AMPHIKTYON.BLOGSPOT.COM: U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

Skip to content
Using Gmail with screen readers

Compose

1 of 6

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

Inbox

U.S. Department of State usstatebpa@public.govdelivery.com

8:44 AM (1 hour ago)

to me

Public Schedule – June 22, 2020

06/21/2020

You are subscribed to Public Schedule for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Public Schedule – June 22, 2020

06/21/2020 08:45 PM EDT

Office of the Spokesperson

***THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***

SECRETARY MICHAEL R. POMPEO

Secretary Pompeo attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

DEPUTY SECRETARY STEPHEN E. BIEGUN

Deputy Secretary Biegun attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS DAVID HALE

Under Secretary Hale attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT KEITH KRACH

Under Secretary Krach attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFARIRS R. CLARKE COOPER

4:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Cooper meets with United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

United States Stands with Canada Against China’s Arbitrary Detention of Canadian Citizens

06/22/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

United States Stands with Canada Against China’s Arbitrary Detention of Canadian Citizens

06/22/2020 09:34 AM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

The United States is extremely concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) decision to proceed with formal charges against Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. These charges are politically motivated and completely groundless. The United States stands with Canada in calling on Beijing for the immediate release of the two men and rejects the use of these unjustified detentions to coerce Canada. Additionally, we echo Canada’s call for immediate consular access to its two citizens, in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, as China has prohibited such access for almost six months, and the world has no knowledge of the two Canadians’ condition.

United States Stands with Canada Against China’s Arbitrary Detention of Canadian Citizens

06/22/2020

You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

United States Stands with Canada Against China’s Arbitrary Detention of Canadian Citizens

06/22/2020 09:34 AM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

Designation of Additional Chinese Media Entities as Foreign Missions

06/22/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Designation of Additional Chinese Media Entities as Foreign Missions

06/22/2020 03:20 PM EDT

Morgan Ortagus, Department Spokesperson

Over the past decade and particularly under General Secretary Xi Jinping’s tenure, the CCP has reorganized China’s state propaganda outlets disguised as news agencies and asserted even more direct control over them. He has stated “Party-owned media must. . . embody the party’s will, safeguard the party’s authority … their actions must be highly consistent with the party.” In short, while Western media are beholden to the truth, PRC media are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.

Pursuant to authorities under the Foreign Missions Act, the State Department is issuing today a new determination that designates the U.S. operations of China Central Television, China News Service, the People’s Daily, and the Global Times as foreign missions. This follows on the February 18 designation of Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corporation, and Hai Tian Development USA.

These nine entities all meet the definition of a foreign mission under the Foreign Missions Act, which is to say that they are “substantially owned or effectively controlled” by a foreign government. In this case, they are effectively controlled by the government of the People’s Republic of China.

The decision to designate these entities is not based on any content produced by these entities, nor does it place any restrictions on what the designated entities may publish in the United States. It simply recognizes them for what they are.

Entities designated as foreign missions must adhere to certain administrative requirements that also apply to foreign embassies and consulates in the United States.

This designation recognizes PRC propaganda outlets as foreign missions and increases transparency relating to the CCP and PRC government’s media activities in the United States.

Briefing With Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David R. Stilwell On Designating Additional PRC State Media Entities as Foreign Missions

06/22/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Briefing With Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David R. Stilwell On Designating Additional PRC State Media Entities as Foreign Missions

06/22/2020 05:09 PM EDT

David R. Stilwell, Assistant SecretaryBureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs

Via Teleconference

MS ORTAGUS: Great, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I hope everyone had a nice weekend, and Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads on the line. I’m happy to have my friend, of course, Assistant Secretary Dave Stilwell to speak with all of you today. I know that he spoke last week, Thursday afternoon, regarding our meetings in Hawaii. One thing I just want to make clear from the top: We need to embargo the contents of this briefing until 15:00, so 3:00 p.m. We – this will be on the record, but everything is just going to be embargoed until 3:00 p.m., 15:00. So if everybody can just please abide by that embargo, I would appreciate it. We’ll have an S – excuse me, a SPOX statement coming out at that time, and of course you’ll have this briefing as well.

So let’s see. Dave is actually here now for another on-the-record briefing to explain the next step in our almost yearlong effort to equalize the relationship with the Communist Party-led China. To remind you, for decades administrations of both parties adopted a “cooperate at all costs” approach to Beijing. We can see clearly what happened. Instead of liberalizing economically and adopting a more open political system, the CCP pushed back in the opposite direction. This administration has recognized that reality. We see the CCP for what it is, not for what we want it to be. We ask the CCP for a fair and reciprocal relationship. Today is a continuation of that process.

We are designating the U.S. operation of four additional Chinese propaganda outlets as foreign missions. This follows our original designation announcement back in February. These entities are not independent news organizations. They are effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, also known as propaganda outlets. Furthermore, we hope our action will increase transparency on the PRC’s obsessive control of information and news not just among their state-owned propaganda outlets, but also amongst legitimate journalists and news gatherings in China.

