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U.S. and EU must face down China together, Pompeo says

25 June 2020 20:16 (UTC +04:00)

The United States and European Union need a shared understanding of China to resist it, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, calling Beijing a threat and accusing it of stealing European know-how to develop its economy, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Pompeo said he had accepted a proposal by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this month to create a formal U.S.-EU dialogue on China and would travel to Europe soon to host the first session.

“There is a transatlantic awakening to the truth of what’s happening,” Pompeo told a think-tank event via video link. “This isn’t the United States confronting China, this is the world confronting China,” he said.

However, while the European Union shares many of Washington’s concerns about what it says are predatory trade practices to dominate strategic industries, Brussels wants to tread a middle path between China and the United States.

The EU, the world’s biggest trading bloc, held talks with the Chinese leadership on Monday and sees Beijing as a partner in combating climate change as well as an economic rival.

Pompeo said the EU needed to act against China, whom he accused of stealing intellectual property in Europe and abusing the rules-based trading system, to protect its economies, not as a favour for the United States.