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SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you.

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Thank you all.

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Thank you, Governor, for that very, very generous
introduction.

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It is true: When you walk in that gym and
you say the name “Pompeo,” there is a

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whisper.

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I had a brother, Mark, who was really good
– a really good basketball player.

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And how about another round of applause for
the Blue Eagles Honor Guard and Senior Airman

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Kayla Highsmith, and her wonderful rendition
of the national anthem?

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(Applause.)

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Thank you, too, to Pastor Laurie for that
moving prayer, and I want to thank Hugh Hewitt

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and the Nixon Foundation for your invitation
to speak at this important American institution.

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It was great to be sung to by an Air Force
person, introduced by a Marine, and they let

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the Army guy in in front of the Navy guy’s
house.

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(Laughter.)

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It’s all good.

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It’s an honor to be here in Yorba Linda,
where Nixon’s father built the house in

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which he was born and raised.

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To all the Nixon Center board and staff who
made today possible – it’s difficult in

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these times – thanks for making this day
possible for me and for my team.

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We are blessed to have some incredibly special
people in the audience, including Chris, who

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I’ve gotten to know – Chris Nixon.

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I also want to thank Tricia Nixon and Julie
Nixon Eisenhower for their support of this

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visit as well.

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I want to recognize several courageous Chinese
dissidents who have joined us here today and

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made a long trip.

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And to all the other distinguished guests
– (applause) – to all the other distinguished

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guests, thank you for being here.

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For those of you who got under the tent, you
must have paid extra.

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And those of you watching live, thank you
for tuning in.

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And finally, as the governor mentioned, I
was born here in Santa Ana, not very far from

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here.

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I’ve got my sister and her husband in the
audience today.

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Thank you all for coming out.

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I bet you never thought that I’d be standing
up here.

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My remarks today are the fourth set of remarks
in a series of China speeches that I asked

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National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien,
FBI Director Chris Wray, and the Attorney

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General Barr to deliver alongside me.

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We had a very clear purpose, a real mission.

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It was to explain the different facets of
America’s relationship with China, the massive

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imbalances in that relationship that have
built up over decades, and the Chinese Communist

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Party’s designs for hegemony.

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Our goal was to make clear that the threats
to Americans that President Trump’s China

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policy aims to address are clear and our strategy
for securing those freedoms established.

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Ambassador O’Brien spoke about ideology.

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FBI Director Wray talked about espionage.

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Attorney General Barr spoke about economics.

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And now my goal today is to put it all together
for the American people and detail what the

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China threat means for our economy, for our
liberty, and indeed for the future of free

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democracies around the world.

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Next year marks half a century since Dr. Kissinger’s
secret mission to China, and the 50th anniversary

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of President Nixon’s trip isn’t too far
away in 2022.

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The world was much different then.

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We imagined engagement with China would produce
a future with bright promise of comity and

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cooperation.

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But today – today we’re all still wearing
masks and watching the pandemic’s body count

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rise because the CCP failed in its promises
to the world.

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We’re reading every morning new headlines
of repression in Hong Kong and in Xinjiang.

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We’re seeing staggering statistics of Chinese
trade abuses that cost American jobs and strike

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enormous blows to the economies all across
America, including here in southern California.

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And we’re watching a Chinese military that
grows stronger and stronger, and indeed more

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menacing.

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I’ll echo the questions ringing in the hearts
and minds of Americans from here in California

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to my home state of Kansas and beyond:

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What do the American people have to show now
50 years on from engagement with China?

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Did the theories of our leaders that proposed
a Chinese evolution towards freedom and democracy

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prove to be true?

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Is this China’s definition of a win-win
situation?

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And indeed, centrally, from the Secretary
of State’s perspective, is America safer?

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Do we have a greater likelihood of peace for
ourselves and peace for the generations which

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will follow us?

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Look, we have to admit a hard truth.

