{"id":2651,"date":"2018-08-16T10:49:28","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T14:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migration.statedeptredesign.hugeops.com\/?page_id=2651"},"modified":"2021-01-19T17:46:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T22:46:11","slug":"front-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Department of State"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"state_bureaus":[],"state_countries_and_areas":[],"state_document_type":[],"state_policy_issues":[],"state_states":[],"state_subjects":[],"state_author_groups":[],"state_rss_feeds":[],"acf":{"po_header_breadcrumb":"","link_button":"","subscribe_button":{"link_button":""},"tf_downloadable_content":false,"sel_feed_options":"default","page_subnavigation":false,"rel_include_posts":"","rel_exclude_posts":"","po_bureau":false,"rel_bureau_related":"","tf_display_feat_image_on_related_content":true,"text_other_news_headline":"In Other News","wysiwyg_position_statement":"

Leading America’s foreign policy to advance the interests<\/strong> and security<\/strong> of the American people.<\/p>\n","rep_topics":[{"text_headline":"Travel Information","text_description":"What you need to know about international travel to and from the U.S.","rep_hyperlinks":[{"text_page_title":"Passports","url_page_url":"https:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/passports.html"},{"text_page_title":"Visas","url_page_url":"https:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/us-visas.html"},{"text_page_title":"Travel Advisories","url_page_url":"https:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/traveladvisories\/traveladvisories.html"}]},{"text_headline":"Scholarships Abroad","text_description":"Apply for academic, cultural, sports, and professional exchanges.","rep_hyperlinks":[{"text_page_title":"Find a Program","url_page_url":"http:\/\/exchanges.state.gov\/"},{"text_page_title":"Grants & Resources","url_page_url":"https:\/\/eca.state.gov\/organizational-funding"},{"text_page_title":"Education & Culture at State","url_page_url":"https:\/\/eca.state.gov\/programs-and-initiatives"}]},{"text_headline":"Exploring Our History","text_description":"Learn more about the history of the Department of State.","rep_hyperlinks":[{"text_page_title":"Diplomatic Reception Rooms","url_page_url":"https:\/\/diplomaticrooms.state.gov\/"},{"text_page_title":"Museum of American Diplomacy","url_page_url":"https:\/\/diplomacy.state.gov\/"},{"text_page_title":"Office of the Historian","url_page_url":"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/"}]}],"text_secretary_name":"Michael R. Pompeo","wysiwyg_secretary_title":"

United States<\/p>\n

Secretary of<\/em> State<\/p>\n","url_secretary_twitter":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecPompeo","text_secretary_twitter":"@SecPompeo on Twitter","link_secretary_biography":{"title":"","url":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/secretary\/","target":""},"link_remarks_collection":{"title":"Secretary Pompeo's Speeches","url":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/speeches-secretary-pompeo\/","target":""},"link_secretary_travel":{"title":"","url":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/travels-with-the-secretary-of-state\/","target":""},"img_secretary_image":149069,"ta_secretary_description":"Mike Pompeo was sworn in as the 70th U.S. Secretary of State on April 26, 2018. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President's chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President's foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.","group_featured_article":{"po_secretary_article_selector":{"ID":209400,"post_author":"185","post_date":"2021-01-11 18:20:36","post_date_gmt":"2021-01-11 23:20:36","post_content":"[bc_video video_id=\"6221990201001\" account_id=\"1705665025\" player_id=\"KSR9voLvh\" embed=\"in-page\" padding_top=\"56%\" autoplay=\"\" min_width=\"0px\" playsinline=\"\" picture_in_picture=\"\" max_width=\"640px\" mute=\"\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" ]\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Good afternoon, everyone.\u00a0 Thank you for the warm welcome.\r\n\r\nMichael, thanks for your leadership of this incredibly important institution.\u00a0 And Bob, congratulations on returning to the helm of VOA.\u00a0 I am truly happy to be here.\u00a0 I\u2019m honored to have been requested, and it\u2019s always fun to be with a fellow tanker too.\r\n\r\nI want to acknowledge the other the network chiefs who is with us today \u2013 Steve Yates of Radio Free Asia.\u00a0 Steve, where are you at?\u00a0 Nice to see you.\r\n\r\nAnd a note of appreciation too to the Voice of America journalists, staff, and to all those watching and listening.\u00a0 I\u2019ve sat down for interviews with many of you in the far corners of the world.\u00a0 They have always been a joy.\r\n\r\nAnd speaking of which too, I understand that this speech is being broadcast on TV, radio, on your website, social media, in more than 40 languages.\r\n\r\nHats off to the translators.\u00a0 I have no idea how anyone can translate my talking into Uzbek this quickly.\u00a0 That guy or gal deserves a bonus, Bob.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s great to have this opportunity.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been following the work of Voice of America for decades.\r\n\r\nAnd as Bob just mentioned, I started my career as an Army officer, patrolling the Iron Curtain \u2013 freedom\u2019s frontier in the 1980s.