Assistant Secretary Stilwell will of course provide brief introductory comments, and then we’ll be on to your questions. Just a reminder, you dial 1 and then 0 to get in the queue. Again, the contents of this briefing are embargoed until 15:00, 3:00 p.m., and we will go from there. Okay, Dave, go ahead.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: Morgan, many thanks for that introduction and setting the stage for the announcement of the next phase of getting the relationship back on an even footing. And so as you say, this designation simply means that because we’re identifying them – and they identify themselves, frankly, as foreign missions, as taking their direction from the Chinese Communist Party – that they certainly would have to adhere to certain administrative requirements that we apply to all foreign embassies and consulates here in the U.S. So at this time they’ll be required to inform the State Department of their personnel rosters, who they actually have here, as well as their real estate holdings. This does not prevent them from reporting legitimate news, however, but we do have to have them acknowledge and let us know who they are and who they work for.

In designating these outlets as foreign missions, we are formally recognizing the China party state’s effective control over so-called media entities, including those that operate here in the United States. While the Chinese Communist Party has always tightly controlled China’s state news agencies, its control has actually tightened in recent years. Over the past decade, particularly under General Secretary Xi Jinping’s tenure, the Chinese Communist Party has reorganized their state news agencies and asserted even more direct control over them. I got to witness this firsthand when I was in Beijing working with a friend who was an advisor to the China Daily outlet there, and he explained to me exactly how the party apparatus works inside of a paper like that to ensure that the word they were putting out was in fact aligned with what the Communist Party wanted. That’s not journalism; journalism is reporting the facts, not what the party tells you to report.

So Xi Jinping himself has said that managing China’s message is crucial for, quote, “the future and the fate of the Chinese Communist Party and the state,” unquote. As he told state media outlets in February of 2016, quote, “All the work by the party’s media must reflect the party’s will. It must safeguard the party’s authority and safeguard the party’s unity. They must love the party. They must protect the party and closely align themselves with the party in thought, politics, and action,” unquote. And he added that the state media are actually given all the surname of “party,” dang, stressing that they are an integral part of the Communist Party facility and organization.

So today’s announcement is simply a response to the PRC’s actions – or, in fact, inactions. We’ve heard many times how – Xi Jinping will say this multiple times – that China will continue to reform and open up while at the same time continuing to get tighter and less – more restrictive and less free. And that’s been the case in the PRC as you all have witnessed over the last six months or so – or year. To be more specific, the U.S. operations of these entities that we’ve designated meet the definition of a foreign mission under the Foreign Missions Act because they are, quote, “substantially owned or effectively controlled,” unquote, by the Chinese Communist Party and the government of the People’s Republic of China.

So China Central Television, CCTV, you’ve all seen that. That’s a state-run TV station that reports to both central committee of the Communist Party as well as the state council. China News Service, CNS, is the second-largest state-owned news agency in China after Xinhua. It’s run by the United Front Work Department and they report directly to the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party. People’s Daily, it goes without saying, is the official newspaper of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and then Global Times is wholly owned by People’s Daily and takes its direction from them.

I would want to stress here that the Communist Party does not just exercise operational control over these propaganda entities but it has full editorial control over their content. This foreign mission designation is an obvious step in increasing the transparency of these and other PRC government propaganda activities in the United States. This determination is not intended to reduce or constrain journalistic activity by foreign media outlets. Again, these four entities are not media but propaganda outlets.

Secretary of State Pompeo has made clear that mature, responsible countries understand that a free press is essential, which is why I’m talking to you all. The U.S. Government has long welcomed foreign journalists to report the news of events happening in the U.S. freely without the threat of reprisal. They can report whatever they want. Journalists in the United States regardless of nationality have and will continue to enjoy the freedom of expression that is not permitted in the PRC.

You’ll note that this is the second tranche that we’ve designated. The first five I mentioned earlier, those were the big numbers and the obvious ones. This is the next step in that.

This is not all Chinese media. I mean, there are numbers – there are several who are actually reporting and doing good news in the spirit of journalism, reporting facts. But you all know in recent years PRC has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation against Chinese American and other foreign journalists operating in China.

A free press would benefit the Chinese people, and they tried – probably most glaringly during the disease outbreak in Wuhan, when a number of journalists were doing their best to warn fellow citizens of what was going on there because the government was not doing that. One – his name is Li Zehua; another lawyer, Chen Qiushi – “Qiushi” happens to mean “seek truth,” by the way – they actually put up video reports showing that the numbers of sick people in the hospitals and elsewhere were far greater than what the government was reporting. They and others have all been disappeared. They have not been heard from in a while.

A free press would benefit their people, especially during this global pandemic. We need to know what happened and that information would still be of value in saving lives around the world. PRC Government says it wants the world to know about China. However, its refusal to allow for a free and open press denies the world the ability to really know what is happening there vice what the government wants you to think is happening.

Finally, as Secretary Pompeo has said, we’re not just comparing apples to apples. The U.S. system guarantees press freedom while China subordinates the press to the Communist Party. We are formally recognizing that fact in today’s action. That’s – concludes the formal comments. I’ll be happy to take your questions.

MS ORTAGUS: Thanks so much, and just a reminder to dial 1 and 0 to get into the queue. And again, one more reminder that this briefing is embargoed until 3:00 p.m., 15:00, please. First up is Francesco Fontemaggi, AFP.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you could tell us how many staff this designation concern, how many people they have here in the U.S., and if you will further reduce their numbers. And also, if you don’t fear that, like the last time, Beijing will expel more U.S. journalists as an answer to that. Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: That was obviously a concern the last time we did this, and I would caution against any sort of moral or ethical equivalency in this for all. Anybody who has lived in the PRC understands just how hard it is to get a story and how, if you get too close to a subject – like I think you’ve heard Matt Pottinger’s story when he was a journalist in China – you get these unfortunate visits from the MSS.

