stop there if it wants to stay in power—so it
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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uses its leverage even more perniciously. If China’s more direct, overt
inuence campaign doesn’t do the trick, they sometimes turn to indi-
rect, covert, deceptive inuence eorts.
To continue with the illustration of the American oicial with travel
plans that the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like, China will work
relentlessly to identify the people closest to that oicial—the people
that oicial trusts most. China will then work to inuence those people
to act on China’s behalf as middlemen to inuence the oicial. The
co-opted middlemen may then whisper in the oicial’s ear and try to
sway the oicial’s travel plans or public positions on Chinese policy.
These intermediaries, of course, aren’t telling the American oicial
that they’re Chinese Communist Party pawns—and worse still, some of
these intermediaries may not even realize they’re being used as pawns,
because they, too, have been deceived.
Ultimately, China doesn’t hesitate to use smoke, mirrors, and misdirec-
tion to inuence Americans.
Similarly, China oen pushes academics and journalists to self-censor if
they want to travel into China. And we’ve seen the Chinese Communist
Party pressure American media and sporting giants to ignore or sup-
press criticism of China’s ambitions regarding Hong Kong or Taiwan.
This kind of thing is happening over and over, across the United States.
And I will note that the pandemic has unfortunately not stopped any of
this—in fact, we have heard from federal, state, and even local oicials
that Chinese diplomats are aggressively urging support for China’s
handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Yes, this is happening at both the
federal and state levels. Not that long ago, we had a state senator who
was recently even asked to introduce a resolution supporting China’s
response to the pandemic.
The punchline is this: All of these seemingly inconsequential pressures
add up to a policymaking environment in which Americans nd them-
selves held over a barrel by the Chinese Communist Party.
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All the while, China’s government and Communist Party have brazenly
violated well-settled norms and the rule of law.
Since 2014, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping has spearheaded a
program known as “Fox Hunt.” Now, China describes Fox Hunt as some
kind of international anti-corruption campaign—it is not. Instead,
Fox Hunt is a sweeping bid by General Secretary Xi to target Chinese
nationals whom he sees as threats and who live outside China, across
the world. We’re talking about political rivals, dissidents, and critics
seeking to expose China’s extensive human rights violations.
Hundreds of the Fox Hunt victims that they target live right here in the
United States, and many are American citizens or green card holders.
The Chinese government wants to force them to return to China, and
China’s tactics to accomplish that are shocking. For example, when
it couldn’t locate one Fox Hunt target, the Chinese government sent
an emissary to visit the target’s family here in the United States. The
message they said to pass on? The target had two options: return to
China promptly, or commit suicide. And what happens when Fox Hunt
targets refuse to return to China? In the past, their family members
both here in the United States and in China have been threatened and
coerced, and those back in China have even been arrested for leverage.
I’ll take this opportunity to note that if you believe the Chinese govern-
ment is targeting you—that you’re a potential Fox Hunt victim—please
reach out to your local FBI eld oice.
Understanding how a nation could engage in these tactics brings me to
the third thing the American people need to remember: that China has
a fundamentally dierent system than ours—and it’s doing all it can to
exploit the openness of ours while taking advantage of its own closed
system.
Many of the distinctions that mean a lot here in the United States
are blurry or almost nonexistent in China—I’m talking about distinc-
tions between the government and the Chinese Communist Party,
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between the civilian and military sectors, and between the state and
the “private” sector.
For one thing, an awful lot of large Chinese businesses are state-owned
enterprises—literally owned by the government, and thus the Party.
And even if they aren’t, China’s laws allow its government to compel
any Chinese company to provide any information it requests—includ-
ing American citizens’ data.
On top of that, Chinese companies of any real size are legally required
to have Communist Party “cells” inside them to keep them in line. Even
more alarmingly, Communist Party cells have reportedly been estab-
lished in some American companies operating in China as a cost of
doing business there.
These kinds of features should give U.S. companies pause when they
consider working with Chinese corporations like Huawei—and should
give all Americans pause, too, when relying on such a company’s
devices and networks. As the world’s largest telecommunications
equipment manufacturer, Huawei has broad access to much that
American companies do in China. It’s also been charged in the United
States with racketeering conspiracy and has, as alleged in the indict-
ment, repeatedly stolen intellectual property from U.S. companies,
obstructed justice, and lied to the U.S. government and its commercial
partners, including banks.
The allegations are clear: Huawei is a serial intellectual property thief,
with a pattern and practice of disregarding both the rule of law and
the rights of its victims. I have to tell you, it certainly caught my atten-
tion to read a recent article describing the words of Huawei’s founder,
Ren Zhengfei, about the company’s mindset. At a Huawei research and
development center, he reportedly told employees that to ensure the
company’s survival, they need to—and I quote—“surge forward, killing
as you go, to blaze us a trail of blood.” He’s also reportedly told employ-
ees that Huawei has entered, to quote, “a state of war.” I certainly hope
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he couldn’t have meant that literally, but it’s hardly an encouraging
tone, given the company’s repeated criminal behavior.
In our modern world, there is perhaps no more ominous prospect
than a hostile foreign government’s ability to compromise our coun-
try’s infrastructure and devices. If Chinese companies like Huawei are
given unfettered access to our telecommunications infrastructure,
they could collect any of your information that traverses their devices
or networks. Worse still: They’d have no choice but to hand it over to
the Chinese government if asked—the privacy and due process protec-
tions that are sacrosanct in the United States are simply non-existent
in China.
The Chinese government is engaged in a broad, diverse campaign
of the and malign inuence, and it can execute that campaign with
authoritarian eiciency. They’re calculating. They’re persistent.
They’re patient. And they’re not subject to the righteous constraints of
an open, democratic society or the rule of law.
China, as led by the Chinese Communist Party, is going to continue to
try to misappropriate our ideas, inuence our policymakers, manipu-
late our public opinion, and steal our data. They will use an all-tools
and all-sectors approach—and that demands our own all-tools and
all-sectors approach in response.
Our folks at the FBI are working their tails o every day to protect
our nation’s companies, our universities, our computer networks,
and our ideas and innovation. To do that, we’re using a broad set of
techniques—from our traditional law enforcement authorities to our
intelligence capabilities.
And I will briey note that we’re having real success. With the help of
our many foreign partners, we’ve arrested targets all over the globe. Our
investigations and the resulting prosecutions have exposed the trade-
cra and techniques the Chinese use, raising awareness of the threat
and our industries’ defenses. They also show our resolve and our ability
to attribute these crimes to those responsible. It’s one thing to make
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assertions—but in our justice system, when a person, or a corporation, is
investigated and then charged with a crime, we have to prove the truth
of the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt. The truth matters—and
so, these criminal indictments matter. And we’ve seen how our criminal
indictments have rallied other nations to our cause—which is crucial to
persuading the Chinese government to change its behavior.
We’re also working more closely than ever with partner agencies here
in the U.S. and our partners abroad. We can’t do it on our own; we
need a whole-of-society response. That’s why we in the intelligence
and law enforcement communities are working harder than ever to
give companies, universities, and the American people themselves
the information they need to make their own informed decisions and
protect their most valuable assets.
Confronting this threat eectively does not mean we shouldn’t do
business with the Chinese. It does not mean we shouldn’t host Chinese
visitors. It does not mean we shouldn’t welcome Chinese students or
coexist with China on the world stage. But it does mean that when China
violates our criminal laws and international norms, we are not going
to tolerate it, much less enable it. The FBI and our partners through-
out the U.S. government will hold China accountable and protect our
nation’s innovation, ideas, and way of life—with the help and vigilance
of the American people.
Thank you for having me here today.
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
ATTORNEY GENERAL
WILLIAM BARR
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
Grand Rapids, Michigan
JULY 17, 2020
Oicial DOJ Photo.
Thank you very much, Andrew for your very kind introduction and I’d
like to say that I really appreciate the work that Andrew and Matt, our
U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern and Western District of Michigan our doing
here for the people of Michigan and all the law enforcement commu-
nity from Michigan, that is here today. We really appreciate your work
and as Andrew said, aer my remarks they are going to put on a presen-
tation of the China Initiative, which I think you’ll nd very interesting,
so if you have the time I urge you to stay for that. I would like to thank
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the leadership and sta of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum—
especially Elaine Didier—for hosting this event. I also thank the Ford
Presidential Foundation and its Executive Director Joe Calvaruso. Even
under normal circumstances, it’s hard to put together an event like
this, but in the current circumstances it’s especially challenging and
I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate all of you who’ve come,
I know many have come from around the state and I appreciate the
eort that was made to be here for these remarks.
I was last in Grand Rapids, it would be 30 years ago John. John
Smietanka, from here, was one of my Principal Deputy when I was
Deputy Attorney General and stayed on while I was Attorney General.
He was U.S. Attorney here in the Western District, so John it’s great to
see you here. I feel a special bond to the Ford Administration so it’s
appropriate to be here today for these remarks, because I started out in
the CIA in 1973 and President Ford took oice and because of what was
going on at the agency, I had the privilege of working closely with many
of the superb people that he brought into government. Many of whom I
had the opportunity to work with over the years, several of whom were
my mentors. One of the people I met was the Attorney General, at that
time, Ed Levi, who President Ford made Attorney General. His portrait
is up in my conference room and his grandson Will Levi is my Chief of
Sta, so as I say, I feel a special closeness with the Ford Administration
even though I wasn’t a political appointee in that administration. Many
of the political appointees that I work with over the years really cut
their teeth during the Ford Administration.