\r\n\r\nI couldn\u2019t cross into East Germany.\u00a0 I was serving in a little town called Bindlach.\u00a0 West Germans couldn\u2019t cross either.\u00a0 But your broadcasts, Voice of America broadcasts, could.\r\n\r\nMillions of men and women whose names we\u2019ll never know listened to you, often at their own peril.\u00a0 Their governments dealt only in lies, in propaganda.\u00a0 But VOA\u2019s listeners wanted the truth, and that\u2019s what you gave them.\r\n\r\nVOA\u2019s very first broadcast, in 1942 that Bob referred to, began with the \u201cBattle Hymn of the Republic\u201d along with this pledge, quote:\u00a0 \u201cThe news may be good.\u00a0 The news may be bad.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll tell you the truth.\u201d\r\n\r\nI love that.\u00a0 I always told my son \u2013 I\u2019ve told this story before \u2013 when he was growing up, I said, \u201cWork hard, keep your faith, and tell the truth.\u201d\u00a0 He mostly followed my advice, and it has served him and many of you, I know, well.\r\n\r\nYour mandate here at Voice of America is unambiguous: to be \u201caccurate, objective, and comprehensive,\u201d and to \u201crepresent America.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe mission of the USAGM is \u201cto inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s because expanding freedom and democracy are what America has always been about.\u00a0 You\u2019re the voice of American exceptionalism.\u00a0 You should be proud of that.\r\n\r\nThe world needs VOA\u2019s clarion call for freedom, now more than ever.\u00a0 I hear it wherever I go.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I wanted to talk about today.\r\n\r\nI tell audiences about American exceptionalism wherever and whenever I can, because it\u2019s true and because it\u2019s important.\r\n\r\nAmerica is good and great, and everyone who truly grabs our founding understands this.\r\n\r\nMichael and Bob have made studying this history their life\u2019s work.\r\n\r\nMany of you have made it your life\u2019s mission too.\u00a0 That\u2019s why you work here at Voice of America.\r\n\r\nWe were indeed the first nation founded on the central belief that all human beings are endowed with certain unalienable rights and that governments are instituted to secure those God-given rights.\r\n\r\nWe have always striven for a more perfect union.\u00a0 And goodness knows we don\u2019t always get it right.\u00a0 Therefore we need both pride and humility about our past and our present.\u00a0 We need the truth.\r\n\r\nBut it\u2019s very clear that when Americans have united around our founding values, be it in Philadelphia, at Gettysburg, at Seneca Falls, or during Martin Luther King\u2019s March on Washington, we have made good on our founding promise time and time again.\r\n\r\nNow, our adversaries try and claim otherwise.\r\n\r\nWhen the Chinese Communist Party attempted to exploit the tragic death of George Floyd to claim their authoritarian system was somehow superior to ours, I issued a statement, which read in part:\u00a0 \u201cDuring the best of times, the People\u2019s Republic of China ruthlessly imposes communism.\u00a0 But amid the most difficult challenge, the United States secures freedom.\u201d\r\n\r\nThere is no moral equivalence.\u00a0 This is a self-evident truth.\r\n\r\nIt is not fake news for you to broadcast that this is the greatest nation in the history of the world and the greatest nation that civilization has ever known.\r\n\r\nIndeed, I\u2019m not saying this to ignore our faults.\u00a0 Indeed, just the opposite; it is to acknowledge them.\r\n\r\nBut this isn\u2019t the Vice of America, focusing on everything that\u2019s wrong with our great nation.\u00a0 It\u2019s the Voice of America.\u00a0 It certainly isn\u2019t the place to give authoritarian regimes in Beijing or Tehran a platform.\r\n\r\nYour mission is to promote democracy, freedom, and American values all across the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s a U.S. taxpayer-funded institution aimed squarely at that.\r\n\r\nIndeed, this is what sets VOA apart from MSNBC and Fox News and the like.\r\n\r\nYou can give voice to the voiceless in dark corners of the world.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019re the voice of American striving.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019re the voice of American exceptionalism.\r\n\r\nYou are indeed the tip of freedom\u2019s spear.\r\n\r\nNow look, like many government agencies after the Cold War ended, our international broadcasters \u2013 well, they lost their way.\u00a0 Many of you know this.\r\n\r\nAnd there were, I am sure, many reasons.\r\n\r\nThe Soviet Union had collapsed.\u00a0 The Wall had come down.\u00a0 Names like Bin Laden and Zarqawi and Baghdadi weren\u2019t widely known.\r\n\r\nIn fact, many wrote that history was over.\u00a0 We allowed security protocols to lapse, and VOA lost its commitment to its founding mission.\r\n\r\nIts broadcasts had become less about telling the truth about America, and too often about demeaning America.\r\n\r\nIn 2013, one of my predecessors described the Broadcasting Board of Governors as, quote, \u201cpractically defunct,\u201d end of quote.\r\n\r\nLook, that\u2019s in part why Congress created the role of CEO of the USAGM on a bipartisan basis.\r\n\r\nAnd it is, again, why I am here today.\r\n\r\nI read that some VOA employees didn\u2019t want me to speak here today.