China Communist Party ‘central threat of our times’: Pompeo

LONDON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday called China’s ruling Communist Party “the central threat of our times” that challenges Western principles.

“The Chinese Communist Party presents the central threat of our times,” Washington’s top diplomat said at a joint appearance with Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

He added that Western allies must “ensure that the next century is governed by these Western democratic principles”.

Pompeo’s remarks came as Washington presses Britain and other European states to exclude China’s Huawei tech giant from their next-generation 5G mobile networks.

Britain on Tuesday decided to allow Huawei to build “non-core” elements of 5G that do not handle sensitive personal data. It also capped Huawei’s market share to 35 percent and promised to lower it in the future.

Brussels adopted a similar policy for EU member states on Wednesday. US officials have warned that Washington might have to stop sharing intelligence with London if it included any elements of the Chinese company in its new network because of the security risk.

But Pompeo appeared to walk back that threat on Thursday. The US-UK intelligence sharing “relationship is deep, it is strong, it will remain,” Pompeo said. He added that he was “confident ... as we move forward together to make sure the next generation of technology is secure”.