I’m privileged to speak here today about what may prove to be the most
important issue for our nation and the world in the twenty-rst century
and that is, the United States’ response to the global ambitions of the
Chinese Communist Party. The CCP rules with an iron st over one of the
great ancient civilizations of the world. It seeks to leverage the immense
power, productivity, and ingenuity of the Chinese people to overthrow
the rule-based international system and to make the world safe for dic-
tatorship. How the United States responds to this challenge will have
historic implications and will determine whether the United States and
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its liberal democratic allies will continue to shape their own destiny or
whether the CCP and its autocratic tributaries will continue, will control
the future. Since the 1890’s, at least, the United States has been the
technological leader of the world. And from that prowess, has come our
prosperity, the opportunity for generations of Americans, and our secu-
rity. It’s because of that that we were able to play such a pivotal role
in world history, but turning back the threat of fascism and the threat
of communism. What’s at stake these days is whether we can maintain
that leadership position and that technological leadership. Are we going
to be the generation that has allowed that to be stolen—which is really
stealing the future of our children and our grandchildren?
Several weeks ago, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien spoke
about the CCP’s ideology and global ambitions. He declared, and I
agree, that “the days of American passivity and naivety regarding the
People’s Republic of China are over.” And last week, the FBI Director
Chris Wray, described how the CCP pursues its ambitions through
the nefarious and even illegal conduct, including industrial espio-
nage, the, extortion, cyberattacks, and malign inuence activities.
In the coming days, you will hear from Secretary Mike Pompeo, who
will sum up what is at stake for the United States and the free world.
Now, Chris Wray, told me that shortly aer his speech last week, one
of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party pronounced that his
speech was particularly disgusting. I told him that I was going to aim
to be despicable, but I’ll settle for especially disgusting. But no matter
how the Chinese seek to characterize it I do hope that my speech and
Mike Pompeo speech will encourage the American people to reevalu-
ate their relationship with China, so long as it continues to be ruled
by the Chinese Communist Party. It is tting that were here today at
the Ford Presidential Museum. Gerald Ford served in the highest ech-
elons of the government at the dawn of America’s reengagement with
China, which began obviously with President Nixon in 1972, and three
years later in 1975, President Ford visited China for a summit with PRC
leaders including Mao Zedong.
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At the time it was unthinkable that China would emerge aer the Cold
War as a near-peer competitor of the United States. And even then,
there were signs of China’s immense latent power. In the joint report
of their visit to China in 1972, House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and
then minority leader Gerald Ford wrote: “If she manages to achieve as
she aspires, China in the next half century can emerge as a self-sui-
cient power of a billion people… this last impression—of the reality of
China’s colossal potential—is perhaps the most vivid of our journey.
As our small party traveled through that boundless land, this sense of
a giant stirring, a dragon waking, gave us much to ponder.” It is now
nearly y years later and the pressing pondering as of these two con-
gressmen have come to pass.
Attorney General Barr speaking at the Gerald Ford
Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Deng Xiaoping, whose economic reform launched China’s remarkable
rise had a famous motto: “hide your strength and bide your time.” That is
precisely what China has done. China’s economy has quietly grown from
about 2 percent of the world’s GDP in 1980, to nearly 20 percent today.
And by some estimates based on purchasing parity, the Chinese economy
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is already larger than ours. The General Secretary of the Chinese
Communist Party, Xi Jinping, who has centralized power to a degree not
seen since the dictatorship of Mao Zedong, now speaks openly of China
moving closer to the center stage, building a socialism that is superior to
capitalism, and replacing the American dream with the Chinese solu-
tion. China is no longer hiding it strength nor biding its time. From the
perspective of its communist rulers, China’s time has arrived.
The People’s Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitz-
krieg—an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed,
whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the
global economy and to surpass the United States as the world’s pre-
eminent technological superpower. A centerpiece of this eort is the
Chinese Communist Party’s “Made in China 2025” initiative, a plan for
PRC domination of high-tech industries like robotics, advanced infor-
mation technology, aviation, and electric vehicles, and many other
technologies. Backed by hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies,
this initiative poses a real threat to U.S. technological leadership.
Despite World Trade Organization rules prohibiting quotas for domes-
tic output, “Made in China 2025” sets targets for domestic market
share (sometimes as high as 70 percent) in core components and basic
materials for industries such as robotics and telecommunications. It is
clear that the PRC seeks not merely to join the ranks of other advanced
industrial economies, but to replace them altogether.
“Made in China 2025” is the latest iteration of the PRC’s state-led,
mercantilist economic model. For American companies in the global
marketplace, free and fair competition with China has long been a
fantasy. To tilt the playing eld to its advantage, China’s communist
government has perfected a wide array of predatory and oen unlaw-
ful tactics: currency manipulation, taris, quotas, state-led strategic
investment and acquisitions, the and forced transfer of intellectual
property, state subsidies, dumping, cyberattacks, and industrial espio-
nage. About 80% of all federal economic espionage prosecutions have
alleged conduct that would benet the Chinese state, and about 60%
of all trade secret the cases have been connected to China.
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The PRC also seeks to dominate key trade routes and infrastructure in
Eurasia, Africa, and the Pacic. In the South China Sea, for example,
through which about one-third of the world’s maritime trade passes,
the PRC has asserted expansive and historically dubious claims to
nearly the entire waterway, outed the rulings of international courts,
built articial islands and placed military outposts on them, and
harassed its neighbors’ ships and shing boats.
Another ambitious project to spread its power and inuence is the
PRC’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative. Although billed as
“foreign aid,” in fact these investments appear designed to serve the
PRC’s strategic interests and domestic economic needs. For example,
the PRC has been criticized for loading poor countries up with debt,
refusing to renegotiate terms, and then taking control of the infrastruc-
ture itself, as it did with the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota in 2017. This
is little more than a form of modern-day colonialism.
Just as consequential, however, are the PRC’s plans to dominate the
world’s digital infrastructure through its “Digital Silk Road” initiative.
I have previously spoken at length about the grave risks of allowing
the world’s most powerful dictatorship to build the next generation
of global telecommunications networks, known as 5G. Perhaps less
widely known are the PRC’s eorts to surpass the United States in
other cutting-edge elds, like articial intelligence. Through inno-
vations such as machine learning and big data, articial intelligence
allows machines to mimic human functions, such as recognizing faces,
interpreting spoken words, driving vehicles, and playing games of skill,
much like chess or the even more complex Chinese game, Go. In 2017,
Beijing unveiled its “Next Generation Articial Intelligence Plan,” a
blueprint for leading the world in AI by 2030. Whichever nation emerges
as the global leader in AI will be best positioned to unlock not only its
considerable economic potential, but a range of military applications,
such as the use of computer vision to gather intelligence.
The PRC’s drive for technological supremacy is complemented by its
plan to monopolize rare earth materials, which play a vital role in indus-
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tries such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, medical devices,
and military hardware. According to the Congressional Research
Service, from the 1960s to the 1980s, the United States led the world
in rare earth production. “Since then, production has shied almost
entirely to China,” in large part due to lower labor costs and lighter eco-
nomic and environmental regulation.
The United States is now dangerously dependent on the PRC for these
essential materials. Overall, China is America’s top supplier, account-
ing for about 80 percent of our imports. The risks of dependence are
real. In 2010, for example, Beijing cut exports of rare earth materials
to Japan aer an incident involving disputed islands in the East China
Sea. The PRC could do the same to us. As China’s progress in these
critical sectors illustrates, the PRC’s predatory economic policies are
succeeding. For a hundred years, America was the world’s largest man-
ufacturer—allowing us to serve as the world’s “arsenal of democracy.”
China overtook the United States in manufacturing output in 2010. The
PRC is now the world’s “arsenal of dictatorship.”
How did China accomplish all this? No one should underestimate the
ingenuity and industry of the Chinese people. At the same time, no one
should doubt that America made China’s meteoric rise possible. China
has reaped enormous benets from the free ow of American aid and
trade. In 1980, Congress granted the PRC most-favored-nation trading
status. In the 1990s, American companies strongly supported the PRC’s
accession to the World Trade Organization and the permanent normaliza-
tion of trade relations. Today, U.S.-China trade totals about $700 billion.
Last year, Newsweek ran a cover story titled “How America’s Biggest
Companies Made China Great Again.” The article details how China’s
communist leaders lured American business with the promise of
market access, and then, having proted from American investment
and know-how, turned increasingly hostile. The PRC used taris and
quotas to pressure American companies to give up their technology
and form joint ventures with Chinese companies. Regulators then
discriminated against American rms, using tactics like holding up
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permits. Yet few companies, even Fortune 500 giants, have been willing
to bring a formal trade complaint for fear of angering Beijing.