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it was only a handful.\r\n\r\nThey didn\u2019t want the voice of American diplomacy to be broadcast on the Voice of America.\r\n\r\nThink about that for just a moment.\r\n\r\nLook, we\u2019re all parts of institutions with duties and responsibilities higher and bigger and more important than any one of us individually.\u00a0 But this kind of censorial instinct is dangerous.\u00a0 It\u2019s morally wrong.\u00a0 Indeed, it\u2019s against your statutory mandate here at VOA.\r\n\r\nCensorship, wokeness, political correctness, it all points in one direction \u2013 authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s similar to what we\u2019re seeing at Twitter, and Facebook, and Apple, and on too many university campuses today.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s not who we are.\u00a0 It\u2019s not who we are as Americans, and it\u2019s not what Voice of America should be.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s time that we simply put woke-ism to sleep.\r\n\r\nAnd you can lead the way.\u00a0 You all know.\u00a0 That\u2019s why you came here.\u00a0 There is a new dawn here at Voice of America.\r\n\r\nThe American public doesn\u2019t know this, but when Michael took office, some 1,500 employees \u2013 almost 40 percent of the workforce \u2013 had been improperly vetted, including many with high-level security clearances.\r\n\r\nVOA was rubber-stamping J-1 visas for foreign nationals, including some from communist China.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t be doing that.\r\n\r\nWe have plenty of Mandarin-language speakers here in America, and we are building, growing, teaching, educating more committed patriots, some of Chinese-American descent, who are amazing people.\r\n\r\nThe Trump administration team is working to fix these national security threats.\u00a0 We want to vet employees properly.\u00a0 We want to reorient VOA to its mission of truth and unbiased reporting.\u00a0 We want to depoliticize what takes place here.\u00a0 It\u2019s too important for the American people and for the world.\u00a0 Returning this organization to its charter and its charge to spread the message of freedom, democracy, and American exceptionalism.\r\n\r\nThis isn\u2019t about politicizing these institutions.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to take politics out.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s a pretty good feature story for whoever wants to write it up.\r\n\r\nAs Secretary of State, I am telling you all of this because I want the best for the people here and for this organization because you are vital to helping America shine light into the darkest places, with the power that only America can muster.\r\n\r\nGovernments like those in China, Iran, North Korea, they don\u2019t have the respect for the universal dignity of every human being in the way that America does.\u00a0 Indeed, that is what America was founded upon.\r\n\r\nThose regimes are anathema to everything that our nation stands for.\r\n\r\nWe \u2013 we know that government exists to serve people.\r\n\r\nThey \u2013 they believe that people exist to serve government.\r\n\r\nAnd VOA\u2019s work is vital.\u00a0 As I said before, you\u2019re the tip of freedom\u2019s spear.\u00a0 Every week, 278 million people listen to VOA in 47 languages.\r\n\r\nThere are Iranians who are listening to you, wondering if they\u2019ll ever be able to shed their Islamist shackles.\r\n\r\nThere are Moldovans and Ukrainians who want truthful reporting, not Russian disinformation and propaganda.\r\n\r\nThere are Chinese citizens who are tired of a regime that\u2019s done nothing but brutalize them since 1949.\r\n\r\nThere are Venezuelans who want to know the truth of the Maduro regime\u2019s corruption.\r\n\r\nThere are oppressed people all over the globe who still turn to America for hope.\r\n\r\nNow, I know many of you, especially those of you overseas, continue and have done heroic work.\u00a0 Thank you.\r\n\r\nI want to commend VOA\u2019s Hong Kong reporting team, which faced political intimidation, harassment, and attacks, but still got the job done.\u00a0 My highest praise.\u00a0 Well done.\r\n\r\nYou were behind the barricades with the freedom fighters, telling their stories.\u00a0 You\u2019re upholding VOA\u2019s finest traditions and continuing to be the voice of American exceptionalism.\r\n\r\nI also want to pay tribute to members of the other radio services who are here and listening.\r\n\r\nThe only Uyghur-language news service in the world is run by RFA.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ve told everyone who will listen \u2013 indeed, some who didn\u2019t want to \u2013 the truth about the CCP\u2019s atrocities against its own people in Xinjiang \u2013 the stain of the century.\r\n\r\nAnd you\u2019ve done so despite the fact that the CCP has jailed the relatives of at least six RFA journalists in Xinjiang\u2019s internment camps and continues to threaten you and your families simply for doing your jobs.\r\n\r\nYour work takes courage.\r\n\r\nPlease keep telling everyone who will listen what\u2019s happening in the toughest parts of the world.\u00a0 The world expects it, and America will be better off for it.\r\n\r\nI want to leave you with a quote that conveys why VOA\u2019s mission is so critical, before I take some questions from Bob.\u00a0 This quote\u2019s from a ways back.\u00a0 It\u2019s from George Washington.