Conference in munich, and i enjoyed your upbeat message that the free world is winning. So we look very much forward to listening to you today. Please join me in welcoming the 70s United States secretary of state mike pompeo. Anders, thank you very much. Thank you for the warm greeting. Hello to the copenhagen democracy summit. It is an honor to be with you and with secretarygeneral rasmussen. When it comes to strengthening transatlantic relations, anders walks the walk. His son and three beautiful grandchildren live here in the United States and are United States citizens. Nice to have you on both side to go and it were to bring us together. Thanks for having me today. When anderson sent invitation to me, i said yes immediately. So many of these conferences that you are participate and talk about whats wrong in the world. I want to focus on whats going right in the world today, what we got right, and thats democracy and we know it. How to reserve it is the challenge. Theres no more noble goal for all of us. I spent a few years a life, decades when i was a young soldier serving in germany patrolling along the iron curtain. Ive seen tyranny firsthand and i have dealt with all manner of unfree regimes in my previous role as director of the cia, now in my current wife secretary of state of the United States of america. First principle, theres nothing visionary about oppressing your fellow man or women. Democracy is the only system of government that honors Human Dignity and personal freedom, progress for mankind. The corollary is a capitalism is greatest Antipoverty Program in all of history. Want to make a few brief remarks and im looking for to taking questions. First the idea that europe is being forced to choose between the United States and china, i want to talk about that at some length. Second, the belief it is costless to compromise your values. Everywhere i go i talked to my counterparts about the reality of what we see in the world especially in china. That in your, in the arctic, central asia, the pacific islands, for many years the west in an era of hope believed we could change the chinese commies party and improve the lives of the Chinese People along the way. That was the bargain, that was the best. The rising tide of democracy in Eastern Europe and the former soviet union 30 years ago made us believe that the spread of freedom in every nation was inevitable so we engaged we open ourselves to a three turn regimes that when you were hostile to democratic values. Along the way that Chinese Communist party made at that piggyback take advantage of our goodwill while ensuring us they wanted a cooperative relationship. Talk about why this is happening, its complicated story, fault is not material here. Its not important. Over decades americans come European Countries invested in china with enormous optimism. We had an operation in china ourselves. We outsource our supply chains to place like sinjar, open our education institutions to be only affiliated students. We welcome Chinese State date back investment in our own countries now we deeply intertwined. But even so, we must acknowledge a set of facts about who and what we are dealing with. And i think we are seeing this. I think all across the world this is becoming more apparent each and every day. The chinese calmness party decreed and into freedom in hong kong violating the u. N. Register trade and the rights of its citizens. What did the show when just Many International treaties that the chinese calmness party has violated. General secretary xi has greenlighted a Brutal Campaign of repression against chinese muslims, the Human Rights Violations on the scale we have not seen since world war ii. The pla has escalated border tensions. Today in see them india, the worlds most populous democracy. We watch as miller crisis in the South China Sea and illegally claims more territory, threatening vital sea lanes, a promise it broke again. Its not just a rogue actor in its own neighborhood. If it was, we might think differently about it. It impacts us all. It lied about the coronavirus and let spread to the rest of the world. A failure of transparency that continues even today. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and the Global Economy is decimated. Even now, months into the pandemic we dont have access to a live virus, we dont have access to facilities and information about patients in december in wuhan remain unavailable. Its pushing disinformation to drive a wedge between the United States and europe and saddling developing nations with dependents. You have seen this all of you an industry knows the chinese commies party strong arms nations to do business with huawei in the arm of their surveillance state. And is attacking european poverty by buying at 410 critical infrastructure. We must take off the golden blinders and see that the china child isnt just at the dates, its in every capital. Its in every province. Every investment from the Chinese Stateowned enterprise should be viewed with suspicion. Europe faces a china challenge. Just as the United States does. Just as her south american, african, middle eastern and asian friends do, too. I had a chance this week and went to speak with my eu counterparts. The United States once want you to choose between us and china. But it is simply not the case. Its the Chinese Communist party that is forcing this choice. The choice is in between the United States. It is between freedom and tyranny. A party who wants to throw away the progress weve the free world have made, with nato and other institutions both formal and informal institutions. A new set of rules and norms to accommodate them within beijing. I dont believe theres uniquely european or american way to face this choice. Theres also no way to settle these alternatives without a bad ending of who we are. Democracies