Just as American companies have become dependent on the Chinese
market, the United States as a whole now relies on the PRC for many
vital goods and services. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown a spot-
light on that dependency. For example, China is the world’s largest
producer of certain protective equipment, such as face masks and
medical gowns. In March, as the pandemic spread around the world,
the PRC hoarded the masks for itself, blocking producers—including
American companies—from exporting them to other countries that
needed them. It then attempted to exploit the shortage for propaganda
purposes, shipping limited quantities of oen defective equipment and
requiring foreign leaders to publicly thank Beijing for these shipments.
China’s dominance of the world market for medical goods goes beyond
masks and gowns. It has become the United States’ largest supplier
of medical devices, while at the same time discriminating against
American medical companies in China. China’s government has tar-
geted foreign rms for greater regulatory scrutiny, instructed Chinese
hospitals to buy products made in China, and pressured American rms
to build factories in China, where their intellectual property is more vul-
nerable to the. As one expert has observed, American medical device
manufacturers are eectively “creating their own competitors.”
America also depends on Chinese supply, Chinese supply chains in other
vital sectors, especially pharmaceuticals. America remains the global
leader in drug discovery, but China is now the world’s largest producer
of active pharmaceutical ingredients, known as “APIs.” As one Defense
Health Agency oicial noted, “[s]hould China decide to limit or restrict
the delivery of APIs to the [United States],” it “could result in severe
shortages of pharmaceuticals for both domestic and military uses.”
To achieve dominance in pharmaceuticals, China’s rulers went to
the same playbook they’ve used to gut other American industries. In
2008, the PRC designated pharmaceutical production as a “high-val-
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ue-added-industry” and boosted Chinese companies with subsidies
and export tax rebates. Meanwhile, the PRC has systematically preyed
on American companies. American rms face well-known obstacles in
China’s health market, including drug approval delays, unfair pricing
limitations, IP the, and counterfeiting. Chinese nationals working
as employees at pharma companies have been caught stealing trade
secrets both in America and in China. And the CCP has long engaged
in cyber-espionage and hacking of U.S. academic medical centers and
healthcare companies.
In fact, PRC-linked hackers have targeted American universities and
rms in a bid to steal IP related to coronavirus treatments and vaccines,
sometimes disrupting the work of our researchers. Having been caught
covering up the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing is desperate for a public
relations coup, and may hope that it will be able to claim credit for any
medical breakthroughs.
As all of these examples should make clear, the ultimate ambition
of China’s rulers isn’t to trade with the United States. It is to raid the
United States. If you are an American business leader, appeasing the
PRC may bring short-term rewards. But in the end, the PRC’s goal is to
replace you. As a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report put it, “[t]he belief
by foreign companies that large nancial investments, the sharing of
expertise and signicant technology transfers would lead to an ever
opening China market is being replaced by boardroom banter that
win-win in China means China wins twice.”
Although Americans hoped that trade and investment would liberal-
ize China’s political system, the fundamental character of the regime
has never changed. As its ruthless crackdown of Hong Kong demon-
strates once again, China is no closer to democracy today than it was in
1989 when tanks confronted pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen
Square. It remains an authoritarian, one-party state in which the
Chinese Communist Party wields absolute power, unchecked by
popular elections, the rule of law, or an independent judiciary. The CCP
surveils its own people and assigns them social credit scores, employs
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an army of government censors, tortures dissidents, and persecutes
religious and ethnic minorities, including a million Uighurs detained in
indoctrination and labor camps.
If what happened in China stayed in China, that would be bad enough.
But instead of America changing China, China is leveraging its economic
power to change America. As this Administration’s China Strategy rec-
ognizes, “the CCP’s campaign to compel ideological conformity does
not stop at China’s borders.” Rather, the CCP seeks to extend its inu-
ence around the world, including on American soil.
All too oen, for the sake of short-term prots, American companies
have succumbed to that inuence—even at the expense of freedom
and openness in the United States. Sadly, examples of American busi-
ness bowing to Beijing are legion.
Take Hollywood. Hollywood’s actors, producers, and directors pride
themselves on celebrating freedom and the human spirit. And every year
at the Academy Awards, Americans are lectured about how this country
falls short of Hollywood’s ideals of social justice. But Hollywood now
regularly censors its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist
Party, the world’s most powerful violator of human rights. This censor-
ship infects not only versions of movies that are released in China, but
also many that are shown in American theaters to American audiences.
For example, the hit movie World War Z depicts a zombie apocalypse
caused by a virus. The original version of the lm reportedly contained
a scene with characters speculating that the virus may have originated
in China. But the studio, Paramount Pictures, reportedly told produc-
ers to delete the reference to China in the hope of landing a Chinese
distribution deal. The deal never materialized.
In the Marvel Studios blockbuster Dr. Strange, lmmakers changed the
nationality of a major character known as the “Ancient One,” a Tibetan
monk in the comic book, changed it from Tibetan to Celtic. When chal-
lenged about this, a screenwriter explained that “if you acknowledge
that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion
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people.” Or, as the Chinese government might say, “[w]e’re not going to
show your movie because you decided to get political.”
These are just two examples of the many Hollywood lms that have
been altered, one way or another, to please the CCP. National Security
Advisor O’Brien oered even more examples in his remarks. But many
more scripts never see the light of day, because writers and producers
know not to even test the limits. Chinese government censors don’t
need to say a word, because Hollywood is doing their work for them.
This is a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist Party.
The story of the lm industry’s submission to the CCP is a familiar one.
In the past two decades, China has emerged as the world’s largest
box oice. The CCP has long tightly controlled access to that lucrative
market—both through quotas on American lms, imposed in violation
of China’s WTO obligations, and a strict censorship regime. Increasingly,
Hollywood also relies on Chinese money for nancing. In 2018, lms
with Chinese investors accounted for 20 percent of U.S. box-oice
ticket sales, compared to only three percent ve years earlier.
But in the long run, as with other American industries, the PRC may
be less interested in cooperating with Hollywood than in co-opting
Hollywood—and eventually replacing it with its own homegrown pro-
ductions. To accomplish this, the CCP has been following its usual
modus operandi. By imposing a quota on American lms, the CCP
pressures Hollywood studios to form joint ventures with Chinese com-
panies, who then gain U.S. technology and know-how. As one Chinese
lm executive recently put it, “[e]verything we learned, we learned from
Hollywood.” Notably, in 2019, eight of the 10 top-grossing lms in China
were produced in China.
Hollywood is far from alone in kowtowing to the PRC. America’s big
tech companies have also allowed themselves to become pawns of
Chinese inuence. In the year 2000, when the United States normalized
trade relations with China, President Clinton hailed the new century as
one in which “liberty will be spread by cell phone and cable modem.”
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Instead, over the course of the next decade, American companies,
such as Cisco, helped the Communist Party build the Great Firewall of
China—the world’s most sophisticated system for Internet surveillance
and censorship.
Over the years, corporations such as Google, Microso, Yahoo, and
Apple have shown themselves all too willing to collaborate with the
CCP. For example, Apple recently removed the news app Quartz from
its app store in China, aer the Chinese government complained
about the coverage of the Hong Kong democracy protests. Apple also
removed apps for virtual private networks, which had allowed users
to circumvent the Great Firewall, and eliminated pro-democracy songs
from its Chinese music store. Meanwhile, the company announced that
it would be transferring some of its iCloud data to servers in China,
despite concerns that the move would give the Communist Party easier
access to e-mails, text messages, and other user information stored in
the iCloud.
Recently, we were able to get into two cell phones used by the Al-Qaeda
terrorist who shot eight Americans at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.
During the gun ght with him, he stopped, disengaged, put his cell
phones down and tried to destroy them, shooting a bullet into one of his
two cell phones and we thought that suggested that there may be very
important information about terrorist activities in those cell phones. And
for four and a half months we tried to get in, without any help at all from
Apple. Apple failed to give us any help getting into the cell phones. We
were ultimately able to get in through a uke that we will not be able to
reproduce in the future, where we found communications with Al-Qaeda
operatives in the Middle East up to the day before the attack. Do you
think when Apple sells phones in China that Apple phones in China are
impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities? They wouldn’t be sold
if they were impervious to Chinese authorities. And what we’ve asked for
is a warrant—when we have a warrant from a court—that we should be
able to get into because cellphones. That’s the double standard that has
been emerging among American tech companies.
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The CCP has long used public threats of retaliation and barred market
access to exert inuence. More recently, however, the CCP has also
stepped up behind-the-scenes eorts to cultivate and coerce American
business executives to further its political objectives—eorts that are all
the more pernicious because they are largely hidden from public view.
As China’s government loses credibility around the world, the Justice
Department has seen more and more PRC oicials and their proxies
reaching out to corporate leaders and inveighing them to favor policies
and actions favored by the Chinese Communist Party. Their objective
varies, but their pitch is generally the same: the businessperson has
economic interests in China, and there is a suggestion that things will
go better (or worse) for them depending on their response to the PRC’s
request. Privately pressuring or courting American corporate leaders
to promote policies (or U.S. politicians) presents a signicant threat,
because hiding behind American voices allows the Chinese govern-
ment to elevate its inuence campaigns and put a “friendly face” on
pro-regime policies. The legislator or policymaker who hears from
these American businessmen is properly more sympathetic to that
constituent than to a foreigner. And by masking its participation in our
political process, the PRC avoids accountability for its inuence eorts
and the public outcry that might result, if its lobbying were exposed.
