(Minghui.org) In a recent speech at the Wisconsin State Capitol, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges Western values by leaning on local governments in the U.S. In one example, a Chinese diplomat demanded that the Wisconsin state legislature praise the CCP even as the world suffers from a catastrophe caused by the regime. In another example, the CCP effectively shelved a California state senator’s proposed bill that condemned the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Pompeo delivered his speech, “State Legislatures and the China Challenge,” on September 23. The full text is available on the State Department’s website.

Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State, spoke at the Wisconsin State Capitol on September 23, 2020.

An Authoritarian Regime

The first example concerned Roger Roth, president of the Wisconsin Senate. Wu Ting, the consul from China’s consulate in Chicago, wrote an email to Roth requesting a resolution in praise of the CCP’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. Knowing how the tragedy has led to catastrophic consequences in the U.S. and around the world, Roth deleted the email thinking it was a joke.

But Wu sent a follow-up email pushing for the resolution. Roth’s one-word email reply? “No.” “Look, the Chinese Communist Party knew early on how virulent the coronavirus was that originated in Wuhan. They did what authoritarian regimes do. They oppress—suppressed information. they censored, they disappeared courageous whistleblowers and journalists who tried to sound the alarm all across the world. And they allowed people from Wuhan to travel to Italy and abroad,” said Pompeo about the episode.

Roth did not stop there. Instead, he proposed a resolution stating that “the Communist Party of China deliberately and intentionally misled the world on the Wuhan coronavirus.”

This was not an isolated event, noted Pompeo. The CCP has been doing the same to many countries around the world, including the United States. He said that many countries try to influence the United States, but “they’re fundamentally different than what the Chinese Communist Party is doing. It has a much more sinister view of this engagement. The party and its proxies aim to make Americans receptive to Beijing’s form of authoritarianism,” he explained.

Disinformation

The second example is related to Falun Gong. A California state senator proposed a resolution in 2017 to support Falun Gong practitioners in China and around the world. Despite its great benefits on mind and body, Falun Gong has been suppressed by the CCP since July 1999. The resolution would highlight the persecution practitioners are enduring for their belief.

The Chinese consulate in San Francisco wrote a letter to the state legislature defaming Falun Gong and claiming that the resolution would affect the relationship between the state of California and China. “Unfortunately, the California State Senate bowed to the CCP pressure and shelved the proposed bill,” added Pompeo.

These are just two examples of how the CCP tries to comprise Western values by targeting state and local governments in the U.S.

Pompeo also brought up the example of the many sister-city programs that carry benign titles such as “Association of Friendship,” which usually “fall under the authority of something called the Chinese People’s Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries,” which in turn “is part of China’s United Front Work Department – the CCP’s official overseas propaganda tool.” Propaganda is one of the CCP’s Three “Magic Weapons,” with the other two being “armed struggle” and “party-building.”

Pompeo said he would like to highlight these hidden CCP agendas. “Know that if you’re offered a trip to China when the pandemic travel restrictions are lifted, that you should ask who is paying for the trip, and if that person is linked—directly or indirectly—to the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

Pompeo’s comments are consistent with the U.S. Administration's recent efforts to curb the CCP on human rights violations and religious persecution. In an interview on August 31, Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, emphasized their significance. “China is at war with faith. It is a war they will not win,” he said. “It’s a war that the kingdom of man has tried to win for millennia, and they’re not going to win this one and they haven’t won it in the past.”