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We must admit a hard truth that should guide
us in the years and decades to come, that

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if we want to have a free 21st century, and
not the Chinese century of which Xi Jinping

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dreams, the old paradigm of blind engagement
with China simply won’t get it done.

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We must not continue it and we must not return
to it.

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As President Trump has made very clear, we
need a strategy that protects the American

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economy, and indeed our way of life.

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The free world must triumph over this new
tyranny.

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Now, before I seem too eager to tear down
President Nixon’s legacy, I want to be clear

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that he did what he believed was best for
the American people at the time, and he may

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well have been right.

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He was a brilliant student of China, a fierce
cold warrior, and a tremendous admirer of

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the Chinese people, just as I think we all
are.

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He deserves enormous credit for realizing
that China was too important to be ignored,

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even when the nation was weakened because
of its own self-inflicted communist brutality.

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In 1967, in a very famous Foreign Affairs
article, Nixon explained his future strategy.

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Here’s what he said:

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He said, “Taking the long view, we simply
cannot afford to leave China forever outside

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of the family of nations…The world cannot
be safe until China changes.

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Thus, our aim – to the extent we can, we
must influence events.

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Our goal should be to induce change.”

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And I think that’s the key phrase from the
entire article: “to induce change.”

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So, with that historic trip to Beijing, President
Nixon kicked off our engagement strategy.

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He nobly sought a freer and safer world, and
he hoped that the Chinese Communist Party

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would return that commitment.

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As time went on, American policymakers increasingly
presumed that as China became more prosperous,

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it would open up, it would become freer at
home, and indeed present less of a threat

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abroad, it’d be friendlier.

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It all seemed, I am sure, so inevitable.

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But that age of inevitability is over.

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The kind of engagement we have been pursuing
has not brought the kind of change inside

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of China that President Nixon had hoped to
induce.

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The truth is that our policies – and those
of other free nations – resurrected China’s

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failing economy, only to see Beijing bite
the international hands that were feeding

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it.

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We opened our arms to Chinese citizens, only
to see the Chinese Communist Party exploit

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our free and open society.

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China sent propagandists into our press conferences,
our research centers, our high-schools, our

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colleges, and even into our PTA meetings.

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We marginalized our friends in Taiwan, which
later blossomed into a vigorous democracy.

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We gave the Chinese Communist Party and the
regime itself special economic treatment,

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only to see the CCP insist on silence over
its human rights abuses as the price of admission

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for Western companies entering China.

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Ambassador O’Brien ticked off a few examples
just the other day: Marriott, American Airlines,

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Delta, United all removed references to Taiwan
from their corporate websites, so as not to

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anger Beijing.

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In Hollywood, not too far from here – the
epicenter of American creative freedom, and

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self-appointed arbiters of social justice
– self-censors even the most mildly unfavorable

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reference to China.

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This corporate acquiescence to the CCP happens
all over the world, too.

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And how has this corporate fealty worked?

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Is its flattery rewarded?

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I’ll give you a quote from the speech that
General Barr gave, Attorney General Barr.

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In a speech last week, he said that “The
ultimate ambition of China’s rulers isn’t

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to trade with the United States.

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It is to raid the United States.”

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China ripped off our prized intellectual property
and trade secrets, causing [1] millions of

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jobs all across America.

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It sucked supply chains away from America,
and then added a widget made of slave labor.

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It made the world’s key waterways less safe
for international commerce.

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President Nixon once said he feared he had
created a “Frankenstein” by opening the

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world to the CCP, and here we are.

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Now, people of good faith can debate why free
nations allowed these bad things to happen

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for all these years.

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Perhaps we were naive about China’s virulent
strain of communism, or triumphalist after

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our victory in the Cold War, or cravenly capitalist,
or hoodwinked by Beijing’s talk of a “peaceful

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rise.”

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Whatever the reason – whatever the reason,
today China is increasingly authoritarian

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at home, and more aggressive in its hostility
to freedom everywhere else.