America’s corporate leaders might not think of themselves as lobby-
ists. You might think, for example, that cultivating a mutually benecial
relationship is just part of the “guanxi”—or system of inuential social
networking—necessary to do business with the PRC. But you should
be alert to how you might be used, and how your eorts on behalf of
a foreign company or government could implicate the Foreign Agents
Registration Act. FARA does not prohibit any speech or conduct. But
it does require those who are acting as the “agents” of foreign princi-
pals to publicly disclose that relationship, and their political or other
similar activities, by registering with the Justice Department, allowing
the audience to take into account the origin of the speech when evalu-
ating credibility.
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By focusing on American business leaders, of course, I don’t mean
to suggest that they are the only targets of Chinese inuence opera-
tions in the United States. The Chinese Communist Party also seeks
to inltrate, censor, or co-opt American academic and research insti-
tutions. For example, dozens of American universities host Chinese
government-funded “Confucius Institutes,” which have been accused
of pressuring host universities to silence discussion or cancel events on
topics considered controversial by Beijing. Universities must stand up
for each other; refuse to let the CCP dictate research eorts or suppress
diverse voices; support colleagues and students who wish to speak
their minds; and consider whether any sacrice of academic integrity
or freedom is worth the price of appeasing the CCP’s demands.
In a globalized world, American corporations and universities alike
may view themselves as global citizens, rather than American institu-
tions. But they should remember that what allowed them to succeed in
the rst place was the American free enterprise system, the rule of law,
and the security aorded by America’s economic, technological, and
military strength.
Globalization does not always point in the direction of greater freedom.
A world marching to the beat of Communist China’s drums will not be a
hospitable one for institutions that depend on free markets, free trade,
or the free exchange of ideas. There was a time American companies
understood this and they saw themselves as American and proudly
defended American values.
In World War II, for example, the iconic American company, Disney,
made dozens of public information lms for the government, includ-
ing training videos to educate American sailors on navigation tactics.
During the war, over 90 percent of Disney employees were devoted
to the production of training and public information lms. To boost
the morale of America’s troops, Disney also designed insignia that
appeared on planes, trucks, ight jackets, and other military equip-
ment used by American and Allied forces.
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I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company
he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day. When
Disney produced Kundun, the 1997 lm about the PRC’s oppression of
the Dalai Lama, the CCP objected to the project and pressured Disney
to abandon it. Ultimately, Disney decided that it couldn’t let a foreign
power dictate whether it would distribute a movie in the United States.
But that moment of courage wouldn’t last long. Aer the CCP banned all
Disney lms in China, the company lobbied hard to regain access. The
CEO apologized for Kundun, calling it a “stupid mistake.” Disney then
began courting the PRC to open a $5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai.
As part of that deal, Disney agreed to give Chinese government oi-
cials a role in management. Of the park’s full-time employees, 300 are
active members of the Communist Party. They reportedly display ham-
mer-and-sickle insignia at their desks and attend Party lectures at the
facility during business hours.
Like other American companies, Disney may eventually learn the
hard way the cost of compromising its principles. Soon aer Disney
opened its park in Shanghai, a Chinese-owned theme park popped up
a couple hundred miles away featuring characters that, according to
news reports, looked suspiciously like Snow White and other Disney
trademarks.
American companies must understand the stakes. The Chinese
Communist Party thinks in terms of decades and centuries, while we
tend to focus on the next quarter’s earnings report. But if Disney and
other American corporations continue to bow to Beijing, they risk
undermining both their own future competitiveness and prosperity, as
well as the classical liberal order that has allowed them to thrive.
During the Cold War, Lewis Powell—later Justice Powell—sent an
important memorandum to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He noted
that the free enterprise system was under unprecedented attack, and
urged American companies to do more to preserve it. “[T]he time has
come,” he said, “indeed, it is long overdue—for the wisdom, ingenuity
and resources of American business to be marshaled against those who
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would destroy it.” So too today. The American people are more attuned
than ever to the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses not
only to our way of life, but to our very lives and livelihoods. And they
will increasingly call out corporate appeasement.
If individual companies are afraid to make a stand, there is strength
in numbers. As Justice Powell wrote: “Strength lies in organization,
in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of
action over an indenite period of years, in the scale of nancing avail-
able only through joint eort, and in the political power available only
through united action and national organizations.” Despite years of
acquiescence to communist authorities in China, American tech com-
panies may nally be nding their courage through collective action.
Following the recent imposition of the PRC’s draconian national secu-
rity law in Hong Kong, many big tech companies, including Facebook,
Google, Twitter, Zoom, and LinkedIn, reportedly announced that they
would temporarily suspend compliance with governmental requests
for user data. True to form, communist oicials have threatened
imprisonment for noncompliant company employees. We will see if
these companies hold rm and how long they will hold rm. I hope
they do. If they stand together, they will provide a worthy example for
other American companies in resisting the Chinese Communist Party’s
corrupt and dictatorial rule.
The CCP has launched an orchestrated campaign, across all of its many
tentacles in Chinese government and society, to exploit the open-
ness of our institutions in order to destroy them. To secure a world of
freedom and prosperity for our children and grandchildren, the free
world will need its own version of the whole-of-society approach, in
which the public and private sectors maintain their essential sepa-
ration but work together collaboratively to resist domination and to
win the contest for the commanding heights of the global economy.
America has done that before and we rekindle our love and devotion
for our country and each other, I am condent that we—the American
people, the American government, and American business together—
can do it again. Our freedom depends on it.
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
SECRETARY OF STATE
MICHAEL R. POMPEO
The Richard Nixon Presidential
Library and Museum
Yorba Linda, California
JULY 23, 2020
Secretary of State Pompeo gives remarks at the Richard Nixon
Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.
Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Governor, for that very, very gen-
erous introduction. It is true: When you walk in that gym and you say
the name “Pompeo,” there is a whisper. I had a brother, Mark, who was
really good —a really good basketball player.
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And how about another round of applause for the Blue Eagles Honor
Guard and Senior Airman Kayla Highsmith, and her wonderful rendi-
tion of the national anthem?
Thank you, too, to Pastor Laurie for that moving prayer, and I want to
thank Hugh Hewitt and the Nixon Foundation for your invitation to
speak at this important American institution. It was great to be sung to
by an Air Force person, introduced by a Marine, and they let the Army
guy in in front of the Navy guy’s house. It’s all good.
It’s an honor to be here in Yorba Linda, where Nixon’s father built the
house in which he was born and raised.
To all the Nixon Center board and sta who made today possible —it’s
diicult in these times —thanks for making this day possible for me and
for my team.
We are blessed to have some incredibly special people in the audience,
including Chris, who I’ve gotten to know —Chris Nixon. I also want to
thank Tricia Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower for their support of this
visit as well.
I want to recognize several courageous Chinese dissidents who have
joined us here today and made a long trip.
And to all the other distinguished guests —to all the other distinguished
guests, thank you for being here. For those of you who got under the
tent, you must have paid extra.
And those of you watching live, thank you for tuning in.
And nally, as the governor mentioned, I was born here in Santa Ana,
not very far from here. I’ve got my sister and her husband in the audi-
ence today. Thank you all for coming out. I bet you never thought that
I’d be standing up here.
My remarks today are the fourth set of remarks in a series of China
speeches that I asked National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, FBI
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Director Chris Wray, and the Attorney General Barr to deliver alongside
me.
We had a very clear purpose, a real mission. It was to explain the dier-
ent facets of America’s relationship with China, the massive imbalances
in that relationship that have built up over decades, and the Chinese
Communist Party’s designs for hegemony.
Our goal was to make clear that the threats to Americans that President
Trump’s China policy aims to address are clear and our strategy for
securing those freedoms established.
Ambassador O’Brien spoke about ideology. FBI Director Wray talked
about espionage. Attorney General Barr spoke about economics. And
now my goal today is to put it all together for the American people and
detail what the China threat means for our economy, for our liberty,
and indeed for the future of free democracies around the world.
Next year marks half a century since Dr. Kissinger’s secret mission to
China, and the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s trip isn’t too far
away in 2022.
The world was much dierent then.
We imagined engagement with China would produce a future with
bright promise of comity and cooperation.
But today —today we’re all still wearing masks and watching the pan-
demic’s body count rise because the CCP failed in its promises to the
world. We’re reading every morning new headlines of repression in
Hong Kong and in Xinjiang.
We’re seeing staggering statistics of Chinese trade abuses that cost
American jobs and strike enormous blows to the economies all across
America, including here in southern California. And we’re watching a
Chinese military that grows stronger and stronger, and indeed more
menacing.
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Oicial State Department Photo.
I’ll echo the questions ringing in the hearts and minds of Americans
from here in California to my home state of Kansas and beyond:
What do the American people have to show now 50 years on from
engagement with China?
Did the theories of our leaders that proposed a Chinese evolution
towards freedom and democracy prove to be true?