So please, for everyone, we saw this the last time that we rolled out the first tranche because we had a number of people note that somehow the U.S. is shutting down free reporting here in the U.S., and again, I think you all see the obvious problem with that formulation.

If you want data on exactly how hard it is to operate, for those of you who have not been in Beijing or in the PRC, I point you to a report out of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China called “Control, Halt, Delete,” a really good piece that demonstrates that. Again, any form of equivalency to say that the U.S. is kicking out journalists – remember, these aren’t journalists. These are members of the propaganda apparatus in the PRC.

To your question about what this sets up in the future, I’m not going to say, except to note that we are – there are legitimate journalists from the PRC who operate freely in the U.S. and report the news, and this is just an acknowledgement that the folks that work for these companies are under orders from their boss and from the party to transmit to the U.S. and tell their story better. By their own admission, their job is to come here and tell you about China and tell you what the party is doing, vice what you would expect journalists to do, is to report back to the PRC about what’s going on in the – outside of the PRC. Over.

MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. Next up in the queue, David Brunnstrom, Reuters.

QUESTION: Yes, thank you very much for doing this. I was wondering, slightly changing the subject to former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book —

MS ORTAGUS: Hey, David, David, that’s not what this call’s about. If you would like to ask about our new policy action today, we’re more than happy to take the question. If not, I can move on in the queue.

QUESTION: Well, I just wanted to ask whether any allies in the region have been in touch with —

MS ORTAGUS: David —

QUESTION: — the assistant secretary on this issue for clarification.

MS ORTAGUS: Thank you, David. Okay. AT&T, we can mute that line. We’ll now go to Will Mauldin, Wall Street Journal.

QUESTION: Thank you so much. I guess I had a similar question to what was already asked on the potential ramifications for American journalists working in China. Obviously, there are very different sorts of media organizations that we’re talking about and very different sorts of actions that each government would do, but at The Wall Street Journal, we’ve had to have some reporters leave the country in China. That affects the news picture that we get out of China.

What do you think will be China’s response to this, and how much of an impact did that have on your decision-making today? Thanks so much.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: That’s a really good question. It’s important to have objective, fair news reporting coming out of the PRC. The – again, the COVID outbreak in Wuhan makes it eminently clear why that is. These things don’t just affect the activities or life inside China. These things spill out and affect us all. And it’s not just in the disease realm. It’s in everything: economics, the system of governance there and how they treat their folks. It’s nice – it’s good to get a complete picture.

Your organization printed a – maybe the title could have been phrased better, but the topic of the “sick man of Asia” – it wasn’t the U.S. that got journalists kicked out. It was just a legitimate news organization in the U.S. or elsewhere simply reporting the facts of what was really going on there, and you felt the reprisal. So this is no different than that.

We would hope that the government would adhere to its claims to be open and accessible and supportive of journalism. Whether they’re going to change that approach, in this case I’m not going to hold my breath, but I can’t hold up actions to protect ourselves and the American people from their sort of intrusive propaganda machine that comes into our country that we invited in out of concern that they are somehow going to take unfortunate and unrelated actions inside the PRC.

Wall Street Journal reports a great story on the disease inside China and you lose reporters. Again, I don’t think you’re going to self-censor because of that; I would hope not. That’s what is the intent, though, is to, by taking these actions, to get people to think twice before they say anything that the Chinese Communist Party would consider unfortunate or offensive. That’s not how we – that’s not who we are and that’s not how we operate. We’re going to continue to do what we do for the right reasons in accordance with the law, and so as far as anticipating what the reaction is going to be, I would again expect organizations like yours and others to note the problem with putting those two things – making those apples-to-apples comparisons because they are not. Over.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay. Thanks, Will. Nick Wadhams, Bloomberg.

QUESTION: Hi, I have two questions. The first question is: Can you – I think you answered this previously. What are the specific numbers when you talk about each of the news organizations CCTV, CNS, People’s Daily, and Global Times?

And Dave, can I also get you to comment on the message you think it sends to foreign journalists and other people who would be listening to this call that you guys are not willing to take questions on the John Bolton book when you’re also talking about a message of ensuring freedom of the press in the United States? Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: Hey, that’s pretty easy. This one is focused on a guy from the East Asia Pacific bureau who could speak with great fluency to the topic at hand. If you were to ask me the other, is – my answer would be a deflecting “I really don’t know.” I got to tell you, I am not checking that story. I am too busy working this particular issue, so – so I – again, I would rethink that approach to how we’re handling this. You can ask anybody, especially those who are related to this, but for the subject at hand today in the short seven minutes we have left, I would like to talk about the subject at hand.

So you asked about numbers. We don’t know. That’s part of what this is going to identify is that these folks, we have allowed them to come into the country as journalists. Now acknowledging the fact that they are not, we know what companies they work for. They will then have to identify themselves as work – that they do work for these organizations. And then from that, we will have a better accounting for who they are, who is on their personnel rosters, and what real estate holdings they have. So it’s pretty straightforward.

It’s – as I said before, this is housekeeping, right? We’re just cleaning up some broken glass and stuff that we hadn’t really paid a lot of attention to in the past.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay. Nike Ching.

