Pompeo slams Beijing for stealing research and IP from Chinese students in US

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on December 9 slammed China for stealing research and intellectual property from Chinese students studying in US universities. While speaking at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Pompeo called China’s Communist Party as the “central threat of our time” and further highlighted efforts by Chinese security services to pressure and recruit Chinese academics and students as spies. Pompeo also alleged that Beijing was targeting Chinese students studying in the United States and threatening them over perceived criticism of the communist nation. 

“Americans must know how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is poisoning the well of out higher education institutions for its own ends and how those actions degrade out freedoms and American national security.. If we don’t educate ourselves, if we’re not honest about what’s taking place, we’ll get schooled by Beijing,” Pompeo said. 

“They know that left-leaning college campuses are rife with anti-Americanism, and present easy target audiences for their anti-American messaging,” he added. 

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China slammed for not complying with trade rules 

The US Secretary of State has been a champion of Trump administration’s hardline stance on Chinese policies in Taiwan, Tibet, Honk Kong, the western region of Xinjiang and the South China Sea. He has also made similar pronouncements before and has even imposed multiple layers of sanctions on Chinese officials, including restricted visas for Chinese diplomats, journalists and academics. Pompeo’s remarks come after US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross slammed China for not complying with the international trade rules. Ross had even called Beijing a principal military and economic threat in the Asian region. 

Earlier this month, after Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam were jailed by a court, Mike Pompeo denounced the move. In a statement, Pompeo said that the US is “appalled” by the “political prosecution” in the former British colony. He further lashed out on China’s ruling CCP as the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist are ‘struggling’ to resist Beijing’s rejection of fundamental rights. Pompeo said that CCP’s “greatest fear is the free speech and free thinking” of its own citizens. 

(With inputs from ANI) 

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