Is this China’s denition of a win-win situation?
And indeed, centrally, from the Secretary of State’s perspective, is
America safer? Do we have a greater likelihood of peace for ourselves
and peace for the generations which will follow us?
Look, we have to admit a hard truth. We must admit a hard truth that
should guide us in the years and decades to come, that if we want
to have a free 21st century, and not the Chinese century of which Xi
Jinping dreams, the old paradigm of blind engagement with China
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simply won’t get it done. We must not continue it and we must not
return to it.
As President Trump has made very clear, we need a strategy that pro-
tects the American economy, and indeed our way of life. The free world
must triumph over this new tyranny.
Now, before I seem too eager to tear down President Nixon’s legacy, I
want to be clear that he did what he believed was best for the American
people at the time, and he may well have been right.
He was a brilliant student of China, a erce cold warrior, and a tremen-
dous admirer of the Chinese people, just as I think we all are.
He deserves enormous credit for realizing that China was too import-
ant to be ignored, even when the nation was weakened because of its
own self-inicted communist brutality.
In 1967, in a very famous Foreign Aairs article, Nixon explained his
future strategy. Here’s what he said:
He said, “Taking the long view, we simply cannot aord to leave China
forever outside of the family of nations…The world cannot be safe until
China changes. Thus, our aim —to the extent we can, we must inuence
events. Our goal should be to induce change.”
And I think that’s the key phrase from the entire article: “to induce
change.”
So, with that historic trip to Beijing, President Nixon kicked o our
engagement strategy. He nobly sought a freer and safer world, and
he hoped that the Chinese Communist Party would return that
commitment.
As time went on, American policymakers increasingly presumed that
as China became more prosperous, it would open up, it would become
freer at home, and indeed present less of a threat abroad, it’d be friend-
lier. It all seemed, I am sure, so inevitable.
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But that age of inevitability is over. The kind of engagement we have
been pursuing has not brought the kind of change inside of China that
President Nixon had hoped to induce.
The truth is that our policies —and those of other free nations —resur-
rected China’s failing economy, only to see Beijing bite the international
hands that were feeding it.
We opened our arms to Chinese citizens, only to see the Chinese
Communist Party exploit our free and open society. China sent pro-
pagandists into our press conferences, our research centers, our
high-schools, our colleges, and even into our PTA meetings.
We marginalized our friends in Taiwan, which later blossomed into a
vigorous democracy.
We gave the Chinese Communist Party and the regime itself special
economic treatment, only to see the CCP insist on silence over its
human rights abuses as the price of admission for Western companies
entering China.
Ambassador O’Brien ticked o a few examples just the other day:
Marriott, American Airlines, Delta, United all removed references to
Taiwan from their corporate websites, so as not to anger Beijing.
In Hollywood, not too far from here —the epicenter of American creative
freedom, and self-appointed arbiters of social justice —self-censors
even the most mildly unfavorable reference to China.
This corporate acquiescence to the CCP happens all over the world, too.
And how has this corporate fealty worked? Is its attery rewarded?
I’ll give you a quote from the speech that General Barr gave, Attorney
General Barr. In a speech last week, he said that “The ultimate ambi-
tion of China’s rulers isn’t to trade with the United States. It is to raid
the United States.”
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China ripped o our prized intellectual property and trade secrets,
causing [1] millions of jobs all across America.
It sucked supply chains away from America, and then added a widget
made of slave labor.
It made the world’s key waterways less safe for international commerce.
President Nixon once said he feared he had created a “Frankenstein” by
opening the world to the CCP, and here we are.
Now, people of good faith can debate why free nations allowed these
bad things to happen for all these years. Perhaps we were naive about
China’s virulent strain of communism, or triumphalist aer our victory
in the Cold War, or cravenly capitalist, or hoodwinked by Beijing’s talk
of a “peaceful rise.”
Whatever the reason —whatever the reason, today China is increasingly
authoritarian at home, and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom
everywhere else.
And President Trump has said: enough.
I don’t think many people on either side of the aisle dispute the facts
that I have laid out today. But even now, some are insisting that we
preserve the model of dialogue for dialogue’s sake.
Now, to be clear, we’ll keep on talking. But the conversations are dif-
ferent these days. I traveled to Honolulu now just a few weeks back to
meet with Yang Jiechi.
It was the same old story —plenty of words, but literally no oer to
change any of the behaviors.
Yang’s promises, like so many the CCP made before him, were empty.
His expectations, I surmise, were that I’d cave to their demands,
because frankly this is what too many prior administrations have done.
I didn’t, and President Trump will not either.
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As Ambassador O’Brien explained so well, we have to keep in mind
that the CCP regime is a Marxist-Leninist regime. General Secretary Xi
Jinping is a true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology.
It’s this ideology, it’s this ideology that informs his decades-long desire
for global hegemony of Chinese communism. America can no longer
ignore the fundamental political and ideological dierences between
our countries, just as the CCP has never ignored them.
My experience in the House Intelligence Committee, and then as direc-
tor of the Central Intelligence Agency, and my now two-plus years as
America’s Secretary of State have led me to this central understanding:
That the only way —the only way to truly change communist China
is to act not on the basis of what Chinese leaders say, but how they
behave. And you can see American policy responding to this conclu-
sion. President Reagan said that he dealt with the Soviet Union on the
basis of “trust but verify.” When it comes to the CCP, I say we must dis-
trust and verify.
We, the freedom-loving nations of the world, must induce China to
change, just as President Nixon wanted. We must induce China to
change in more creative and assertive ways, because Beijing’s actions
threaten our people and our prosperity.
We must start by changing how our people and our partners perceive
the Chinese Communist Party. We have to tell the truth. We can’t treat
this incarnation of China as a normal country, just like any other.
We know that trading with China is not like trading with a normal,
law-abiding nation. Beijing threatens international agreements as —
treats international suggestions as —or agreements as suggestions, as
conduits for global dominance.
But by insisting on fair terms, as our trade representative did when he
secured our phase one trade deal, we can force China to reckon with its
intellectual property the and policies that harmed American workers.
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We know too that doing business with a CCP-backed company is not
the same as doing business with, say, a Canadian company. They don’t
answer to independent boards, and many of them are state-sponsored
and so have no need to pursue prots.
A good example is Huawei. We stopped pretending Huawei is an inno-
cent telecommunications company that’s just showing up to make sure
you can talk to your friends. We’ve called it what it is —a true national
security threat —and we’ve taken action accordingly.
We know too that if our companies invest in China, they may wittingly
or unwittingly support the Communist Party’s gross human rights
violations.
Our Departments of Treasury and Commerce have thus sanctioned and
blacklisted Chinese leaders and entities that are harming and abusing
the most basic rights for people all across the world. Several agencies
have worked together on a business advisory to make certain our CEOs
are informed of how their supply chains are behaving inside of China.
We know too, we know too that not all Chinese students and employ-
ees are just normal students and workers that are coming here to make
a little bit of money and to garner themselves some knowledge. Too
many of them come here to steal our intellectual property and to take
this back to their country.
The Department of Justice and other agencies have vigorously pursued
punishment for these crimes.
We know that the People’s Liberation Army is not a normal army, too. Its
purpose is to uphold the absolute rule of the Chinese Communist Party
elites and expand a Chinese empire, not to protect the Chinese people.
And so our Department of Defense has ramped up its eorts, freedom
of navigation operations out and throughout the East and South China
Seas, and in the Taiwan Strait as well. And we’ve created a Space Force
to help deter China from aggression on that nal frontier.
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And so too, frankly, we’ve built out a new set of policies at the State
Department dealing with China, pushing President Trump’s goals for
fairness and reciprocity, to rewrite the imbalances that have grown
over decades.
Just this week, we announced the closure of the Chinese consulate in
Houston because it was a hub of spying and intellectual property the.
We reversed, two weeks ago, eight years of cheek-turning with respect
to international law in the South China Sea.
We’ve called on China to conform its nuclear capabilities to the strate-
gic realities of our time.
And the State Department —at every level, all across the world —has
engaged with our Chinese counterparts simply to demand fairness and
reciprocity.
But our approach can’t just be about getting tough. That’s unlikely
to achieve the outcome that we desire. We must also engage and
empower the Chinese people —a dynamic, freedom-loving people who
are completely distinct from the Chinese Communist Party.
That begins with in-person diplomacy. I’ve met Chinese men and
women of great talent and diligence wherever I go.
I’ve met with Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs who escaped Xinjiang’s con-
centration camps. I’ve talked with Hong Kong’s democracy leaders,
from Cardinal Zen to Jimmy Lai. Two days ago in London, I met with
Hong Kong freedom ghter Nathan Law.
And last month in my oice, I heard the stories of Tiananmen Square
survivors. One of them is here today.
Wang Dan was a key student who has never stopped ghting for
freedom for the Chinese people. Mr. Wang, will you please stand so that
we may recognize you?
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Also with us today is the father of the Chinese democracy movement,
Wei Jingsheng. He spent decades in Chinese labor camps for his advo-
cacy. Mr. Wei, will you please stand?
