Mike Pompeo on China

Mike Pompeo has consistently articulated a fundamentally adversarial stance toward the People's Republic of China, especially regarding the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He declared that the CCP is committing ongoing genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, accusing the party-state of systematic attempts to destroy the minority group through actions including arbitrary imprisonment and forced sterilization. This strong condemnation, delivered just before leaving office, signaled a definitive break from prior diplomatic engagement, which he argued had failed to induce positive change within China. He asserted that the free world must actively change China's behavior through assertive means, or face being changed by it, framing the global challenge as a struggle between freedom and tyranny.

His perspective, detailed in a major policy speech, centers on rejecting the decades-long paradigm of blind engagement, which he believed resurrected China’s economy only for Beijing to exploit open societies and American generosity. He stressed that the CCP is a Marxist-Leninist regime whose leaders, like General Secretary Xi Jinping, are true believers in an ideology seeking global hegemony. Consequently, he argued for a strategy based on 'distrust and verify' rather than 'trust but verify' when dealing with Beijing. Pompeo urged free nations to form a new alliance to collectively defend freedom against the CCP’s creeping influence over international norms, trade, and technology.