Military who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. As a veteran, i spend all my days working to use diplomatic power to secure freedom without putting Service Members in harms way. And i want to thank the family members who have lost loved ones in their service to our country. From lexington to valley forge to all the other fields of battle, i would like to thank them. I want to begin with a few observations on china. Because the medias focused on the current pandemic, it risks missing the Bigger Picture of the challenges presented by the Chinese Communist party. China has because the medias focused on the current pandemic, it risks missing the Bigger Picture of the challenges presented by the Chinese Communist party. China has been ruled by a brutal authoritarian regime, a communist regime, since 1949. We greatly underestimated the degree to which beijing is ideologically hostile to free nations. The whole world is waking up to that fact. A few reported this past week that 66 of americans have an unfavorable view of china. That is a direct result of the Chinese Communist partys choices, which are influenced by the nature of the regime. The nature of that regime is not new. And the nature of that regime is not new. Second point. On the Bigger Picture the Chinese Communist partys response to the covid19 outbreak in wuhan has accelerated our understanding of communist china. Our more realistic understanding of communist china. The party chose to destroy live virus samples instead of sharing them. The Peoples Liberation army has claimed more features in the south china sea. Sank a vietnamese fishing boat. Threatened a Malaysian Energy prospector, and declared a unilateral fishing ban. The United States condemns these unlawful acts. The Chinese Communist party chose to threaten us with threaten australia with economic retribution for a simple act of asking for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus. That is not right. We stand with australia and the more than 120 nations who have taken up the call for an inquiry into the origins of the virus. So we can understand what went wrong and save lives now and in the future. The Chinese Communist party also chose to pressure the who Inspector General and excluded taiwan. The who has had ties to beijing long before this pandemic. That is deeply troubling. President xi claimed this week china has acted with responsibility. I wish that were so. And has been 142 days since doctors for started information wuut a sars like virus in han. Yet, today, as we all sit here this morning, beijing continues to deny investigators access to relevant facilities, to withhold virus samples, to censor discussion of the pandemic within china, and more. If the Chinese Communist party was to demonstrate real openness, real transparency, it could easily hold press conferences, like this very press conference, and allow reporters to ask anything they would like. Third, chinas contributions to fighting the pandemic are paltry compared to the costs they have imposed on the world. This plague has cost roughly 90,000 american lives. More than 36 million americans have lost their jobs since march. Globally, 300,000 lives, as much as 9 trillion around the world. According to our estimates. The United States has responded with about 10 billion to benefit the international response, everything from Vaccine Research to humanitarian aid. That is compared to a promise of 2 billion from the chinese. Unforeseen if they would fulfill that commitment. Private american businesses, charities, citizens have provided an additional amount of 4. 3 million. There is no country that remotely rivals what the United States has done to combat the virus. Today i am pleased to announce another 162 million since the outbreak began. I am proud to announce more assistance, bringing our commitments since the outbreak began. In addition to that funding, the usaid and the state department are providing assistance as well to venezuela. That is what we do all around the world. We will help the world recover from this pandemic. Turning for a moment to taiwan, i want to say congratulations to the president. The process has matured into a model for the world despite great pressure from outside. Taiwan has demonstrated the wisdom of giving people a voice and a choice. In hong kong, our decision on whether or not to identify hong kong as having a high degree of autonomy from china is still pending. We closely watching what is going on there. This week, demonstrators were manhandled while trying to stop a procedural irregularity by legislators. To be hauledists into court. Actions like these make it more difficult to assess whether hong kong remains highly autonomous from mainland china. We are also keeping an eye on human rights. As we always do. Pandemic were no pandemic. I was pleased that france arrested a person this weekend who is alleged to have played a key role in the rwandan genocide. We are monitoring burundi. I ask all sides to refrain from provocations and allow there to an election and let citizens exercise their democratic rights. Nicaragua, too. We are concerned about reports of hospitals filling up and bodies being buried under cover of night, pointing to a more severe situation then the regime is acknowledging. We are concerned that individuals around the world, including journalists, have been detained because of their public statements or activities regarding covid19. The United States condemns all such uses of the pandemic as a pretext for repression. On to better news. Last week, we saw three huge diplomatic wins. I would like to highlight them. Made the we will work on this project so we would be lest dependent crude oil from those who see the world differently. We are the largest producer of oil and gas in the world. Nations want enhanced energy security. Come talk to us. We will get it done with the. With you. Second, in afghanistan, the United States welcomed the political settlement by the president. We urged the leaders to channel the momentum to speed the governments entry into negotiations. Intraafghan negotiations. We need all factions to get into talks. We need violence reduced. We are working hard to meet the critical objective of getting peace and reconciliation in afghanistan. Third, i am proud of the state department and commerce department, who worked hard to bring Taiwan Semiconductor manufacturing corporations to arizona. 