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And President Trump has said: enough.

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I don’t think many people on either side
of the aisle dispute the facts that I have

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laid out today.

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But even now, some are insisting that we preserve
the model of dialogue for dialogue’s sake.

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Now, to be clear, we’ll keep on talking.

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But the conversations are different these
days.

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I traveled to Honolulu now just a few weeks
back to meet with Yang Jiechi.

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It was the same old story – plenty of words,
but literally no offer to change any of the

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behaviors.

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Yang’s promises, like so many the CCP made
before him, were empty.

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His expectations, I surmise, were that I’d
cave to their demands, because frankly this

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is what too many prior administrations have
done.

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I didn’t, and President Trump will not either.

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As Ambassador O’Brien explained so well,
we have to keep in mind that the CCP regime

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is a Marxist-Leninist regime.

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General Secretary Xi Jinping is a true believer
in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology.

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It’s this ideology, it’s this ideology
that informs his decades-long desire for global

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hegemony of Chinese communism.

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America can no longer ignore the fundamental
political and ideological differences between

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our countries, just as the CCP has never ignored
them.

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My experience in the House Intelligence Committee,
and then as director of the Central Intelligence

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Agency, and my now two-plus years as America’s
Secretary of State have led me to this central

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understanding:

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That the only way – the only way to truly
change communist China is to act not on the

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basis of what Chinese leaders say, but how
they behave.

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And you can see American policy responding
to this conclusion.

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President Reagan said that he dealt with the
Soviet Union on the basis of “trust but

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verify.”

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When it comes to the CCP, I say we must distrust
and verify.

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(Applause.)

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We, the freedom-loving nations of the world,
must induce China to change, just as President

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Nixon wanted.

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We must induce China to change in more creative
and assertive ways, because Beijing’s actions

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threaten our people and our prosperity.

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We must start by changing how our people and
our partners perceive the Chinese Communist

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Party.

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We have to tell the truth.

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We can’t treat this incarnation of China
as a normal country, just like any other.

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We know that trading with China is not like
trading with a normal, law-abiding nation.

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Beijing threatens international agreements
as – treats international suggestions as

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– or agreements as suggestions, as conduits
for global dominance.

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But by insisting on fair terms, as our trade
representative did when he secured our phase

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one trade deal, we can force China to reckon
with its intellectual property theft and policies

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that harmed American workers.

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We know too that doing business with a CCP-backed
company is not the same as doing business

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with, say, a Canadian company.

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They don’t answer to independent boards,
and many of them are state-sponsored and so

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have no need to pursue profits.

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A good example is Huawei.

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We stopped pretending Huawei is an innocent
telecommunications company that’s just showing

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up to make sure you can talk to your friends.

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We’ve called it what it is – a true national
security threat – and we’ve taken action

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accordingly.

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We know too that if our companies invest in
China, they may wittingly or unwittingly support

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the Communist Party’s gross human rights
violations.

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Our Departments of Treasury and Commerce have
thus sanctioned and blacklisted Chinese leaders

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and entities that are harming and abusing
the most basic rights for people all across

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the world.

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Several agencies have worked together on a
business advisory to make certain our CEOs

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are informed of how their supply chains are
behaving inside of China.

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We know too, we know too that not all Chinese
students and employees are just normal students

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and workers that are coming here to make a
little bit of money and to garner themselves

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some knowledge.

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Too many of them come here to steal our intellectual
property and to take this back to their country.

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The Department of Justice and other agencies
have vigorously pursued punishment for these

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crimes.

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We know that the People’s Liberation Army
is not a normal army, too.

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Its purpose is to uphold the absolute rule
of the Chinese Communist Party elites and

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expand a Chinese empire, not to protect the
Chinese people.

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And so our Department of Defense has ramped
up its efforts, freedom of navigation operations

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out and throughout the East and South China
Seas, and in the Taiwan Strait as well.

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And we’ve created a Space Force to help
deter China from aggression on that final

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frontier.