that are dependent on authoritarians are not worthy of their name. Look, the good news is my european friends, even this week i could see it, its not uniform, different thoughts in Different Countries but their waking up to this challenge. And i heard some of them, they question whether democratic way of life can win. Beijing relishes this uncertainty. They should be confident. We are winning. This what you talked about in my remarks in munich. One diplomatic friend said some questioners beginning to lose conference in liberal democracy. Some western countries have become psychologically weak. Democracy isnt fragile in the way the Chinese Communist party believes that it is. Democracy is strong. We defeated fascism, during the cold war. Its authoritarianism that is fragile. Ccp propagandist work hard to control information flows and speech to maintain their grip on power. They wont be satisfied until the digital firewall extends to our nations, too. In some ways it already does. We can talk about this at some length, anders. Do not believe democracy is fragile, does require careful stewardship and constant vigilance. Ive been encouraged in private conversations with european allies who are taking their responsibility seriously and we had a discussion earlier this week, we debated what democracies ought to be engaged in, and thats overdue. That is precisely the great we should have. It was a good meeting and we will continue with the europeans on china. Meanwhile, positive steps about, a new alliance on china , substantial comprise of european leaders and adding new denmark tested up to the ccp attempt to censor danish newspapers. The United Kingdom moving toward securing its networks from huawei. The sweed have closed all of confucius institutes that reside on their soil. Anders, successors in brussels recently gave visionary remarks about the alliance to stand up for a world known of freedom and democracy to counter chinas maligned influence. I will end here so anders could speak. We all know, democracy is not easy. The whole world can see how we have tough debates like my countries having right now. But that struggle reflects commitment to fundamental values and our constant 500 strike towards a more perfect union. We share those values with our european friends. I hope ill do more public statements from your about china chose because all of our people deserve to know about it and americas ready to stand with you. Lets speak clearly and more important lets act decisively. Lets not leave any confusion about the choice between tyranny and freedom. Anders, look forward to our conversation. God bless you all. Thank you very much, mike. Thank you, mr. Secretary, and also i appreciate your willingness to answer some questions. My first question is regarding china. Ago, you met with Chinese State counselor who is considered one of the architects of chinas foreign policy. A news agency put a positive spin on the meeting. They wrote both sides fully elaborated on their stances agreeing that this was a concerted dialogue. And you agreed to maintain contact and communication. When i read tests like this, i might be thinking something is going on. So my question to you is, could it be that the trend and china secretly are preparing new initiatives to reduce tensions while publicly you are maintaining tough stands . One in new york has asked a question on whether we could expect the u. S. To take new initiatives, visavis china . So, anders, it was a long overdue meeting. I was a long meeting. We met for some six hours or so. Each side stated that what i think for each was pretty familiar positions. For us, for me i articulated that just what i articulated here this morning, america is engaging in a response to Chinese Communist party and aggression the white americans that done for the past 20 years. Its not political. Weve had president s who simply allowed china to a deeply nonreciprocal relationships. Not just on trait which of course is true but we responded to the military, the years the use of military force by moving backwards, by retreating. Donald trump is not going to permit that and we made that clear. You referenced statements. Those are statements. What i spent a good deal of my time speaking with them about was the fundamental ideas which is watching action. Its no longer enough to listen to what the Chinese Communist party is a saying. We can see their actions. Hong kong, tibet, sinjar, whether doing in india, what youve done in the Economic Zones along the malaysia, indonesia and vietnam, the coercion on australia. When they had the audacity to demand that the be an investigation of how this virus got from wuhan to milan, to tehran, have a virus got from wuhan to Oklahoma City and to belgium and to spain and decimating the Global Economy. Look, it was a very frank conversation. We still dont have the answers. The medical professionals need to take on this challenge. If the Chinese Communist party cant rise to that, forget what they say. If they cant rise to that level, what every democratic nation would have done in response to a virus that begin in our nation, we wouldve participated in a Global Response where we shared information openly, we learned together and we resolved the problem together. Instead they did what a fortune regimes do. They disappeared doctors. They squirreled their information away and they denied the world the access they need to respond to this virus in a way that could reduce a lot of risk and a lot of cost. Thats the nature of the conversation that we had. I think as americas most senior diplomat is always useful to be in a room together and have a conversation and to share the principles upon which your policy is based. Thats the conversation we had earlier this week. You mentioned hong kong, and recently you indicated that the United States might consider