QUESTION: Yeah. Thanks much for the call. Is there discussion with the U.S. allies such as the EU that they will follow suit and also designate China’s state-run outlets as the foreign missions? The reason I ask is because some of the personnel after being designated by the United States as China’s foreign mission went to Brussels and other places, et cetera. Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: That’s a really good question. The best thing that can come from this, and I’m not going to dislocate my shoulder patting America on its back, but American leadership is important globally, and the things we do give others license to do the same. As you know, the Chinese like to use their strong economic levers as reprisals for doing things that the folks in Beijing don’t want. That in no way comports with the entire Westphalian system, the system of sovereignty that they claim to support. And so – but when the U.S. does something like this, it does give others more latitude to follow suit, to do things that they also would like to do. So we’re happy to hear that the EU and others are considering taking similar steps.

The second part of your question was – I think she got muted. Okay.

MS ORTAGUS: Yeah, she was asking about ally designations.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: I’m drawing a blank on that one, so.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay, no problem. John Hudson, Washington Post.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks. I hear your point about false equivalents. So I was wondering if we could just talk about the end result. I mean, the Chinese have a lot of third-rate mouthpieces in this country that aren’t particularly influential, while we have a lot of very intrepid trail-blazing journalists in Beijing that do have a big impact. So as Beijing and Washington go up this escalatory ladder, it seems like we just keep losing and losing and losing, and it doesn’t have a particularly big impact on the Chinese system. So why is it worth continuing up this escalatory ladder?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: Like I said, you can’t just allow this stuff. These people are doing more than just propaganda, right, and to understand exactly what that is we have to know who they are. It’s about understanding what’s going on inside your own country. We’re a free nation.

We assume – and we have assumed for 40 years – that this interaction with the PRC would then get them to follow suit in their own country, understand the importance of an open media that speaks freely, that allows – provides feedback to the government for things that may not be working out so well. And had they had that, you wouldn’t have had such just horrible things like the Sichuan earthquake, where their own government was building schools without rebar in them. They called them “tofu buildings.” And when the earthquake happened, they came apart. If there was a free media inside the PRC, that stuff would have been reported. This is what you all do so well.

So trying to tie what we do to defend ourselves to what they choose to do, to kick out the best investigative reporters – and especially the ones who speak Chinese – this is all their choice. This is not something that they were going to do these things anyway. Like I said, Wall Street Journal – I mean, Wall Street Journal prints an article they consider offensive, and they kick out journalists. Whether it’s the U.S. Government or you all reporting the news, they’re going to take advantage of this thing as an excuse to prevent bad news from leaving its borders.

And again, you probably know the best possibly example of that is how the world is suffering through a pandemic right now because we were kept in the dark as to how serious this thing was. So again, I would be careful about making that – the Chinese Government does what it does. You can’t say that they’re doing this specifically because we’re doing to them. It’s simply an excuse. Over.

MS ORTAGUS: Thank you. Ed Wong, New York Times.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) David and Morgan. Two questions.

One is: In terms of the goal of cracking down on sort of the work of the propagandists here in the U.S, what discussions have taken place around distribution of Chinese media within the U.S., whether it’s on television channels or China Daily appearing on – in newsstands? It seems to me that that’s the larger issue, and obviously there’s press freedom issues involved with that. But I was wondering, is that something you discuss behind the scenes, and would you take any action based on that? It also seems like that’s something that would hit the Chinese Government harder, too, like where it hurts, if that’s what you’re aiming for.

The second question I have is related to the – sort of some bizarre attacks that have come out of the White House on Voice of America, which, as you know, was designated as a foreign mission by the Chinese Government when you did your first round. So it seems like the Chinese Government is attacking an outfit like Voice of America and saying they dislike the reporting, it’s an arm of the U.S. Government, while the White House has been publicly attacking Voice of America, saying it disseminates Chinese propaganda. So can you sort of parse out that for me and how what the White House might be doing undermines the standing of Voice of America in the world?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: Okay, Ed, I got both questions. On the second one, I would refer you to the White House on that. On the first one, though, here’s the point is we really believe in freedom of the press and freedom of speech, and so all I would like to do is identify China Daily inserts and all those things, CCTV, although I just want to identify them as foreign propaganda outlets.

The American people are smart enough to decide whether this is real news or if it’s something that the government – the PRC is trying to push you under the guise of free speech and free and open reporting, which is the whole point of what we’re trying to do here is to help people understand. I mean, feel free to read China Daily. It actually gives you good viewshed into what the government and the PRC is thinking. I’m not going to rip inserts out of the – I mean, I know that governments – or that companies get funded for that, just like they get funded for other advertising. I just want to identify it as advertising and propaganda, not as news.

They’ve done a pretty good job of putting these things – slipping them in so they appear like genuine, legitimate news coming from Ed Wong at The New York Times or Washington Post or the others. It’s simply identifying what it is for the American people so they at least understand what they’re reading.

MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. We’re basically out of time, but I’m going to try to squeeze in one more question from Nick Schifrin, PBS.