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And so too, frankly, we’ve built out a new
set of policies at the State Department dealing

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with China, pushing President Trump’s goals
for fairness and reciprocity, to rewrite the

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imbalances that have grown over decades.

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Just this week, we announced the closure of
the Chinese consulate in Houston because it

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was a hub of spying and intellectual property
theft.

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(Applause.)

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We reversed, two weeks ago, eight years of
cheek-turning with respect to international

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law in the South China Sea.

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We’ve called on China to conform its nuclear
capabilities to the strategic realities of

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our time.

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And the State Department – at every level,
all across the world – has engaged with

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our Chinese counterparts simply to demand
fairness and reciprocity.

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But our approach can’t just be about getting
tough.

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That’s unlikely to achieve the outcome that
we desire.

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We must also engage and empower the Chinese
people – a dynamic, freedom-loving people

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who are completely distinct from the Chinese
Communist Party.

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That begins with in-person diplomacy.

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(Applause.)

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I’ve met Chinese men and women of great
talent and diligence wherever I go.

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I’ve met with Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs
who escaped Xinjiang’s concentration camps.

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I’ve talked with Hong Kong’s democracy
leaders, from Cardinal Zen to Jimmy Lai.

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Two days ago in London, I met with Hong Kong
freedom fighter Nathan Law.

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And last month in my office, I heard the stories
of Tiananmen Square survivors.

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One of them is here today.

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Wang Dan was a key student who has never stopped
fighting for freedom for the Chinese people.

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Mr. Wang, will you please stand so that we
may recognize you?

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(Applause.)

00:16:25.070 --> 00:16:30.610
Also with us today is the father of the Chinese
democracy movement, Wei Jingsheng.

00:16:30.610 --> 00:16:34.240
He spent decades in Chinese labor camps for
his advocacy.

00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:40.410
Mr. Wei, will you please stand?

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(Applause.)

00:16:45.810 --> 00:16:48.670
I grew up and served my time in the Army during
the Cold War.

00:16:48.670 --> 00:16:53.140
And if there is one thing I learned, communists
almost always lie.

00:16:53.140 --> 00:16:58.650
The biggest lie that they tell is to think
that they speak for 1.4 billion people who

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are surveilled, oppressed, and scared to speak
out.

00:17:01.470 --> 00:17:02.470
Quite the contrary.

00:17:02.470 --> 00:17:08.309
The CCP fears the Chinese people’s honest
opinions more than any foe, and save for losing

00:17:08.309 --> 00:17:11.250
their own grip on power, they have reason
– no reason to.

00:17:11.250 --> 00:17:15.839
Just think how much better off the world would
be – not to mention the people inside of

00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:21.000
China – if we had been able to hear from
the doctors in Wuhan and they’d been allowed

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to raise the alarm about the outbreak of a
new and novel virus.

00:17:25.959 --> 00:17:29.519
For too many decades, our leaders have ignored,
downplayed the words of brave Chinese dissidents

00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:32.110
who warned us about the nature of the regime
we’re facing.

00:17:32.110 --> 00:17:34.960
And we can’t ignore it any longer.

00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:39.490
They know as well as anyone that we can never
go back to the status quo.

00:17:39.490 --> 00:17:44.871
But changing the CCP’s behavior cannot be
the mission of the Chinese people alone.

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Free nations have to work to defend freedom.

00:17:46.900 --> 00:17:51.990
It’s the furthest thing from easy.

00:17:51.990 --> 00:17:53.380
But I have faith we can do it.

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I have faith because we’ve done it before.

00:17:55.190 --> 00:17:56.190
We know how this goes.

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I have faith because the CCP is repeating
some of the same mistakes that the Soviet

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Union made – alienating potential allies,
breaking trust at home and abroad, rejecting

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property rights and predictable rule of law.

00:18:10.490 --> 00:18:11.490
I have faith.

