Pompeo: US Should Label China as ‘Adversary’ Rather Than ‘Competitor’ in Recognition of Growing CCP Threats

The next U.S. national security strategy should focus on the challenges of curbing authoritarianism and formally recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan to deter Chinese communist aggression, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“Being in an ambiguous place is really, really dangerous,” Pompeo said during a March 28 interview with the Hudson Institute, a D.C.-based think tank.

“Authoritarians will use that ambiguity against you every time. We ought to acknowledge that Taiwan is an independent nation. It’s not part of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP].”

The CCP claims Taiwan is a breakaway territory, though Taiwan has been independently governed since 1949 and has never been controlled by the CCP.

The United States currently maintains a doctrine of “strategic ambiguity” regarding Taiwan, in which it neither affirms nor denies whether it would provide military assistance to Taiwan in the event its de facto independence is threatened by the CCP.

Pompeo made the comments during a discussion of the Biden administration’s forthcoming national security strategy, which is expected to be released soon but has no definitive date.

For the past year, the administration has used an interim strategy that recognizes China as a “strategic competitor,” a designation first developed under the Trump administration’s national security strategy, which Pompeo helped to craft.

Pompeo said that the term was likely too soft, given increasing repressive efforts by the CCP under the reign of Party leader Xi Jinping.

“We used the word ‘competitor’,” Pompeo said. “I would use the word ‘adversary’ today if I were writing this myself.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pompeo-us-should-label-china-as-adversary-rather-than-competitor-in-recognition-of-growing-ccp-threats_4367463.html