QUESTION: Hey, thanks for doing this. Thanks, Morgan. Can I just zoom out on the China-U.S. relationship? Have you seen any movement from China on some of the topics that the Secretary discussed with Yang Jiechi? And the President over the weekend gave an interview in which he talked about trade and sanctions over the imprisonment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and wondered if there were any sanctions being considered on Chinese officials over the detention of Uyghurs and whether there are any concerns about China reacting in the trade deal if those sanctions were employed. Thanks.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: Thanks, Nick. I got another press thing right now, so let me just quickly note that legislation in Congress here on the treatment of Uyghurs, it was welcome. It follows the trend over the last nine months, starting with the event at the UN to again flag publicly the Chinese treatment of its own minorities. And again, we’re going to continue to do that to help the world understand that the U.S. has, like I said before, taken leadership on this and brought others to help them find their voice on the subject.

Events out of Hawaii, too early to tell is all I can offer you on that one. But please keep an eye out for it. Over.

MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. We’re already over time, so that’s going to have to be our last question of the day. We will have a statement out around 3 o’clock, and that’s when our embargo will be lifted. However, before I end the call, I do think it’s – I’m going to have to address what I consider a pretty offensive question by Nick Wadhams.

We strive every day to give all of you multiple briefings a day. The Secretary goes to the podium once a week and we take as many questions as we can. We try to be very quick over email in responding to what all of you need. And so if there’s any question about any books by any officials or anything you may have, we’re – have proven to be available 24/7 to all of you and we will always answer them. We like to focus these policy briefings on the policy, but any insinuation that we haven’t made ourselves available or responsive to your questions – Nick’s insinuation is offensive and I just would like to go on the record that that’s totally inaccurate.

Okay, thanks for dialing into the call.

Public Schedule – June 23, 2020

06/22/2020

You are subscribed to Public Schedule for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Public Schedule – June 23, 2020

06/22/2020 08:46 PM EDT

Office of the Spokesperson

***THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***

SECRETARY MICHAEL R. POMPEO

Secretary Pompeo attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

DEPUTY SECRETARY STEPHEN E. BIEGUN

Deputy Secretary Biegun attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

USAID ACTING ADMINISTRATOR JOHN BARSA

8:30 a.m. Acting Administrator Barsa delivers remarks to an Insights@Meridian session.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS DAVID HALE

Under Secretary Hale attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT KEITH KRACH

Under Secretary Krach attends meetings and briefings, at the Department of State.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS R. CLARKE COOPER

1:45 p.m. Assistant Secretary Cooper participates in a roundtable discussion with Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Karl Schultz, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS JONATHAN MOORE

1:45 p.m. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Moore participates in a roundtable discussion with Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Karl Schultz, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Sean Hannity of The Sean Hannity Show

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Sean Hannity of The Sean Hannity Show

06/22/2020 11:58 PM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

WASHINGTON D.C.

QUESTION: Joining us now is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mr. Secretary, I know we have you on for a lot of reasons – China top among them. We’ve been friends a long time. I’ve known you for a long time. You have – now you as the Secretary of State are in the position of negotiating some very significant, real, challenging issues as it involves safety and security for the world. You’re watching all this unfold in this country, and you see people that are unwilling to even protect the innocent citizens in their cities and states. And I know you as a person well enough to know that that’s our first – that’s the first job of government, isn’t it?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Sean, thanks for having me on tonight. When I watch this, it reminds me of what our founders understood most clearly, that the primary purpose – the primary purpose – of our government is to secure freedom and liberty, basic protections for its citizens. And so when you watch these things happening where mayors and governors refuse to take the actions to protect the innocent, to protect people who are trying to live their lives – you were talking about business people just a bit ago – to protect their property rights, this is the most fundamental duty of government. And to see that not happening in cities and states across America is disheartening, and these governments need to step up.

QUESTION: Before – there’s a lot going on with China tonight. We’re going to keep these pictures up and go back to our reporters in just a second. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it. I can tell you I have read that you said that John Bolton is a liar. I know in conversations with me he didn’t tell me the truth at direct, specific conversations I can recall. I have all these quotes of John Bolton. I’ve mentioned them on the radio today and I can recap them.

But praising the president; nobody’s been tougher on China. The President’s been strong with Russia. The President on Iran, the President on North Korea, for example. I don’t know who he’s arguing with, but it seems to be this John Bolton and that John Bolton. And it’s a little disappointing, but I guess we’ve seen the President get stabbed in the back by a lot of people at this point – not even relevant to me.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Sean, it’s both sad and dangerous. I haven’t read the book in its entirety, but the excerpts I’ve seen, there’s lots of falsehoods, there’s lot of lies contained there. Indeed, the cover itself, to say he – in the room – he was in the room isn’t even completely true. The President and others, myself included, had to cut him out of meetings because he was leaking or he’d twist things or he’d lie. It was a really difficult situation where John Bolton thought he was more important than the President of the United States and the American people.

And the core story, Sean, that somehow the President took actions so he could get re-elected or that his foreign policy was driven by that, he didn’t kill Qasem Soleimani to get re-elected. He isn’t pushing back against the Chinese Communist Party to get re-elected. He didn’t get out of the Paris Climate Accord to get re-elected. He did this to secure the basic rights and security for every American.

This President’s foreign policy is something that John Bolton should have been proud of, and instead, he stepped away in a way that fundamentally misrepresents what we’ve done. And frankly, the information he has released puts criminal liability squarely on him. We all saw what’s happened when people leak classified information like Edward Snowden. What John Bolton did here is not dissimilar from that. And while we’ll leave open for the Justice Department to take its action, this kind of information getting out, it presents real risk and real harm to the United States of America.

