Esper Joins Pompeo and Pelosi in China-Bashing at Munich

Feb. 16, 2020 (EIRNS)—Secretary of Defense Mark Esper joined his “fellows in arms,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in bashing China as a threat to Europe and the United States, during his speech yesterday to the Munich Security Conference. “America’s concerns about Beijing’s commercial and military expansion should be [Europe’s] concerns as well,” Esper declared. “China is currently applying economic and political pressure publicly and privately on many Indo-Pacific regions and European nations, to seek new strategic relationships,” he went on, calling the Belt and Road Initiative one such example. The BRI has wide-ranging implications for the U.S. and its allies as data security and military interoperability, he claimed. He dubbed private company Huawei another example, because it developed and is exporting 5G networks that threaten secure communications and jeopardize U.S. alliances.

Esper claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “leading his nation even faster in the wrong direction: more internal repression, more predatory economic practices, more heavy-handedness and a more aggressive military posture.” The international community needs to be aware of the challenges presented by China’s manipulation of the longstanding international rules-based order (whatever those are) that have benefitted the world for many decades, he said.