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I have faith because of the awakening I see
among other nations that know we can’t go

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back to the past in the same way that we do
here in America.

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I’ve heard this from Brussels, to Sydney,
to Hanoi.

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And most of all, I have faith we can defend
freedom because of the sweet appeal of freedom

00:18:25.830 --> 00:18:26.890
itself.

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Look at the Hong Kongers clamoring to emigrate
abroad as the CCP tightens its grip on that

00:18:33.409 --> 00:18:34.409
proud city.

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They wave American flags.

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It’s true, there are differences.

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Unlike the Soviet Union, China is deeply integrated
into the global economy.

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But Beijing is more dependent on us than we
are on them.

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(Applause.)

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Look, I reject the notion that we’re living
in an age of inevitability, that some trap

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is pre-ordained, that CCP supremacy is the
future.

00:19:08.360 --> 00:19:13.090
Our approach isn’t destined to fail because
America is in decline.

00:19:13.090 --> 00:19:17.899
As I said in Munich earlier this year, the
free world is still winning.

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We just need to believe it and know it and
be proud of it.

00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:24.100
People from all over the world still want
to come to open societies.

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They come here to study, they come here to
work, they come here to build a life for their

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families.

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They’re not desperate to settle in China.

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It’s time.

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It’s great to be here today.

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The timing is perfect.

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It’s time for free nations to act.

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Not every nation will approach China in the
same way, nor should they.

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Every nation will have to come to its own
understanding of how to protect its own sovereignty,

00:19:50.210 --> 00:19:54.950
how to protect its own economic prosperity,
and how to protect its ideals from the tentacles

00:19:54.950 --> 00:19:56.730
of the Chinese Communist Party.

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But I call on every leader of every nation
to start by doing what America has done – to

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simply insist on reciprocity, to insist on
transparency and accountability from the Chinese

00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:11.009
Communist Party.

00:20:11.009 --> 00:20:14.929
It’s a cadre of rulers that are far from
homogeneous.

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And these simple and powerful standards will
achieve a great deal.

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For too long we let the CCP set the terms
of engagement, but no longer.

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Free nations must set the tone.

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We must operate on the same principles.

00:20:29.549 --> 00:20:34.980
We have to draw common lines in the sand that
cannot be washed away by the CCP’s bargains

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or their blandishments.

00:20:36.639 --> 00:20:41.029
Indeed, this is what the United States did
recently when we rejected China’s unlawful

00:20:41.029 --> 00:20:45.210
claims in the South China Sea once and for
all, as we have urged countries to become

00:20:45.210 --> 00:20:49.879
Clean Countries so that their citizens’
private information doesn’t end up in the

00:20:49.879 --> 00:20:51.590
hand of the Chinese Communist Party.

00:20:51.590 --> 00:20:54.110
We did it by setting standards.

00:20:54.110 --> 00:20:56.409
Now, it’s true, it’s difficult.

00:20:56.409 --> 00:20:58.320
It’s difficult for some small countries.

00:20:58.320 --> 00:21:00.210
They fear being picked off.

00:21:00.210 --> 00:21:03.120
Some of them for that reason simply don’t
have the ability, the courage to stand with

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us for the moment.

00:21:05.059 --> 00:21:09.110
Indeed, we have a NATO ally of ours that hasn’t
stood up in the way that it needs to with

00:21:09.110 --> 00:21:14.250
respect to Hong Kong because they fear Beijing
will restrict access to China’s market.

00:21:14.250 --> 00:21:20.360
This is the kind of timidity that will lead
to historic failure, and we can’t repeat

00:21:20.360 --> 00:21:21.360
it.

00:21:21.360 --> 00:21:24.250
We cannot repeat the mistakes of these past
years.

00:21:24.250 --> 00:21:34.240
The challenge of China demands exertion, energy
from democracies – those in Europe, those

00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:37.530
in Africa, those in South America, and especially
those in the Indo-Pacific region.

