US: China trying to run ‘global communications networks’
WASHINGTON:US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday accused China of trying to dominate the global communications networks and systems and slammed it, once again, for “crushing” freedom in Hong Kong and forcing “mass abortions and sterilisation” among Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
“The Chinese Communist Party is crushing freedom in Hong Kong,” Pompeo said at the annual summit of the Family Leader, a conservative group, in Iowa state.
“It’s threatening a free Taiwan. It’s trying to dominate world communications networks, including those right here in places like Iowa.”
The US secretary of state was referring to the Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE that have been designated as national security threats by the US, and telecom companies are barred from receiving federal subsidies for buying their equipment, popular in rural America, including Iowa.
The Trump administration has also pushed other countries to bar these Chinese companies. It welcomed this week the decision of the British government to bar Huawei from participating in the roll-out of the 5G network.
India, which recently banned over 50 Chinese apps in retaliation to the deadly clashes in the Galwan Valley, could also bar Huawei from its 5G network, according to reports.
“A few weeks back, I read a report about the Chinese Communist
Party forcing mass abortions and sterilisation on Chinese Muslims in western China,” Pompeo said about the mistreatment of Uighurs. “These are some of the most gross human rights violations we have seen and I’ve referred to it as the stain of the century.”
The US government has escalated attacks on China in recent weeks over a range of issues, including the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
US President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this week a legislations that empowers his administration to announce sanctions against China over the Hong Kong security law.
The Trump administration is also reported to be considering visa bans on officials of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and their relatives, and deport those already in the US.
The deliberations are in early stages and the issue has not yet been brought to Trump, sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times.