\u00a0 He said, quote, \u201cTruth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light,\u201d end of quote.\r\n\r\nWhen America brings truth to the world, we bring light.\r\n\r\nDon\u2019t forget that.\u00a0 It\u2019s what you do.\r\n\r\nMay God bless you.\r\n\r\nMay God bless the Voice of America.\r\n\r\nAnd God bless these United States.\u00a0 Thank you all.\u00a0 (Applause.)\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you, Mr. Secretary.\u00a0 Some of the questions I have for you were fielded from our division directors who wanted to also have their input --\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong>\u00a0 You bet.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 -- to get you to answer some of these.\u00a0 But let me begin with this one:\u00a0 \u201cThis isn\u2019t a commercial media.\u00a0 We can afford to tell the full truth about America and the amplitude of American life and all of its facets.\u00a0 In your many travels in your recent years, what would you judge as those parts of America that are least known by foreign audiences that we need to tell them about?\u201d\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah, it\u2019s a really good question.\u00a0 If I have a chance in a moment where we are away from the formal businesses, they\u2019ll often ask ambassadors or foreign ministers, \u201cWhen you were last in the States?\u00a0 What did you do?\u00a0 Where did you go see?\u201d\u00a0 The answer is always \u2013 almost always, \u201cI went to New York,\u201d \u201cI went to Washington,\u201d \u201cI went to San Francisco,\u201d or \u201cI went to Los Angeles.\u201d\u00a0 The adventuresome may have traveled all the way to Boston.\u00a0 Boy, that\u2019s not representative of all of who America is.\u00a0 I\u2019m from Kansas.\u00a0 There\u2019s a different \u2013 it\u2019s a different place in so many ways.\u00a0 It\u2019s engaged in different businesses.\u00a0 It\u2019s engaged \u2013 its government is different.\u00a0 Its people think about the world in a different way.\r\n\r\nI \u2013 these stories from places other than the coasts are important.\u00a0 And that extends to rural parts of South Carolina, to Appalachia, to folks who live up in Minnesota and along our northern border, along Canada.\u00a0 There are so many different facets of the United States that I think if you asked people around the world, they would only know this place we are here in Washington or maybe our financial center in New York.\u00a0 I hope that you all get a chance to tell those other stories.\r\n\r\nAnd I\u2019d add one last piece.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just geographic.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just where it is.\u00a0 You could find right here in Washington dozens and dozens of different stories about different pieces of the things, the institutions that make America so unique, so special, these things that our founders called the small platoons, our civic organizations, right.\u00a0 How many of you are members of the PTA, trying to help your kids\u2019 school be just a little bit better?\u00a0 How many of you participate in a church group on Wednesday evenings where you have your chili feed or you just gather?\u00a0 Those are important parts of American life that have made us so unique and so special, and I want people all across the world to see those things because those institutions form bedrock of our nation, and they can help their countries too.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you, Mr. Secretary.\u00a0 You\u2019ve made some very eloquent speeches about the relationship between American founding principles and U.S. foreign policy.\u00a0 How would you prioritize those fundamental rights, some of which you referred to in your remarks, when you, with the limited time with foreign heads of state, want to have a clear message?\u00a0 You\u2019ve been forthright on freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of \u2013 how do you prioritize those, or is the prioritization custom-made for the country you\u2019re addressing?\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Bob, it certainly does vary by where you are and the situation that you find that government in, and frankly the traditions of that country.\u00a0 The Unalienable Rights Commission led by Professor Mary Ann Glendon and Peter Berkowitz at the State Department was a great \u2013 it\u2019s a great report.\u00a0 It\u2019s 50 pages.\u00a0 I\u2019d urge you to go read it.\u00a0 You\u2019ll agree with some of it; some you may not.\u00a0 But what it tried to do was to take this human rights project from the 20th Century that has just fallen in \u2013 fallen away.\u00a0 It lost its capacity to understand the things that were contained in our founding about how human rights are formed.\u00a0 It had moved away even from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\u00a0 And what I wanted to do in that was to re-ground American foreign policy and how we thought about human rights, and I think the report captures it pretty well.\r\n\r\nYour point about religious freedom and the capacity to speak freely, two core rights that if a nation gets it wrong it will be less secure, it will be less prosperous, it\u2019s people will be less whole.\u00a0 And so we spent a lot of time talking about those issues around the world.\u00a0 We made progress in certain places; other places we\u2019ve not.