I grew up and served my time in the Army during the Cold War. And if
there is one thing I learned, communists almost always lie. The biggest
lie that they tell is to think that they speak for 1.4 billion people who are
surveilled, oppressed, and scared to speak out.
Quite the contrary. The CCP fears the Chinese people’s honest opinions
more than any foe, and save for losing their own grip on power, they
have reason —no reason to.
Just think how much better o the world would be —not to mention the
people inside of China —if we had been able to hear from the doctors in
Wuhan and they’d been allowed to raise the alarm about the outbreak
of a new and novel virus.
For too many decades, our leaders have ignored, downplayed the
words of brave Chinese dissidents who warned us about the nature of
the regime we’re facing.
And we can’t ignore it any longer. They know as well as anyone that we
can never go back to the status quo.
But changing the CCP’s behavior cannot be the mission of the Chinese
people alone. Free nations have to work to defend freedom. It’s the fur-
thest thing from easy.
But I have faith we can do it. I have faith because we’ve done it before.
We know how this goes.
I have faith because the CCP is repeating some of the same mistakes
that the Soviet Union made —alienating potential allies, breaking trust at
home and abroad, rejecting property rights and predictable rule of law.
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I have faith. I have faith because of the awakening I see among other
nations that know we can’t go back to the past in the same way that we
do here in America. I’ve heard this from Brussels, to Sydney, to Hanoi.
And most of all, I have faith we can defend freedom because of the
sweet appeal of freedom itself.
Look at the Hong Kongers clamoring to emigrate abroad as the CCP
tightens its grip on that proud city. They wave American ags.
It’s true, there are dierences. Unlike the Soviet Union, China is deeply
integrated into the global economy. But Beijing is more dependent on
us than we are on them.
Look, I reject the notion that we’re living in an age of inevitability,
that some trap is pre-ordained, that CCP supremacy is the future. Our
approach isn’t destined to fail because America is in decline. As I said
in Munich earlier this year, the free world is still winning. We just need
to believe it and know it and be proud of it. People from all over the
world still want to come to open societies. They come here to study,
they come here to work, they come here to build a life for their families.
They’re not desperate to settle in China.
It’s time. It’s great to be here today. The timing is perfect. It’s time for
free nations to act. Not every nation will approach China in the same
way, nor should they. Every nation will have to come to its own under-
standing of how to protect its own sovereignty, how to protect its own
economic prosperity, and how to protect its ideals from the tentacles of
the Chinese Communist Party.
But I call on every leader of every nation to start by doing what America
has done—to simply insist on reciprocity, to insist on transparency and
accountability from the Chinese Communist Party. It’s a cadre of rulers
that are far from homogeneous.
And these simple and powerful standards will achieve a great deal. For
too long we let the CCP set the terms of engagement, but no longer. Free
nations must set the tone. We must operate on the same principles.
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We have to draw common lines in the sand that cannot be washed away
by the CCP’s bargains or their blandishments. Indeed, this is what the
United States did recently when we rejected China’s unlawful claims
in the South China Sea once and for all, as we have urged countries
to become Clean Countries so that their citizens’ private information
doesn’t end up in the hand of the Chinese Communist Party. We did it
by setting standards.
Now, it’s true, it’s diicult. It’s diicult for some small countries. They
fear being picked o. Some of them for that reason simply don’t have
the ability, the courage to stand with us for the moment.
Indeed, we have a NATO ally of ours that hasn’t stood up in the way that
it needs to with respect to Hong Kong because they fear Beijing will
restrict access to China’s market. This is the kind of timidity that will
lead to historic failure, and we can’t repeat it.
We cannot repeat the mistakes of these past years. The challenge of
China demands exertion, energy from democracies —those in Europe,
those in Africa, those in South America, and especially those in the
Indo-Pacic region.
And if we don’t act now, ultimately the CCP will erode our freedoms
and subvert the rules-based order that our societies have worked so
hard to build. If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be
at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party, whose actions are the
primary challenge today in the free world.
General Secretary Xi is not destined to tyrannize inside and outside of
China forever, unless we allow it.
Now, this isn’t about containment. Don’t buy that. It’s about a complex
new challenge that we’ve never faced before. The USSR was closed o
from the free world. Communist China is already within our borders.
So we can’t face this challenge alone. The United Nations, NATO, the G7
countries, the G20, our combined economic, diplomatic, and military
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power is surely enough to meet this challenge if we direct it clearly and
with great courage.
Maybe it’s time for a new grouping of like-minded nations, a new alli-
ance of democracies.
We have the tools. I know we can do it. Now we need the will. To quote
scripture, I ask is “our spirit willing but our esh weak?”
If the free world doesn’t change —doesn’t change, communist China
will surely change us. There can’t be a return to the past practices
because they’re comfortable or because they’re convenient.
Securing our freedoms from the Chinese Communist Party is the
mission of our time, and America is perfectly positioned to lead it
because our founding principles give us that opportunity.
As I explained in Philadelphia last week, standing, staring at
Independence Hall, our nation was founded on the premise that all
human beings possess certain rights that are unalienable.
And it’s our government’s job to secure those rights. It is a simple and
powerful truth. It’s made us a beacon of freedom for people all around
the world, including people inside of China.
Indeed, Richard Nixon was right when he wrote in 1967 that “the world
cannot be safe until China changes.” Now it’s up to us to heed his words.
Today the danger is clear.
And today the awakening is happening.
Today the free world must respond.
We can never go back to the past.
May God bless each of you.
May God bless the Chinese people.
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And may God bless the people of the United States of America.
Thank you all.
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REMARKS DELIVERED BY
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
75th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly
SEPTEMBER 22, 2020
President Trump speaking virtually from the White House Diplomatic Reception
Room to the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
It is my profound honor to address the United Nations General Assembly.
Seventy-ve years aer the end of World War II and the founding of the
United Nations, we are once again engaged in a great global struggle.
We have waged a erce battle against the invisible enemy—the China
virus—which has claimed countless lives in 188 countries.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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In the United States, we launched the most aggressive mobilization
since the Second World War. We rapidly produced a record supply
of ventilators, creating a surplus that allowed us to share them with
friends and partners all around the globe. We pioneered life-saving
treatments, reducing our fatality rate 85 percent since April.
Thanks to our eorts, three vaccines are in the nal stage of clinical
trials. We are mass-producing them in advance so they can be deliv-
ered immediately upon arrival.
We will distribute a vaccine, we will defeat the virus, we will end the
pandemic, and we will enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity,
cooperation, and peace.
As we pursue this bright future, we must hold accountable the nation
which unleashed this plague onto the world: China.
In the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domesti-
cally while allowing ights to leave China and infect the world. China
condemned my travel ban on their country, even as they cancelled
domestic ights and locked citizens in their homes.
The Chinese government and the World Health Organization—which is
virtually controlled by China—falsely declared that there was no evi-
dence of human-to-human transmission. Later, they falsely said people
without symptoms would not spread the disease.
The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions.
In addition, every year, China dumps millions and millions of tons of
plastic and trash into the oceans, overshes other countries’ waters,
destroys vast swaths of coral reef, and emits more toxic mercury into
the atmosphere than any country anywhere in the world. China’s
carbon emissions are nearly twice what the U.S. has, and it’s rising fast.
By contrast, aer I withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord,
last year America reduced its carbon emissions by more than any
country in the agreement.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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Those who attack America’s exceptional environmental record while
ignoring China’s rampant pollution are not interested in the environ-
ment. They only want to punish America, and I will not stand for it.
Oicial White House Photo.
If the United Nations is to be an eective organization, it must focus on
the real problems of the world. This includes terrorism, the oppression
of women, forced labor, drug traicking, human and sex traicking,
religious persecution, and the ethnic cleansing of religious minorities.
America will always be a leader in human rights. My administration is
advancing religious liberty, opportunity for women, the decriminaliza-
tion of homosexuality, combatting human traicking, and protecting
unborn children.
We also know that American prosperity is the bedrock of freedom and
security all over the world. In three short years, we built the greatest
economy in history, and we are quickly doing it again. Our military has
increased substantially in size. We spent $2.5 trillion over the last four
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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years on our military. We have the most powerful military anywhere in
the world, and it’s not even close.
We stood up to decades of China’s trade abuses. We revitalized the
NATO Alliance, where other countries are now paying a much more
fair share. We forged historic partnerships with Mexico, Guatemala,
Honduras, and El Salvador to stop human smuggling. We are standing
with the people of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela in their righteous
struggle for freedom.
We withdrew from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal and imposed crippling
sanctions on the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. We obliterated
the ISIS caliphate 100 percent; killed its founder and leader, al-Bagh-
dadi; and eliminated the world’s top terrorist, Qasem Soleimani.
This month, we achieved a peace deal between Serbia and Kosovo. We
reached a landmark breakthrough with two peace deals in the Middle
East, aer decades of no progress. Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and
Bahrain all signed a historic peace agreement in the White House, with
many other Middle Eastern countries to come. They are coming fast,
and they know it’s great for them and it’s great for the world.
These groundbreaking peace deals are the dawn of the new Middle
East. By taking a dierent approach, we have achieved dierent out-
comes—far superior outcomes. We took an approach, and the approach
worked. We intend to deliver more peace agreements shortly, and I
have never been more optimistic for the future of the region. There is
no blood in the sand. Those days are, hopefully, over.