to withdraw the special status for hong kong. Which measures could you imagine regarding trade, travel, currency exchange, et cetera . Hong kong be treated like all other chinese cities . It appears that is chinas intention. What is hear my european counterparts say we dont want to choose, i always remind them that other side gets to choose, too. So when you ask hong kong retreated be treated as in the other chinese city, it will be to the extent the chinese will choose to treated that way. I havent seen what happened overnight but the chinese calmness party deny significant amount of freedom that the chinese calmness party had promised to the people of hong kong for the last 50 years. Their set of elections scheduled for september. We should all watch closely. Thats not that far off now. We should all watch very closely with those elections are permitted to take place in a free and fair fashion. To the extent those elections are delayed, postpone, canceled or sun are not treated in a way that was fair and open, i think that will tell us everything we need to know about the chinese calmness parties intentions with respect to freedom in hong kong. President trump has made very clear to the extent that Chinese Communist party treats hong kong as it does shanghai, we will treat them the same. With many agreements that are unique between the United States and hong kong separate and different from those we have with beijing. We will move away from everyone of those. The president has made clear we have a responsibility to hold accountable those inside of china who fail to live up to those agreements as well. So were working our way through a decisionmaking process to determine who those decisionmakers were and what the appropriate mechanism is to hold them accountable. We dont want to harm the people of hong kong. They are the freedom loving people that we aim to get the benefit of the bargain they made with the United Kingdom. To the extent the chinese calmness party denies that we are responsible to all the relevant parties accountable. But what will happen if the security law leads to imprisonment of democracy activists, et cetera, in the autumn . What did you imagine to do . I just dont want to get into particular decisions. I dont want to foreclose anything the present will choose to do or not. Were still working our way through the process. Two things to think about. What is what will the people of hong kong do . We have watched them. They have simply asked for the Mainland China to live up to the commitments that were made around, we are on your 27th of a 50 year deal. Somebody walks way of halfway point, you would not be happy in your 23 i guess it is. So it would be interesting to see how the people of hong kong respond and, frankly, the people, the freedom loving people in the mainland as well. They are watching, too. Never forget that what we see a unitary face of chinese calmness party, that that building and have people also have ideas that are different and they will be watching how this transpires as well. I know the people of taiwan are certainly watching how this transpires. Second, or how the United States will respond, i want to leave open the range the possibility that the president has made clear to the extent hong kong is treated by the communist party it is just another piece of Mainland China. Theres a reason for the United States to jason inescapably we have a lot of requires that as well. You also mentioned taiwan. I think we agree that taiwan is a beacon of democracy, a real contrast with mainland communist china. What more do you think we could do to defend the taiwanese democracy, and shouldnt they be allowed to join w. H. O. And maybe other International Organizations . Its widely known how hard many countries allow the taiwanese government to participate at least as an observer as part of this post recent world health assembly. Theres another scheduled for november. We think it is most appropriate for them to do so and perhaps even more importantly, very useful. They have great deal of knowledge. They handle this coronavirus very, very well. They have high end technology, high end pharmaceutical capabilities and hindsight is everything would be helpful for them to be part of the conversation around how the will respond to the continuing pandemic. As for how we deal with taiwan, the United States has a clear set of policies that extend back, depending on where you want to start clock, acted early 1990s is a reasonable place place to start. President trump has adhered to those commitments and will continue to do so. They are set a very clearly and will continue to abide by them. If i i may, lets turn to europe. The white house has announced an intention to reduce the u. S. Troop presence in germany. May i ask you, with a partial reduction in germany the compensated by the u. S. Increased in Eastern Europe, for instance, in poland . So as for troop deployments so as for troop deployments numbers i believe that to my colleague, secretary esper, to talk about. I try to maintain these boundaries. But as for u. S. Policy, i can speak to that very clearly. Ive been here as a secretary of state now for just over two years, ive been part of the Administration Since the beginning. We set out back in early 2018, the spring of 2017 to evaluate our entire structure about how we engaged in the world and that has a component about troop station, where we will put people, how we will deploy them. The location and the permanent basis. We always think about soldiers on the ground. Much of modern conflict today i was an army guy, i love that julie. I wish the whole world revolves around in one tanks, would make me happy but it doesnt. It revolves around big cyber capabilities, big capabilities that are in different pockets. Were trying to make sure we get all of the strike so its no