\u00a0 But it\u2019s important that American leaders, not only the Secretary of State but all of us, acknowledge those shortcomings when we speak with foreign leaders and get them headed in that better direction for their people.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m proud of the work we\u2019ve done in this regard.\u00a0 These principles matter.\u00a0 Their execution and implementation is complex because foreign policy always is.\u00a0 There are competing priorities.\u00a0 But America can never walk away from those central principles and understandings.\u00a0 And we know the difference between rights-respecting countries and those that aren\u2019t, and we have an obligation to call each of them precisely what they are.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Now as you well know, we\u2019re at the cusp of a change in administrations.\u00a0 On certain foreign policy issues there seems to have formed a bipartisan consensus.\u00a0 For instance, perhaps China on both sides of the aisle is seen as the principle challenge to the United States today.\u00a0 Are there others \u2013 North Korea, Venezuela, Iran \u2013 on which of these do you expect some continuity with the new administration and where do you perhaps see what may come as the biggest changes?\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Look, it\u2019s an important question.\u00a0 Leaders always want to understand that when you make a commitment to them that it will survive.\u00a0 We have elections every two years here \u2013 federal elections.\u00a0 We have presidential elections every four years.\u00a0 Look, your point about the threat from the Chinese Communist Party I think is right.\u00a0 President Trump rightly identified this when he started campaigning back in 2015 as the singular threat to the centrality of Western thought in the world, the idea that we\u2019re going to have a rules-based system that respected property rights and human dignity.\u00a0 China is singular in the threat it poses to those things, and I do think there\u2019s a consensus there. \u00a0I\u2019ve worked with Democrats on many important issues, on issues in Hong Kong and issues as \u2013 I referred to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the atrocities taking place there.\u00a0 So I do hope that stays the same.\r\n\r\nI hope too, even in the Middle East, even where the previous administration had a different approach with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran, it\u2019s not 2015.\u00a0 What has taken place in the Middle East in these last four years, whether that\u2019s the efforts we have put to constrain the theocracy, the kleptocrats in charge in Iran, the work we have done with the Abraham Accords, the work that we\u2019ve done to recognize the fundamental understandings of Israel as a nation has a right to exist and its capital is in Jerusalem, it is the home of the Jewish people there.\u00a0 Now, those are things that I believe will be lasting because I think the people of those nations want them to last, and I hope that the next administration will continue to build on them in a way that continues to build out peace and prosperity among all the nations in the Middle East.\u00a0 I\u2019m hopeful that that will take place.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:\u00a0 <\/strong>I noticed over the weekend you signed a joint declaration with four other foreign ministers \u2013 Australia, the UK, New Zealand \u2013 regarding the recent arrests in Hong Kong.\u00a0 You also removed the restraints on high-level diplomatic contacts between the United States and Taiwan.\u00a0 And apparently the UN \u2013 U.S. ambassador to the UN will be in Taiwan soon.\u00a0 What do you expect to accomplish with this flurry?\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO: \u00a0<\/strong>Yeah \u2013 well, flurry, I find funny.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:\u00a0 <\/strong>I should have chosen another word.\u00a0 (Laughter.)\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Yes \u2013 but no, I get it.\u00a0 Look, I wish these things had been done a long time ago.\u00a0 These weren\u2019t rushed.\u00a0 These were considered efforts that we made and they\u2019re an important part of the strategy that we\u2019ve laid out with respect to how to protect and preserve American freedoms vis the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party presents.\u00a0 Look, one of the core problems \u2013 I gave some remarks where I talked about China and said no matter what it is they say, we must distrust and verify.\u00a0 And you referred to the arrest of the some 50 people in Hong Kong.\u00a0 The Chinese Communist Party made a promise to the people of Hong Kong and they walked away from it.\u00a0 The Chinese Communist Party has a commitment, that set of understandings we have with respect to Taiwan.\u00a0 We need to hold the parties accountable to those commitments as well. The Chinese Communist Party promised President Obama they wouldn\u2019t arm islands in the South China Sea, and they turned around and did it and there was almost no cost imposed.\r\n\r\nWe have attempted to deliver a clear understanding of the requirements that we have for the Chinese Communist Party and how it should behave that aren\u2019t, frankly, very different from what we expect of any nation with respect to how they interact with the United States.\u00a0 And we do that because we have a responsibility to preserve and protect security and prosperity for the American people.\u00a0 Our policy with respect to the Chinese Communist Party has furthered that and this will be a long challenge.