As we speak, the United States is also working to end the war in
Afghanistan, and we are bringing our troops home. America is fulll-
ing our destiny as peacemaker, but it is peace through strength. We are
stronger now than ever before. Our weapons are at an advanced level
like we’ve never had before—like, frankly, we’ve never even thought of
having before. And I only pray to God that we never have to use them.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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For decades, the same tired voices proposed the same failed solutions,
pursuing global ambitions at the expense of their own people. But only
when you take care of your own citizens will you nd a true basis for
cooperation. As President, I have rejected the failed approaches of
the past, and I am proudly putting America rst, just as you should be
putting your countries rst. That’s okay—that’s what you should be
doing.
I am supremely condent that next year, when we gather in person,
we will be in the midst of one of the greatest years in our history—and
frankly, hopefully, in the history of the world.
Thank you. God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless the
United Nations.
H TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST H
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INDEX
1949 .............................................................................................................................. 7
1972 ...................................................................................................................8, 75, 76
2017 National Security Strategy ............................................................................... 20
2018 ...................................................................................................... 1, 2, 5, 13-15, 83
2018 elections ............................................................................................................ 13
2020 ......................................................................................................... 2-3, 10, 13, 15
2020 presidential elections .......................................................................................13
A
Africa .........................................................................................................................11
air missiles ................................................................................................................... 9
Al-Qaeda .................................................................................................................... 84
Anthem ...........................................................................................................50, 63, 90
anti-ship ...................................................................................................................... 9
APEC ........................................................................................................................... 19
Apple .......................................................................................................................... 84
armed forces ........................................................................................................ 12, 64
America First ..........................................................................................18, 20, 31, 109
American Airlines ...................................................................................................... 94
American public opinion ..................................................................................... 13, 18
articial intelligence ........................................................................................9, 63, 78
articial islands ..................................................................................................... 9, 78
ASEAN ........................................................................................................................ 19
Australia ............................................................................................................... 43, 52
authoritarian ....................................................................................2, 7, 66, 70, 81, 95
B
Bahrain ....................................................................................................................108
Barr, William .......................................................................... 2-3, 18, 41, 67, 85, 91, 94
Beijing .............2-3, 6, 8-20, 24, 35-36, 44, 47-49, 52, 57, 78-82, 86-87, 93-96, 100-101
Belt and Road infrastructure initiative ..................................................................... 78
Bible ..................................................................................................................... 10, 45
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biotechnology ....................................................................................................... 9, 24
blue-water navy .............................................................................................................
Brexit ..........................................................................................................................30
British ......................................................................................................................... 17
Brussels.................................................................................................................... 100
Buddhism .................................................................................................................. 11
Buddhist .............................................................................................................. 10, 11
BUILD Act ................................................................................................................... 19
business ....................2, 3, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 41, 50, 56, 62, 63, 69, 71, 79, 81, 82,
85, 86, 87, 88, 97
C
Canadian .................................................................................................................... 97
Catholic ................................................................................................................ 10, 30
censorship ...................................................................14, 17, 19, 30, 49, 57, 82, 83, 84
Central Intelligence Agency ...................................................................................... 97
Century of Humiliation ............................................................................................... 7
CFIUS..........................................................................................................................19
Chairman Mao ........................................................................................................... 30
Christians ...................................................................................................................10
China Global Television Network ............................................................................. 16
China Radio International ......................................................................................... 16
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ...................1-4, 7-9, 12-13, 16-17, 39, 41-54, 56-57,
61, 65-68, 70, 74-75, 77, 81-83, 85-88, 91, 93-94, 96-98, 100-102
Chinese consulate ............................................................................................... 17, 98
Chinese hacking
Anthem insurance hack .............................................................................50, 63, 90
Equifax hack .................................................................................................... 60, 63
Marriott hack ..............................................................................................15, 51, 94
OPM hack ............................................................................................................... 63
Chinese leaders .............................................................................................44, 96-97
Chinese Students and Scholars Association ............................................................ 17
Cold War..............................................................................................76, 87, 93, 95, 99
Committee on Foreign Investment .......................................................................... 19
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Communist Party...................1-4, 7-13, 15-17, 19, 30, 39, 41-54, 56-57, 61, 65-66, 70,
74-75, 77, 81-88, 91, 93-94, 96-98, 100-102
computer chips ......................................................................................................... 40
Confucius Institutes .................................................................................................. 86
consulates .................................................................................................................. 17
COVID-19 ............................................................................................... 3, 48, 60, 67, 80
Cuba ......................................................................................................................... 108
currency manipulation ......................................................................................... 8, 77
cyber .........................................................................................................12, 17, 61, 81
cyberattack .....................................................................................................17, 75, 77
D
Dalai Lama ........................................................................................................... 49, 87
Dan, Wang ..................................................................................................................98
data ............................................................. 24, 50-51, 54, 57, 60, 63, 69-70, 78, 84, 88
debt diplomacy ......................................................................................................... 11
Defense Health Agency ............................................................................................. 80
Delta Airlines.............................................................................................................. 15
democracy ......................................... 2, 11-12, 14, 25-26, 28, 79, 81, 84, 92, 94, 98-99
Deng Xiaoping ....................................................................................................... 8, 76
denuclearization .........................................................................................................6
Department of Justice......................................................................................... 16, 97
Dewey, John .............................................................................................................. 25
Digital Silk Road ........................................................................................................ 78
Disney ...................................................................................................................86-87
Dr. Li ......................................................................................................................28-29
Dr. Li Wenliang ......................................................................................................28-29
Dragony app ............................................................................................................ 19
domestic policy ........................................................................................................... 6
E
East China Sea ........................................................................................................... 79
economic aggression ................................................................................................ 10
El Salvador ...............................................................................................................108
embassies .................................................................................................................. 17
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environmental devastation ........................................................................................3
Equifax ................................................................................................................. 51, 60
Equifax intrusion ....................................................................................................... 63
Ericsson ..................................................................................................................... 50
espionage ..................................................................... 3, 35, 59, 62,-63, 75, 77, 81, 91
Europe ....................................................................................................11, 35, 43, 101
expansionism ..............................................................................................................7
expelled American journalists .................................................................................. 48
exports ..............................................................................................................7, 52, 79
F
Facebook ............................................................................................................. 45, 88
France ........................................................................................................................ 42
forced technology transfer. ................................................................................... 8, 18
Ford Administration ..................................................................................................74
Foreign Agents Registration Act ................................................................................85
Fox Hunt ..................................................................................................................... 68
free speech ................................................................................................................17
freedom ........................... 2-3, 5, 8, 19, 28, 34, 37, 61, 82, 86, 88, 92, 94-102, 107, 108
freedom-of-navigation .............................................................................................. 10
freedom of speech .............................................................................................. 17, 57
G
G7 ............................................................................................................................. 101
G20 ........................................................................................................................... 101
GDP ........................................................................................................................ 8, 76
General Secretary Xi ...............................................................................42, 68, 96, 101
Germany .................................................................................................................... 24
global ambitions ............................................................................. 3-4, 39, 74-75, 109
global strategy ............................................................................................................. 2
Google .............................................................................................................19, 84, 88
Great Firewall of China ........................................................................................ 10, 84
great power competition ............................................................................................ 6
Guatemala ............................................................................................................... 108
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H
Hambantota .............................................................................................................. 78
Hongmin, Gu .............................................................................................................. 26
Hollywood ................................................................................................ 49, 82-83, 94
Honduras .................................................................................................................108
Hong Kong ......................... 3, 30, 34, 36-37, 48, 53, 56, 67, 81, 84, 88, 91, 98, 100-101
Houston Rockets ....................................................................................................... 49
historic peace agreement ....................................................................................... 108
Hudson Institute .....................................................................................2, 5, 11, 17, 59
human rights ......................................................... 8, 10, 27-28, 41, 68, 82, 94, 97, 107
Huawei ........................................................................................... 50, 52-54, 69-70, 97
I
ideology ......................................................................... 3, 28, 39, 42-45, 57, 75, 91, 96
illegal over-shing ....................................................................................................... 3
imperialism .................................................................................................................. 7
India ........................................................................................................................... 18
intellectual property the..................... 3, 8-9, 18-19, 33, 55, 59, 61, 69, 77, 80, 95-98
intelligence ..........................................................9, 13, 53, 60-61, 63-64, 70-71, 78, 96
intelligence community ............................................................................................ 14
interference ......................................................................................................... 19, 29
international order ...................................................................................................... 7
investment ...........................................................................8, 15, 19, 35, 55, 77-79, 81
Iowa ........................................................................................................................... 15
Iran Nuclear Deal .....................................................................................................108
ISIS ........................................................................................................................... 108
Israel ........................................................................................................................108
J
Japan ..........................................................................................................9, 18, 24, 79
Japanese....................................................................................................................49
Jiechi, Yang ................................................................................................................ 95
Jingsheng, Wei .......................................................................................................... 99
Jinping, XI ......................................................................................42, 45-46, 68, 77, 96
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joint communiqués ................................................................................................... 12
Justice Powell .......................................................................................................87-88