QUESTION: Well, there’s half a vote for the ever-forgetful Joe Biden. He can ask himself these questions. Baghdadi is dead. Soleimani is dead. The leader of al-Qaida in Yemen is dead. I don’t see any possibility of President Trump – he gave nothing to Kim Jong-un, nothing at all, and we got a lot in return – just a little bit of his time. And I don’t see this President giving 150 billion in cash and other currencies to the Iranian mullahs. So his half a vote to Biden will go in that direction.

On to more important things. We have Peter Navarro and you taking lead on China. Apparently, we have now issues involving the trade deal and other new developments. This is significant tonight.

SECRETARY POMPEO: So I spent a day with my counterpart’s boss in Hawaii last week trying to understand why on Earth the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in the activities that they are. And I think we understand it; it’s ideological for them, whether that’s what’s taking place between China and India today.

Today, the State Department announced that four propaganda outlets here in the United States the State Department is going to put restrictions on. These are arms of the Chinese Government that President Obama and Vice President Biden allowed to operate freely inside the United States spewing communist propaganda all throughout the United States of America. This State Department, President Trump’s State Department, is taking action against that.

This is a President who understands that the Chinese Communist Party and globalists here in the United States have worked together to put real harm and real risk here to the United States. President Trump is not going to permit that to continue to happen.

QUESTION: One person that I would say is more right than anybody in the world about China – we learned this with the coronavirus, Mr. Secretary – is Donald Trump. And I don’t think that any of his sons got a sweetheart $1.5 billion deal with the Bank of China in a field of endeavor that they didn’t know much about.

One last thing. I do know on a private basis – people have told me – you went to bat to get American citizens home during the coronavirus from one country after another. It’s an untold story. Thank you for doing all of that. I heard about a group of missionaries that you got back to the country safely. You know what? Great job, sir. Thank you.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Sean. It was important work, and I’m glad those people are all home with their families now.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Sean Hannity of The Sean Hannity Show

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Sean Hannity of The Sean Hannity Show

06/22/2020 11:58 PM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

WASHINGTON D.C.

On to more important things. We have Peter Navarro and you taking lead on China. Apparently, we have now issues involving the trade deal and other new developments. This is significant tonight.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Sean. It was important work, and I’m glad those people are all home with their families now.

Submission to Congress of the “Report on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments” (Compliance Report)

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Submission to Congress of the “Report on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments” (Compliance Report)

06/23/2020 08:26 AM EDT

Office of the Spokesperson

The State Department has submitted to Congress the unclassified 2020 Report on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments, also known as the Compliance Report. The Department submitted the Report’s Executive Summary to Congress on April 15, 2020. The Report contains analysis and findings regarding the United States’ and other nations’ compliance with and adherence to arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements and commitments in which the United States is a party or participant. The full, unclassified 2020 Compliance Report may be found here https://www.state.gov/2020-adherence-to-and-compliance-with-arms-control-nonproliferation-and-disarmament-agreements-and-commitments-compliance-report-2/. Declassification and release review of the SECRET AND TS/SCI level version of the 2020 Compliance Report is still ongoing. These classified versions of the report will be provided to Congress as soon as they are available.

Luxembourg National Day

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Luxembourg National Day

06/23/2020 08:52 AM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of Luxembourg as you mark your National Day and celebrate the official birthday of Grand Duke Henri.

As we commemorate 75 years since our joint victory over the Nazis, we continue to honor the joint sacrifices made to preserve our freedom and democracy. Our enduring friendship, including our commitment to shared security as NATO Allies, is all the more necessary as we work together to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. I am confident we will remain strong partners promoting peace and our shared values.

To the people of Luxembourg, I offer my best wishes on your National Day.

Luxembourg National Day

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Luxembourg National Day

06/23/2020 08:52 AM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of Luxembourg as you mark your National Day and celebrate the official birthday of Grand Duke Henri.

To the people of Luxembourg, I offer my best wishes on your National Day.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Hugh Hewitt of The Hugh Hewitt Show

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Hugh Hewitt of The Hugh Hewitt Show

06/23/2020 11:25 AM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

QUESTION: Welcome back, America. I’m Hugh Hewitt. Thank you for joining me on this Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020. I’m joined now by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Mr. Secretary, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, it’s great to be with you this morning.

QUESTION: Well, thank you. I had never expected to say this, because John Bolton is a friend of mine – he’s been on this show many, many times. He was generous with his time to me as well when he was national security advisor. But I’m shocked – not by his book, I haven’t read it – but by what Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his ruling about the book.

The judge concluded, quote, “The Court is persuaded that Defendant Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.” “Bolton may indeed have caused the country irreparable harm.” “With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe – many in newsrooms – the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo.”

So the injunction was denied because the judge basically said there’s nothing we can do about it, but “jeopardized national security” – how much damage did this book do, Mr. Pompeo?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So Hugh, I haven’t had a chance to read the book either. I’ve seen a number of the excerpts that have been put out. I’d say three things about it, first of all.

First, a number of things I’ve seen: I was in the room too. I was present for those. I remember them very differently. These are things that have been either fully spun or are, frankly, just lies that don’t reflect what truly happened there.

Second, the book says he was in the room. The truth is he was such a difficult person and leaked so much information, even while he was still in office, that it was often the case that he wasn’t a participant in the meetings because we all had come to see that there was a real risk that this information would end up in places it shouldn’t have.