\u00a0 The Chinese Communist Party has a clear intent for hegemonic dominance and we have an obligation and responsibility to the American people, and frankly to freedom-loving people around the world, to make sure that that is not the world that our children and grandchildren live in.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:\u00a0 <\/strong>It\u2019s interesting, in meeting with the division directors of Voice of America, how frequently in those meetings the name of China comes up.\u00a0 When I asked them what\u2019s on the horizon, what are you noticing, it\u2019s China.\u00a0 Latin America?\u00a0 China.\u00a0 East Africa?\u00a0 China.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not simply the Belt and Road Initiative, it\u2019s their information strategy, how they get affiliates in those regions of the world, how they feed them free stuff, and their \u2013 as you know, a whole-of-government approach.\u00a0 Now, the United States isn\u2019t whole-of-government, but Voice of America is here to do our part through our bureaus and through our reporting.\u00a0 What do you think we can do better to help highlight the dangers these things represent when seen together, rather than as a separative series of approaches?\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Bob, this challenge is, in fact, comprehensive.\u00a0 Our administration began by working on the economic side of this, right.\u00a0 The President placed tariffs on Chinese goods.\u00a0 He\u2019s tried to stop intellectual property theft, denying tens of millions of jobs in the United States of America, because they would steal our information, take it back to China, build it, and then dump it here in the United States.\u00a0 It\u2019s information; you talked about that.\u00a0 This is ongoing.\r\n\r\nTake the issue of the Wuhan virus.\u00a0 It has now \u2013 I understand the Chinese Communist Party is now going to permit the World Health Organization to go in and find out where this all began.\u00a0 But it took months and months of effort to do that.\u00a0 We are now more than a year on and we still don\u2019t have access to important information about how the virus began. It\u2019s important for health and safety and to make sure that something like this doesn\u2019t come out of China again.\r\n\r\nYour team can report these things. report these facts.\u00a0 Your point about it being a global phenomenon \u2013 I have a bureau, I have a China desk, I have an East Asia Pacific Bureau, we have an Indo-Pacific Strategy.\u00a0 But every one of my ambassadors and chiefs of mission understands that China presents a challenge in their country, wherever they may be, in Africa and Latin America, in Southeast Asia for sure.\u00a0 And our team on the ground is working to protect American security from the Chinese Communist Party in the country that they have been assigned to.\u00a0 I hope your reporters, no matter where they find themselves, if they\u2019re in South Africa or in Morocco, or wherever they are, observes the activities of the Chinese Communist Party inside of their country and how it impacts the people of those countries as well.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:\u00a0 <\/strong>If I may ask a last question, this one is more related to Russia:\u00a0 The United States seems to be shrinking its footprint in Africa.\u00a0 So is France.\u00a0 Russia is increasing its.\u00a0 Is this the result of a judgment on the part of the United States that disorder on the African continent is less of a problem or less of a threat to our interests, or how would you --\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong>\u00a0 So the forces \u2013 the disposition that the DOD has made has really been about the counterterrorism fight more broadly.\u00a0 How is it that we allocate U.S. resources to keep the homeland safe?\u00a0 So the decisions the President has made with respect to Afghanistan and the Middle East broadly, Syria \u2013 you talk about North Africa as well \u2013 has been to allocate the capacity of the United States to preserve and protect the homeland.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m always mindful and it\u2019s easy to write about if you just focus on troop numbers alone, if you say the United States used to have a thousand people, now they only have 800, or they used to have 800, now they only have 400, you may well be missing America\u2019s capacity to preserve and protect itself.\u00a0 I was the director of the CIA.\u00a0 I know the other tools and capabilities that we can bring.\u00a0 They are unseen.\u00a0 They don\u2019t get reported from the podium at the Department of Defense.\r\n\r\nBut the American people should know President Trump has been unambiguous about getting it right, making sure we put fewer of our young men and women in harm\u2019s way, but never giving up the responsibility we have to ensure that terrorism, or at least the risk that a terror act takes place and hurts Americans, whether they\u2019re here in the United States or elsewhere in the world as well.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Mr. Secretary, I can\u2019t thank you enough for gracing us with your presence today.\u00a0 It was very kind of you to make the trip and it\u2019s deeply appreciated by me and by everyone else here.\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 It was a pleasure.\r\n\r\nMR REILLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Please join me in a round of applause for the Secretary.