On July 23, 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a major China policy speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, sharply criticizing the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping.
Declaring decades of engagement with China a failure, he called on free and democratic nations to work together in confronting the challenge posed by the CCP.

2020-07-28
On July 23, 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an address titled “Communist China and the Free World’s Future” at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California.
By choosing a place closely associated with President Richard Nixon, whose 1972 visit to China marked a historic opening in U.S.-China relations, Pompeo underscored his argument that the decades-long policy of engagement with China had failed to produce the transformation its advocates had expected.
The following is from an article published by the Nikkei on July 24, 2020.
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2020-07-28
He sharply criticized the Communist Party regime headed by President Xi Jinping and argued that a new alliance of democratic nations should be built to counter it.
The following is from an article published by the Nikkei on July 24 under the headline “U.S. Targets the Chinese Communist Party.”
WASHINGTON — Tsuyoshi Nagasawa
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech on China policy on July 23.
He sharply criticized the Communist Party regime headed by President Xi Jinping and argued that a new alliance of democratic nations should be created to counter it.
China is certain to react strongly, and the U.S.-China confrontation, which has been described as a “new Cold War,” is entering a new phase.
Pompeo delivered the speech while visiting California.
Referring to China’s growing influence through authoritarian methods, he emphasized, “If we do not change Communist China, Communist China will change us.”
Within the Trump administration, the view was gaining strength that the root of the problem lay in the Communist Party system itself.
Pompeo characterized Xi, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, as a believer in totalitarian ideology and warned of an ambition for hegemony based on communism.
He again declared that the “engagement policy” pursued by successive U.S. administrations, which had sought to encourage China’s democratization by supporting its economic development, had “failed.”
In order to compel the Chinese Communist Party to change its behavior, he declared that the time had come for free nations to act.
He called on other countries to demand reciprocity, transparency and accountability, as the United States had done.
He further argued that efforts were needed from democratic nations in Europe, Africa and South America, and especially throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
Listing international frameworks including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Group of Seven, he said that an appropriate combination of economic, diplomatic and military power would be sufficient to deal with the threat.
Pompeo described the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, Texas, whose closure the United States had demanded, as a hub of espionage and intellectual-property theft.
Over the preceding month or so, the Trump administration had delivered a succession of policy speeches concerning China.
Pompeo’s address followed speeches by National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General William Barr.
The further intensification of criticism of China at this point reflected an unprecedented level of concern within the U.S. administration over China’s authoritarianism.
One example was the speed with which China implemented the Hong Kong national security law, which exceeded U.S. expectations.
Pompeo was one of the leading China hawks in the Trump administration.
Several aspects of the speech were designed to signal that U.S. policy toward China had reached a turning point.
One was the choice of venue: the museum associated with former President Richard Nixon, whose dramatic 1972 visit to China opened the way for U.S. diplomacy with Beijing.
“The world cannot be safe until China changes.”
Nixon had also worried that by opening the door to China, the United States might have created a “Frankenstein.”
Pompeo referred to such past statements by Nixon in his speech.
The Trump administration thus made increasingly clear its determination to bring an end to the engagement policy that began under the Nixon administration.
That was why Pompeo traveled all the way to California, where the museum is located, not long after returning from Europe.
Another notable feature was the frequency of references to the former Soviet Union.
Pompeo noted that President Ronald Reagan confronted the Soviet Union during the Cold War according to the principle of “trust, but verify.”
When dealing with China, he said, the principle should instead be “distrust and verify.”
He also said that the Chinese Communist Party was repeating the same mistakes as the Soviet Union, expressing the view that authoritarianism was driving away potential allies.
His remarks suggested an intention to invoke America’s Cold War victory and demonstrate determination to prevail in a new systemic competition with China.
The United States pursued a policy known as “containment” toward the Soviet Union, which had very little interaction with the Western bloc.
China, however, was different because of its deep economic ties with the rest of the world.
Pompeo therefore said that this was not “containment,” but rather “a complex new challenge that we have never faced before.”
Pompeo declared that the free nations of the world must induce the Chinese Communist Party to change its behavior through more creative and determined means.
Although he had repeatedly criticized the nature of the Chinese Communist Party system, this was the first time he had used such a symbolically charged setting to demand a change in its authoritarian course.
It demonstrated the seriousness of the Trump administration’s position.
Nevertheless, the construction of a broad coalition against China remained incomplete.
Pompeo expressed frustration that some NATO allies feared that the Chinese government would restrict their access to the Chinese market.
He may have had countries with deep economic ties to China, such as Germany and Italy, in mind.
With reciprocal closures of diplomatic missions continuing and no clear path toward de-escalation, the U.S.-China confrontation was increasingly taking on the appearance of a game of chicken.