THE HAGUE — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leveled a new warning against Chinese economic expansion into Europe Monday, telling Dutch leaders that “China wants to be the dominant economic and military power in the world, spreading its authoritarian vision for society and its corrupt practices worldwide.”
Amid an escalating U.S.-China trade war, Mr. Pompeo has repeatedly raised issues about Beijing and the security threat posed by Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei during his four-country visit to Europe — a trip that saw him arrive later Monday in London to join Mr. Trump on a state visit there.
“We’re not afraid of a little competition from China, and I know the people of the Netherlands aren’t either, [but] we want to compete on a free, fair, open and reciprocal basis,” Mr. Pompeo said a joint news conference with Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok.
Mr. Blok told reporters that Dutch leaders share Washington’s concerns, particularly in the competition for the coming 5G next-generation digital communications and telecom contracts from Huawei and other Chinese firms.
But the Dutch foreign minister said the Netherlands is still weighing what restrictions, if any, to put on Chinese 5G companies. It remains to be seen whether other EU powers will follow President Trump’s recent move to essentially blacklist the Chinese telecom giant from the U.S. market.
U.S. officials warn that Beijing seeks to use its 5G market penetration to spy on American and European networks. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold sensitive intelligence from nations that don’t restrict Chinese participation in their communications networks.
The secretary of state has railed against what he describes as unfair practices by Beijing, which the Trump administration says fails to protect foreign intellectual property and strong-arms foreign firms into handing over trade secrets or pair with Chinese partners if they want access to the Chinese market.
China denies the charges and counters that tariffs imposed by President Trump violate World Trade Organization rules and represent an unacceptable interference in China’s domestic affairs. China has recently toughened its stance in the talks, saying in a report over the weekend that it would not back down on “major issues of principle” in stalled talks with Washington.
Mr. Pompeo pushed the message in stops in Germany and Switzerland before visiting The Hague, where he told reporters that U.S. officials are “very concerned that Western companies, American companies and others, when they enter the Chinese market, aren’t treated the same way that Chinese companies are treated when they enter those Western markets.”
Mr. Pompeo said the Trump administration is not seeking to constrain Chinese economic growth, but stressed that such growth must occur in on an “open basis.”
“It’s not open trade when a country can come invest here in the Netherlands, but if a Netherlands company wants to invest in their country, they’ve got to submit their data to the Chinese Communist Party and hand over that information in ways that put real risk on that business and the protection of that business’ intellectual property,” he said.
Mr. Pompeo and center-right Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte appeared on a stage together Monday in The Hague to open the 9th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit — an event that brings together entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers from more than 120 countries in five key sectors: agriculture, connectivity, energy, health, and access to water.
Separately, the world’s largest association of technology professionals said it was lifting a research cooperation restriction it had imposed on employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The world’s largest grouping of technology professionals, IEEE, reversed itself on a restriction that Huawei employees would no longer be permitted to peer review or edit articles in its journals. The restriction had prompted an angry backlash among Chinese members of the 420,000-member organization, with some declaring they would quit, the AP reported.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.