\r\n\r\nSECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you all very much.\r\n\r\n(Applause.)","post_title":"Reclaiming America\u2019s Voice for Freedom","post_excerpt":"We were indeed the first nation founded on the central belief that all human beings are endowed with certain unalienable rights and that governments are instituted to secure those God-given rights.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"secretary-michael-r-pompeo-remarks-at-voice-of-america-headquarters-reclaiming-americas-voice-for-freedom","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-01-16 15:44:00","post_modified_gmt":"2021-01-16 20:44:00","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/?page_id=209400","menu_order":0,"post_type":"page","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"text_secretary_fa_display_headline":"Reclaiming America\u2019s Voice for Freedom"},"group_stats_module":{"hide_stats":false,"text_stat1_number":"76","text_stat1_label":"Countries Visited","text_stat2_number":"236","text_stat2_label":"Travel Days"},"text_policy_issue_title":"Policy Issues","rel_policy_issue_landing_pages":[{"ID":54502,"post_author":"91","post_date":"2019-04-12 15:44:57","post_date_gmt":"2019-04-12 19:44:57","post_content":"The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States over 200 years ago. Since then, a central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. <\/span>\r\n\r\nSupporting democracy not only promotes such fundamental American values as religious freedom and worker rights, but also helps create a more secure, stable, and prosperous global arena in which the United States can advance its national interests. In addition, democracy is the one national interest that helps to secure all the others. Democratically governed nations are more likely to secure the peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, protect American citizens, combat international terrorism and crime, uphold human and worker rights, avoid humanitarian crises and refugee flows, improve the global environment, and protect human health.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe United States uses a wide range of tools to advance a freedom agenda, including bilateral diplomacy, multilateral engagement, foreign assistance, reporting and public outreach, and economic sanctions. The Department of State works with democratic partners, international and regional organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and engaged citizens to support those seeking freedom.<\/span>\r\n\r\nRead more about what specific bureaus are doing to support this policy issue:<\/span>\r\n\r\nBureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL):<\/strong> DRL leads U.S. efforts to promote democracy, to protect human rights and international religious freedom, and to advance labor rights globally. <\/span>Read more about DRL<\/a><\/strong>","post_title":"Human Rights and Democracy","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"human-rights-and-democracy","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-30 22:44:48","post_modified_gmt":"2020-12-01 03:44:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/?page_id=54502","menu_order":155,"post_type":"page","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":54316,"post_author":"91","post_date":"2019-04-12 12:29:15","post_date_gmt":"2019-04-12 16:29:15","post_content":"[insert page='coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19' display='title']\r\n\r\nTo protect the American people, our home, and our way of life, the United States actively works to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. Outbreaks of infectious disease do not respect national boundaries. Halting and treating diseases at their points of origin is one of the best and most economical ways of saving lives and protecting Americans. The U.S. National Security Strategy and U.S. National Biodefense Strategy prioritize U.S. efforts to build global health security capacity. The United States leads internationally, collaborating with countries to invest in basic health care systems and address infectious diseases such as HIV\/AIDS, malaria, Ebola, Zika, and influenza.\r\n\r\nTwo offices at the U.S. Department of State focus on mobilizing international efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to global health security threats wherever they begin.\r\n\r\nOffice of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy (OGAC):<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOGAC leads and manages the implementation of the U.S. President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR has saved more than 17 million lives, prevented millions of new HIV infections, and accelerated progress toward controlling the HIV\/AIDS epidemic in more than 50 countries worldwide.\r\n\r\nPEPFAR\u2019s investments also strengthen the systems that drive effective, efficient, and sustainable health care, better enabling countries to address swiftly other current and future health challenges and improving global health security. PEPFAR exemplifies what is possible through compassionate, cost-effectiveness, accountable, and transparent U.S. foreign assistance.\u00a0<\/span>Read more about PEPFAR<\/a><\/strong>\r\n\r\nOffice of International Health and Biodefense (IHB):<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIHB is responsible for advancing foreign policy on international health issues, with a focus on protecting the United States from infectious disease threats. IHB leads State Department efforts on pandemic response, coordinating international activities in support of U.S. citizens and affected foreign populations.