12 billion investment. A 12 billion investment. That deal was an integral part of a string of accomplishments we call the 5g National Security trifecta, something we have been working on. The ended states closed a local the ended states closed a loophole last week huawei used to circumvent export controls by designing semiconductors abroad. The third part of the trifecta is something ive mentioned before. 5g data must only transit through trusted equipment. I had a good conversation with a ion with secretary esper i had a good conversation with week ony esper this making sure our military bases participate in the 5g initiative as well. Today marks two years since i launched the campaign to make iran behave like a normal nation. We continue to follow through on that commitment. On june 8, it goes into effect. The United States government provided the Maritime Energy industry new guidance to prevent exposure to activities related to iran. Including those regarding north korea and syria. The Maritime Community is warned that doing business with these vessels risks severe consequences. Our maximum Pressure Campaign also tells the regime in tehran to respect its own people. The United States announces it is opposing sanctions on 12 iranian individuals and entities under the human rights authorities. One of those sanctions is the current minister of interior of iran. We have reason to believe that the individual who gave orders in 2019 authorizing Iranian Police forces to use lethal force on Peaceful Protesters inside of iran. His evil commands killed iranian citizens. We are proud to meet out what justice we can on behalf of the slain and silenced in iran. And finally, we just marked the of paulsnniversary disappearance in afghanistan. My Team Continues to press toward that goal through diplomatic channels. The wellbeing of american citizens comes first. With that, i am happy to take a few questions. Good morning. On taiwan, you mentioned the elected taiwan president a few hours ago inaugurated to continue her second term. We saw a message from the assistant secretary, and your statement to congratulate taiwan my question for you is, how does the United States envision its relationship with taiwan and taiwans global participation in the coming years . Separately, if i may, President Trump mentioned last week that the u. S. May cut off all relationship with china. Would you like to weigh in your thoughts . Should the United States have a have pondered an official relationship with taiwan based on shared values . Sec. Pompeo we congratulated the winner of the election. We were happy to see that. My congratulations were in english, not mandarin. It was the best that i could do. But we understand the importance of the work we have done there. It is the right solution to maximize instability there. The president talked about how we are going to respond, how he is beginning to think about responding to the calamity that has befallen the world as a result of the actions of the Chinese Communist party. I do not want to get ahead of him in terms of talking about how the administration shall will respond to that, but you can already begin to see the outlines of it. I talked about the 5g trifecta. You can already see how we are beginning to work to make sure we get america first, that we get this Foreign Policy right, and that we respond to these risks that china presents to the that the Chinese CommunistParty Presents to the United States in an appropriate way. You saw yesterday that the department of defense made an announcement about rare earth minerals. Again, we would not be dependent on a nation that has demonstrated its unreliability. Its willingness to steal all intellectual property our intellectual property. All the things that, frankly, for decades, and this is not remotely partisan. Democrat president s, republican president s, all just turned the other way. Because of the opportunity for enormous markets. There is hope that engagement would lead to a change in the behavior of the Chinese Communist party. It did not happen. Trumps been serious about making sure we did the right things for the american people. I know he will continue to do it. We continue to work on this to develop an appropriate way to think about how we can get the Chinese Communist party and china to behave in a way that is consistent with how we ask every nation to be. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Mr. Secretary, last night a country abrogated all agreements with the United States and israel. Including security coordination. Do you have any comment on that . Can you also comment on the process of annexation currently with the announcement by mr. Netanyahu . Sec. Pompeo sure. We note the announcement by the boss. I was in communication today with our teams there. We hope that the security arrangements will continue to be in place. The work that is done on the ground to keep people in israel and palestinians safe will continue. I am not exactly sure what to make of his statement, but i am but i regret that he has decided to abrogate those agreements. Asksk simply for this, we the israelis and the palestinians to agreed that that to agree that that would be the basis for negotiations between them. The israelis have accepted that. The palestinians have continued to refuse to simply sit down and enter into negotiation based on President Trumps vision for peace there. We know that vision for peace will lead to better lives for the palestinian people. It acknowledges that in an unambiguous way. Of the the leadership Palestinian Authority will see that is in their peoples best interest and we can move out in that way. According to the vision. The last thing to say is, i was in israel last week. We had conversations about how we can move this vision for peace forward, and we will continue to work with all the parties involved to try to get that ultimate outcome. You can see how the middle east has changed. You can see how you now have the most antisemitic country in the world, the islamic republic, pitted against arab nations and israel. It is many it is very different than it was years ago. That threat now emanates from iran. You can see these other nations working together. The president s vision of peace is an important component of the. Of that. Several Senate Republicans say they want a specific explanation as to why the administration fired the Inspector General. Senator grassley says an expression of lost confidence is lost confidence without further explanation is not sufficient. Will you provide congress a more detailed explanation on why you recommended the firing to the president , and will the state department make that foreign the House Foreign AffairsCommittee Deadline for documents . Sec. Pompeo there has been a lot of discussions about a number of reports. Let me say three things. First, the president has the unilateral right to choose who he wants to be has inspector his Inspector General at every agency in the federal government. They are president ially confirmed positions, and those persons, just like all of us, serve at the pleasure of the president. In this case, i recommended to the president that steve linick should be terminated. We should have done it some time ago. I think i have to get you out, sir. Sec. Pompeo i am happy to take one more. You have said that mr. Linick was undermining the departments mission. What exactly does that mean . Can you give us examples . Even the president does not know what that means. So what, specifically, has mr. Linick done . Sec. Pompeo unlike others, i dont talk about personnel matters. I cannot give you specificity. We will share with the appropriate people the rationale, but there should be no mistake. Is there a secret . Sec. Pompeo i appreciate the question. Lets be clear. There were claims that this was for retaliation for some investigation that the Inspector Generals office was engaged in. Patently false. I have no sense of what investigations were taking place. Place inside the Inspector Generals office. I cannot possibly be retaliating. I heard the various stories that someone was walking my dog to sell arms to my dry cleaner. Its crazy. Its all crazy stuff. So i did not have access to that information, so i could not possibly have retaliated. It would have been impossible. With one exception. I was asked a series of questions in writing. I responded to those questions with respect to a particular investigation that was sometime earlier this year. As best as i can recall. I responded to those questions. I do not know the scope, the nature of that investigation other than what i have seen from the nature of the questions i was presented. I did what was right. I do not know if that investigation is continuing. I dont know if that investigation has been closed out. I do not have any sense of that. Again, it is not possible for there to have been retaliation. Heres the last thing to think about as you see the stories that have been leaked to the press. This is all coming through the office of senator menendez. I do not get my ethics guidance from a man who is criminally prosecuted, case number 15155. In new jerseys Federal District court. A man whose Senate Colleagues said that he was taking bribes. That is not someone who i look to for ethics guidance. And so, i will continue to do the right thing. I will make sure the state department continues to deliver on behalf of the american people. What about the House Foreign Affairs committee . Sec. Pompeo thank you all. Everybody have a great day and a wonderful memorial day weekend, too. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Thursday morning, the project on government oversight director will join us to discuss the role of inspectors general in government and President Trumps firing of multiple igs. And how americans should modify their behavior as covid19 restrictions are lifted. He sure to watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern thursday morning. Join the discussion. At our live look coverage thursday. On cspan, the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Meets at 10 00 a. M. Eastern to consider subpoena authorization for documents and witnesses related to the committees investigation of the pfizer process and the 2016 russia probe. On cspan two, the senate is back to debate and vote on the nomination of John Ratcliffe to be the next director of national intelligence