longer reasonable is to figure hey, do we have thousands soldiers or 5000 soldiers or 10,000 soldiers of what the threat that is posed to the United States and her allies and how do we collectively best respond. What you saw the the president announced was part of that review process. It is an extensive and extends the altar europe and throughout the middle east, youve seen decisions the president has made there but how it is we can do the right things to meet the challenges of the day. Lastly, this connects up to the topic i spoke about today, make no mistake about it. The United States does believe it has a real responsibility to ensure we have the capability and capacity to challenge any threat the chinese calmness party should make militarily to the United States of america. So were constantly thinking about how we engage, diplomatically, economic and militarily to meet that challenge. As the president thinks that europe, middle east, our soldiers that are station stationed in africa we are ever mindful that a free and open indopacific matters to all of us including europe and want to make sure with allocated resources appropriately address those concerns. Ive got a question from the audience. I read it. Do you understand it european friends and allies see a threat to democracy generates from the u. S. Due to a slow and dangerous breakdown of state institutions and democratic presence . No. Thats a key answer. Look, i 200 plus years on, we have the most i should be careful because ive this is the democracy that is withstood enormous challenges throughout its history, and our institutions have withstood enormous challenges. And as the world changes, i am confident we will still have challenges. But i know this. Our founders nailed it. Our founders got it right, the principles, laying down a set of god given rights to American People and think the United States gaba is designed in purpose to preserve those rights has provided both a textual and structural mechanism for democracies for the trait is about each and every one of these challenges. Doesnt mean it happens automatically. I know i secretary of state have restored for the spree set of rights, i have a responsibility and duty to ensure i do everything everyday to be part of furthering the capacity for our republic republic to continue to remain strong. Could i understand anyone would steer this and think american democracy is at risk . Its really a simple answer. Very often we see the Chinese Government use divide and rule tactics where they single out individual countries for punishment if they dont listen to beijing. Follow the instructions from beijing or going against beijing. I would ask you, shouldnt the world democracies form a united front, an alliance of democracies that can stand up against the autocracies, protect each other and promote freedom and prosperity . Anders, thats an incredibly important question. A number of us, ill start with this. You will recall essentially you said united front. This is chinas name, the united front. This is what is in your country, the united front. Maybe well choose just a slightly different name. Conceptually, you nailed it. You got it exactly right. I think the wonderful news for democracies and freedom loving people, as i see that happening, i can tell you that when he met with my chinese counterpart he could see happen while were sitting in the room, while we were meeting. A statement from all g7 members came out about hong kong. The timing, i would love to claim was intentional. We were just doing what freedom loving people do, continue to demand an ever more expensive conception of freedom and forcing especially other countries to honor commitments that they had made. Your core point. Chinas objective is, in fact, to single out and indeed to threaten to single out more directly, not just European Countries, youve seen them do it in the middle east, weve seen them do it in africa. We have seen them do it in southeast asia, closer to their own nation. What i have begun to see over my two and half years as secretary of state is the world awakening to this threat. Right now, many of these conversations, the calls are mike, heres what we are observing in the chinese calmness party engaged in, how can we help . We do our best to provide them assistance that makes the most sense. We need to raise this to another level so countries are prepared and in position to respond to these things in a public way. When we do that the Chinese Communist party will be more isolated, and i hope, because my objective is isnt bad thing for the Chinese People. I hope to recognize if you want to rise, want to continue to build out their nation, that they need to do so on a western rule set, a rule set that offers the rule of law and honest freedom and respect for sovereignty. If they can flip, if they can make that difference, because of the rest of the world demands that of them, just like we do every other nation with which we interact, the Chinese Government we dont ask them to do anything with as the belgian government to do. Compete fairly around the world, if he will do that, then i think the world will be in a better place to freedom loving nations can be secure. Thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary. Thank you, mike, for taking time to talk to us. Its a very important conclusion of two days, democracy summit here in copenhagen. We appreciate very much your support for freedom and democracy and your dedication to american leadership. So i feel confident that my three american grandchildren will be raised in a much better world. Thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] former secretary of state john kerry was part of a discussion on covid19. Summitenhagen democracy hosted this event. The author of our translation work. We are turning to leadership in 2020 and beyond