K
Kazakhs ......................................................................................................................98
Kennan, George ........................................................................................................... 4
Kissinger, Henry ......................................................................................................... 91
Kosovo ..................................................................................................................... 108
L
Latin America ........................................................................................................11-12
Lenin, Vladimir .....................................................................................................43-44
Levi, Ed .......................................................................................................................74
LinkedIn ..................................................................................................................... 88
M
Made in China 2025 plan ....................................................................................... 9, 77
Maduro ....................................................................................................................... 11
manufacturing ............................................................................................ 8, 40, 62, 79
Mao ................................................................................................................. 30, 43-44
Mao Zedong ................................................................................................3, 30, 75, 77
Mar-a-Lago ............................................................................................................... 1, 6
markets ..................................................................................... 7, 13, 15, 35, 41, 66, 86
Marriott ...........................................................................................................15, 51, 94
Marxist-Leninist ...................................................................................... 2-3, 42, 57, 96
May Fourth Movement ..............................................................................24-26, 30-31
mercantilist............................................................................................................ 2, 77
Mercedes Benz ........................................................................................................... 49
Mexico ...................................................................................................................... 108
Microso .................................................................................................................... 84
military .......................2, 6, 9-12, 18, 24, 40-41, 49, 55, 60-61, 63-64, 69, 78-80, 86, 91,
101, 107,-108
missionaries ................................................................................................................ 7
Mueller, Kayla ............................................................................................................ 39
Munich ..................................................................................................................... 100
Muslims ........................................................................................................... 10-11, 45
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N
Nankai University ...................................................................................................... 27
National Security Strategy .................................................................................... 6, 20
NATO ................................................................................................................ 101, 108
New York Times ................................................................................................... 16, 48
Next Generation Articial Intelligence Plan ............................................................. 78
Nicaragua ................................................................................................................. 108
Nokia .......................................................................................................................... 50
North Korea ....................................................................................................15, 43, 49
nuclear ................................................................................................................. 12, 98
O
O’Brien, Robert ............................................... 1-4, 39, 47, 60, 63, 75, 83, 90-91, 94, 96
Oice of Personnel Management ....................................................................... 51, 63
oil ............................................................................................................................... 11
One China Policy .......................................................................................................12
one country, two systems ................................................................................... 13, 37
Open Door policy ........................................................................................................ 7
P
pandemic ..................................................................... 3, 23, 34-35, 55, 67, 80, 91, 106
Papua New Guinea .................................................................................................... 19
Paris Peace Conference ............................................................................................. 24
P.C. Chang ............................................................................................................. 27-29
Peking Opera ............................................................................................................. 27
Peking University ...................................................................................................... 26
Pence, Michael ................................................................................................ 1-2, 5, 41
Phase One trade deal .......................................................................................... 57, 96
Pillsbury, Michael .................................................................................................. 5, 11
People’s Republic of China (PRC) ................ 1, 3-4, 6, 37, 41, 52, 55-56, 75, 77-81, 83,
85, 87-88
pharmaceuticals ................................................................................................. 60, 80
Pompeo, Michael .................................................................................... 2-3, 41, 75, 89
populist ........................................................................................................................2
Pottinger, Matt ..................................................................................................2, 23, 31
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Powell, Lewis ....................................................................................................... 87, 88
President Xi .................................................................................................................. 6
Presidential Working Group on Financial Markets ..................................................35
propaganda ............................................................... 2, 6, 14, 16, 44, 46-48, 52, 54, 83
Propaganda and Censorship Notice .........................................................................14
Q
quota ........................................................................................................... 8, 77, 79, 83
R
religious freedom .................................................................................................. 8, 10
Revolutionary War ....................................................................................................... 7
robotics .................................................................................................................. 9, 77
Roosevelt, Eleanor ....................................................................................................27
Rose Garden .......................................................................................................... 9, 33
Russia ..............................................................................................................14, 43, 52
S
Samoa ........................................................................................................................18
sanction ........................................................................................................37, 97, 108
Second World War ............................................................................................... 7, 106
Senkaku Islands ..........................................................................................................9
Serbia ....................................................................................................................... 108
Shandong .................................................................................................................. 24
Shandong Peninsula ............................................................................................24-25
Shih, Hu ................................................................................................................25-31
Singapore ..................................................................................................................19
social credit scores .................................................................................................... 81
South China Sea ............................................................................ 9-10, 78, 97-98, 101
South Korea ............................................................................................................... 18
Soviet Communism ...................................................................................................42
Soviet Union ....................................................................................4, 8, 29, 96, 99-100
space ............................................................................................................................ 9
Space Force ......................................................................................................... 12, 97
Sri Lanka .............................................................................................................. 11, 78
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Stalin, Joseph ............................................................................................................ 43
steal IP........................................................................................................................81
supply chains ........................................................................................... 35, 80, 95, 97
surveillance state ...................................................................................................... 10
Sydney ..................................................................................................................... 100
T
Taipei ......................................................................................................................... 12
Taiwan .......................................................................... 12, 15, 28, 49, 52, 56, 66-67, 94
Taiwan Relations Act ................................................................................................. 12
Taiwan Strait ........................................................................................................ 12, 97
Taiwanese .......................................................................................................40, 49, 66
tari ............................................................................................8, 12-14, 52, 58, 77, 79
technology transfer ..........................................................................................8, 18, 81
technology the ........................................................................................................ 42
telecommunications .......................................................... 50, 52-53, 69-70, 77-78, 97
Thousand Talents Program............................................................................62, 64, 65
Tiananmen ................................................................................................................ 24
Tiananmen Square ................................................................................... 24, 41, 81, 98
Tibet ................................................................................................................11, 15, 82
TikTok......................................................................................................................... 48
trade decit ..............................................................................................................8-9
trade policies ....................................................................................................... 13, 15
trade secrets ...............................................................................................9, 62, 81, 95
Treaty of Versailles .................................................................................................... 25
Trump, Donald ............... 1-4, 6-7, 9, 12-14, 18-19, 20, 23, 30, 33, 39-41, 47, 51, 53-57,
91, 93, 95, 98, 105
TSMC .......................................................................................................................... 40
Twitter .............................................................................................................45, 48, 88
U
USS Decatur ................................................................................................................. 9
Uighurs....................................................................................................................... 82
USSR ........................................................................................................................ 101
United Airlines ........................................................................................................... 49
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United Arab Emirates ..............................................................................................108
United Kingdom ........................................................................................................ 36
United Kingdom in the Declaration of 1984 ............................................................. 36
United Nations ....................................................................2, 7, 28, 101, 105-107, 109
United Nations Human Rights Council..................................................................... 55
United States .................1-2, 4, 6-9, 12-14, 16-17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 33-34, 38, 40-41,
48, 53-57, 60-62, 65-70, 74-83, 86-87, 94, 101, 103, 106, 108,
United States Navy .............................................................................................. 10, 90
United States Space Force .................................................................................. 12, 97
Universal Declaration of Human Rights ................................................................... 27
University of Virginia ............................................................................................23-25
universities ................................................................ 7-8, 13, 17, 19, 55, 64, 71, 81, 86
U.S. Chamber of Commerce ............................................................................... 81, 87
U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ...............................................................15
Uyghur ................................................................................................ 11, 45, 54-55, 98
V
Vatican ....................................................................................................................... 10
Venezuela .......................................................................................................... 11, 108
Versailles Treaty ........................................................................................................ 24
visas ......................................................................................................................16-17
W
Wall Street Journal ................................................................................................... 48
Washington Naval Conference..................................................................................25
Washington Post ........................................................................................................ 48
WeChat .......................................................................................................................29
Wenliang, Li ..........................................................................................................28-29
Western Pacic ............................................................................................................ 9
WhatsApp ...................................................................................................................45
World Health Organization .............................................................. 34-35, 53, 55, 106
World Trade Organization ...............................................................8, 33-34, 44, 77, 79
World War II ..................................................................................................27, 86, 105
Wray, Christopher ..............................................................................2-3, 41, 59, 75, 91
Wuhan ............................................................................................29, 34-35, 47, 53, 99
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Wuhan Institute of Technology ................................................................................. 65
Wuhan virus ....................................................................................................45, 48, 53
X
XI ...................................................................................... 42, 45-46, 68, 77, 92, 96, 101
Xinjiang .....................................................................................................11, 53, 91, 98
Xun, Lu ............................................................................................................20, 25, 30
Y
Yahoo ......................................................................................................................... 84
Z
Zhengfei, Ren .............................................................................................................69
Zoom ..........................................................................................................................88
ZTE ............................................................................................................................. 50
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Taken together, the speeches herein are similar to
U.S. diplomat George Kennan’s 1946 “Long Telegram”
to the State Department that outlined his views
on the Soviet Union. This book is dierent from the
“Long Telegram” in two important respects.
First, unlike Kennan’s case, written by an envoy at
post, this book contains the words and policies of the
President and his most senior oicials. Second, given
China’s population size, economic prowess, and historic
global ambitions, the People’s Republic of China is a more
capable competitor than the Soviet Union at its height.