And then finally, to your larger point, I think Judge Lamberth has it right. This is unprecedented, what John Bolton chose to do while a current president is still in office. To have his most senior national security staff member write a book containing detailed, asserted quotations about what was said to foreign leaders, what was said in very private meetings on sensitive topics presents enormous risk.

I’ve also seen instances where there’s information that I am confident was classified, and I am saddened because this is a horrible precedent, and I hope – I’ll leave to Attorney General Barr to make the final decision, but as I stare at that, this is the kind of thing that we’ve seen happen. I was a soldier once, Hugh; you know that story. I saw young soldiers who were prosecuted for releasing classified information at a much lower level, who were much more junior, and who didn’t have 30 years of experience handling classified information. This is something that has real criminal risks – risk associated with it, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how it’s the case that this can be permitted to stand without a real response. If this becomes the pattern in practice, this is truly damaging to American national security.

QUESTION: Have you discussed this with Attorney General Barr yet?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I have not.

QUESTION: All right. Let me ask you: President Trump has never been well served by his national security advisor. The first was taken out by James Comey. The second had a staff that leaked – I liked General McMaster, but it leaked. The third, John Bolton – you recommended Robert O’Brien. Is the NSA finally working in – hand-in-glove with you and with the President?

SECRETARY POMPEO: They have a functional process that is aimed at executing a interagency coordinating function to deliver good option sets, fact-based, data-driven option sets for the President of the United States. It’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s how it’s happened in Republican administrations that have been very successful.

The good news is that in spite of those challenges – I could tick through a list of enormous foreign policy accomplishments – when John Bolton says that the President’s decisions were based solely or nearly solely on his aim to get re-elected, I just – that’s not what I have remotely observed. When the President made the decision – difficult decision to go after Qasem Soleimani, it wasn’t about getting re-elected. When he went after Hamza bin Laden or Baghdadi or Qasim al-Rimi, when we work on religious freedom all across the world, the pro-life policies that we’ve put in place all across the world, those aren’t about getting re-elected. Those are trying to deliver the fundamental role of the United States: protecting Americans, keeping Americans safe. And President Trump has delivered that.

QUESTION: So is it now working? Do you think he’s being well served by the entire national security staff now?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I do.

QUESTION: All right. Let me ask you about one particular charge, the most troubling charge by Ambassador Bolton: Did the President in any way condone or encourage General Secretary Xi’s concentration camps for the Uyghurs, on whose behalf you’ve spoken – you personally have spoken frequently and forcefully?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I have indeed. When I was in Central Asia, I had a chance to meet with Uyghurs who had family members that were in those camps in Western China. The President signed – while I was meeting with my Chinese counterpart in Honolulu last week, the President signed a piece of legislation. It was a bipartisan piece of legislation that is historic, calling out the human rights violation in Western China. I don’t know where John got that information.

My observation is the President’s been very clear. We have a complicated balancing set of issues when it comes to human rights, but he’s always been very clear about what the expectation should be about how America will be a leader on that issue. Whether it’s freedom for the people of Hong Kong, human rights in – for the Rohingya, all across the world, this President has understood that it’s important for America to be a true beacon for freedom and liberty and human rights around the world.

QUESTION: So did you ever see him encourage Xi to put Uyghurs in concentration camps?

SECRETARY POMPEO: No, absolutely not.

QUESTION: I – it makes no – it just is crazy. I just had Secretary Gates on – former Defense Secretary Gates. He told me he stood by his assessment of former Vice President Joe Biden being wrong on every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades. Would a Biden administration, in your opinion, Secretary Pompeo, mean a return to the appeasement of the O-Biden – of the Obama-Biden years?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, I can only take the data points that the Vice President was very involved in a number of these decisions when he was serving under President Obama. And you’ve seen – whether it was the Paris climate accords or the appeasement of the ayatollah in Iran or the underwriting of the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party presents to the United States of America today – there’s no reason to think that a President Biden would take any different action. That’s not political. That’s simply an observation of 30-plus years of Senator Biden and then eight years serving as vice president. We’ve seen how he approaches these problems around the world, and I have no reason to believe that his views on these issues would have changed.

QUESTION: I’m going back a little bit to John Bolton and to James Comey. Attorney General Barr said on Sunday and the week before that what he has seen with regard to the attack on the transition to power, of which you were a part – you took over the CIA – the attack on President Trump is quote, “very troubling.” Is that assessment of John Durham’s investigation as ominous sounding to you as it is to me, Mr. Secretary?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, I don’t want to comment on the work that Durham and the Attorney General are doing there.

QUESTION: All right. The Attorney General also told Maria Bartiromo this past weekend she is worried about the threat of foreign – he is worried about the threat of foreign actors counterfeiting mail ballots. Now this isn’t about absentee ballots, it’s about the mass mailing of ballots. From your time as CIA director, your time now as the head of the State Department, do you share that concern about the ability that our enemies have to interfere to an even greater degree with our election than they did with the Facebook ads last time around?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, I’ll share with you what I can. It is absolutely the case that it is multiple nations who have demonstrated both a capability and mixed information with respect to their intent to interfere in our elections. You should know that President Trump made it a very high priority to push back against that. The Department of Homeland Security has the primary responsibility along with the Department of Justice. We do our part here at the State Department. The Intelligence Community does its part. I know that we are all working hard along every vector, whether it’s ballot maintenance – maintenance itself, protection of the ballots, protection of electronic balloting systems, often state-level work that gets done, but DHS is very involved in partnering and trying to help those states be successful now, providing resources, training, and talent.