00:21:37.530 --> 00:21:42.360
And if we don’t act now, ultimately the
CCP will erode our freedoms and subvert the

00:21:42.360 --> 00:21:48.769
rules-based order that our societies have
worked so hard to build.

00:21:48.769 --> 00:21:55.000
If we bend the knee now, our children’s
children may be at the mercy of the Chinese

00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:01.039
Communist Party, whose actions are the primary
challenge today in the free world.

00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:06.649
General Secretary Xi is not destined to tyrannize
inside and outside of China forever, unless

00:22:06.649 --> 00:22:08.029
we allow it.

00:22:08.029 --> 00:22:10.590
Now, this isn’t about containment.

00:22:10.590 --> 00:22:12.080
Don’t buy that.

00:22:12.080 --> 00:22:16.230
It’s about a complex new challenge that
we’ve never faced before.

00:22:16.230 --> 00:22:20.799
The USSR was closed off from the free world.

00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:24.220
Communist China is already within our borders.

00:22:24.220 --> 00:22:26.270
So we can’t face this challenge alone.

00:22:26.270 --> 00:22:32.870
The United Nations, NATO, the G7 countries,
the G20, our combined economic, diplomatic,

00:22:32.870 --> 00:22:40.059
and military power is surely enough to meet
this challenge if we direct it clearly and

00:22:40.059 --> 00:22:42.490
with great courage.

00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:48.400
Maybe it’s time for a new grouping of like-minded
nations, a new alliance of democracies.

00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:49.480
We have the tools.

00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:51.080
I know we can do it.

00:22:51.080 --> 00:22:52.590
Now we need the will.

00:22:52.590 --> 00:22:58.870
To quote scripture, I ask is “our spirit
willing but our flesh weak?”

00:22:58.870 --> 00:23:05.390
If the free world doesn’t change – doesn’t
change, communist China will surely change

00:23:05.390 --> 00:23:06.390
us.

00:23:06.390 --> 00:23:11.290
There can’t be a return to the past practices
because they’re comfortable or because they’re

00:23:11.290 --> 00:23:12.350
convenient.

00:23:12.350 --> 00:23:16.879
Securing our freedoms from the Chinese Communist
Party is the mission of our time, and America

00:23:16.879 --> 00:23:22.999
is perfectly positioned to lead it because
our founding principles give us that opportunity.

00:23:22.999 --> 00:23:31.029
As I explained in Philadelphia last week,
standing, staring at Independence Hall, our

00:23:31.029 --> 00:23:34.909
nation was founded on the premise that all
human beings possess certain rights that are

00:23:34.909 --> 00:23:35.909
unalienable.

00:23:35.909 --> 00:23:39.330
And it’s our government’s job to secure
those rights.

00:23:39.330 --> 00:23:40.899
It is a simple and powerful truth.

00:23:40.899 --> 00:23:44.940
It’s made us a beacon of freedom for people
all around the world, including people inside

00:23:44.940 --> 00:23:46.129
of China.

00:23:46.129 --> 00:23:51.889
Indeed, Richard Nixon was right when he wrote
in 1967 that “the world cannot be safe until

00:23:51.889 --> 00:23:53.049
China changes.”

00:23:53.049 --> 00:23:57.679
Now it’s up to us to heed his words.

00:23:57.679 --> 00:23:59.700
Today the danger is clear.

00:23:59.700 --> 00:24:01.940
And today the awakening is happening.

00:24:01.940 --> 00:24:03.809
Today the free world must respond.

00:24:03.809 --> 00:24:06.980
We can never go back to the past.

00:24:06.980 --> 00:24:08.370
May God bless each of you.

00:24:08.370 --> 00:24:10.080
May God bless the Chinese people.

00:24:10.080 --> 00:24:14.769
And may God bless the people of the United
States of America.

00:24:14.769 --> 00:24:15.769
Thank you all.

00:24:15.769 --> 00:24:15.770
(Applause.)