I know we are all working hard to make sure that this election come November is conducted in a free and fair way, and that the American people can have confidence in the outcome. There’s a lot of work to do. There are many bad actors around the world that would like to create uncertainty around that, and our task, our mission is to make sure that that doesn’t happen.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Tom Rogan at the Washington Examiner today has a column saying that your meeting in Hawaii last week was actually a Chinese plot to split you from President Trump. Do you believe that’s what it was? And if so, did it work?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, I’ll leave to others to speculate about the Chinese motivation for meeting with me. I know why I wanted to meet. I wanted to meet because we have a Chinese Communist Party that is behaving in ways that fundamentally put the American people’s security at risk. I work for a president for the first time in decades who has taken this threat seriously. That’s not partisan; those were Republican and Democrat presidents. It was a different time in history. Today, the absolute clarity we have about the risk of the Chinese Communist Party in all of the vectors – we see what’s happening in Hong Kong, we see what’s happening in the Himalayas with India, we see what’s happening in the South China Sea, we watch as they steal intellectual property. I could go on.

I wanted to go meet with my – with Yang Jiechi, my counterpart’s boss, to share with him how America was thinking about this, how America was going to act, and our expectations – not for about what the Chinese Communist Party would say, but how the Chinese Communist Party would act. And they sometimes think that flowery language works and that sending out communiques matters. In the end, what we need to see from them is a change in behavior. When I left that day, I did not leave optimistic that the Chinese Communist Party was prepared to give us any notice that there were changes that were going to be made. And then of course, within a handful of days, it looks like they have now moved on their national security legislation, putting at risk the freedom that the people of Hong Kong have been promised.

QUESTION: Secretary Gates just told me – or just confirmed for me that we are in Cold War 2.0. In fact, he said, quote, in fact, it’s “a little riskier,” close quote. Do you agree with this assessment?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I’ll leave to Mr. Gates, who I have enormous respect for and who has been very kind to take my calls over these past three and a half years when I had questions or thoughts, things I wanted to hear as a historical matter and get his wisdom – I’ll leave to him to characterize it for now. I can say this much: We have an integrated economy with the Chinese Communist Party. That is different from what we had with the Soviet Union when we were in the Cold War in the 1980s. We have to think about this in a way that reflects that, because the challenges of American economic growth and prosperity are deeply intertwined today with the Chinese economy.

And we now know too that if we don’t challenge that, if we don’t protect our intellectual property, if we don’t call out when they are using Chinese communications infrastructure to connect to the MSS, their security apparatus, when we don’t take seriously the threat of their state-sponsored enterprises, our economy is at risk as well. And President Trump has said enough, we’re not going to do that. He’s imposed tariffs, he’s engaged in economic response that are fully justified by the aggressive Chinese economic activity that is engaged in here in the United States, and frankly against our European friends as well.

QUESTION: Last question, Mr. Secretary: The People’s Liberation Army Navy has threatened maneuvers in August, which Taiwan – some people believe threaten Taiwan and threaten islands that are governed by Taiwan which are empty. Did those maneuvers come up in your talks in Hawaii, and what is the position of the United States Government concerning those maneuvers?

SECRETARY POMPEO: We talked a great deal about military activity, ours – they’re not happy that our Department of Defense, our Navy has been exercising its right to navigate in free open waterways all across the Indo-Pacific and expressed our clear intention to continue to do so. And then we talked too about Taiwan. There’s a clear understanding between our two countries about the expectations about how each of our two countries will behave. They were concerned. This administration is now notified of a sale of F-16s to Taiwan. They’re not happy about it. This is completely appropriate, consistent with how previous administrations have treated Taiwan. And we will continue to do all the things that President Trump outlined when he was campaigning and what he’s talked about in these last two and a half years to ensure that we do the right thing to keep the American people free and safe and prosperous, and don’t allow the Chinese Communist Party to put that at risk.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining me this morning.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Hugh. Have a great day.

QUESTION: I appreciate your time. Take care.

SECRETARY POMPEO: So long, sir.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Hugh Hewitt of The Hugh Hewitt Show

06/23/2020

You are subscribed to Secretary's Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Hugh Hewitt of The Hugh Hewitt Show

06/23/2020 11:25 AM EDT

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, it’s great to be with you this morning.

So the injunction was denied because the judge basically said there’s nothing we can do about it, but “jeopardized national security” – how much damage did this book do, Mr. Pompeo?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So Hugh, I haven’t had a chance to read the book either. I’ve seen a number of the excerpts that have been put out. I’d say three things about it, first of all.

QUESTION: Have

...

[Message clipped] View entire message

ReplyForward

AMPHIKTYON.BLOGSPOT.COM

Saturday, 27 June 2020

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

Search

Labels

Hangouts

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

U.S. Department of State usstatebpa@public.govdelivery.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

Search This Blog

Followers

Saturday, 27 June 2020

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

Hangouts

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

U.S. Department of State <usstatebpa@public.govdelivery.com>

No comments:

Post a Comment

U.S. Department of State usstatebpa@public.govdelivery.com