\r\n\r\nIHB also engages foreign governments, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society to build global health security capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases.<\/b>\u00a0Read more about IHB<\/a><\/strong>","post_title":"Global Health","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"global-health","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-30 22:45:02","post_modified_gmt":"2020-12-01 03:45:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/?page_id=54316","menu_order":794,"post_type":"page","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":54186,"post_author":"91","post_date":"2019-04-12 12:01:21","post_date_gmt":"2019-04-12 16:01:21","post_content":"The Economic Bureau (EB) comprises an extensive group of officers focused on building a strong U.S. economy that creates jobs and underpins national security. \u00a0A central element of that vision is the pursuit of free, fair, and reciprocal trade.<\/span>\r\n\r\nOur officers highlight economic considerations in policy formulation. \u00a0They build the relationships needed to expand commercial ties that drive American prosperity. \u00a0Our role in policy also extends to implementing sanctions against terrorists, human rights abusers, and corrupt officials. \u00a0The Department of State additionally works to <\/span>strengthen property rights and contract enforcement, competition policies, sound commercial law, and the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights around the world. <\/span>The Department\u2019s efforts aim to ensure that the United States remains the world\u2019s strongest and most dynamic economy.<\/span>\r\n\r\nRead more about what specific bureaus and offices are doing to support this policy issue:<\/span>\r\n\r\nBureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB):<\/strong> EB works to create jobs at home, boost economic opportunities overseas, and make America more <\/span>secure. It promotes a strong American economy by ensuring a level-playing field for American companies doing business around the world and attracting foreign investors to create jobs in America. Read more about EB<\/a>\r\n\r\nTrade Policy and Negotiations (EB\/TPN): <\/strong>The TPN staff \u2014 in the Bilateral Trade Affairs<\/a>, Multilateral Trade Affairs<\/a>, Agricultural Policy<\/a>, and Intellectual Property Enforcement<\/a> offices \u2014 works to open markets for U.S. products and services overseas and strengthen U.S. trade relationships around the world.","post_title":"Economic Prosperity and Trade Policy","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"economic-prosperity-and-trade-policy","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-30 22:45:10","post_modified_gmt":"2020-12-01 03:45:10","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/?page_id=54186","menu_order":115,"post_type":"page","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"text_countries_section_title":"Countries & Areas","rep_countries":[{"po_country":{"ID":1216,"post_author":"14","post_date":"2019-04-19 13:27:46","post_date_gmt":"2019-04-19 17:27:46","post_content":"","post_title":"China","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"china","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-12-22 11:33:33","post_modified_gmt":"2020-12-22 16:33:33","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/migration.statedeptredesign.hugeops.com\/?post_type=state_country&p=1216","menu_order":39,"post_type":"state_country","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"url_embassy_url":"https:\/\/china.usembassy-china.org.cn\/","text_call_to_action":"Learn More About China"},{"po_country":{"ID":1647,"post_author":"19","post_date":"2019-04-23 14:07:24","post_date_gmt":"2019-04-23 18:07:24","post_content":"","post_title":"Iran","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"iran","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-30 23:47:47","post_modified_gmt":"2020-12-01 04:47:47","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/migration.statedeptredesign.hugeops.com\/?post_type=state_country&p=1647","menu_order":81,"post_type":"state_country","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"url_embassy_url":"https:\/\/ir.usembassy.gov\/","text_call_to_action":"Learn More About Iran"},{"po_country":{"ID":1420,"post_author":"14","post_date":"2019-04-24 07:52:49","post_date_gmt":"2019-04-24 11:52:49","post_content":"","post_title":"Venezuela","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"venezuela","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-30 23:48:00","post_modified_gmt":"2020-12-01 04:48:00","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/migration.statedeptredesign.hugeops.com\/?post_type=state_country&p=1420","menu_order":193,"post_type":"state_country","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"url_embassy_url":"https:\/\/ve.usembassy.gov\/","text_call_to_action":"Learn More About Venezuela"}],"rep_trip_section":false,"hide_secretary":false,"biography_link_text":"","remarks_link_text":"","secretarys_travel_link_text":"","document_date":"August 16, 2018","hide_biography_link":false,"hide_remarks_link":false,"hide_travel_link":false,"parent_post_url_id":"","new_flex_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"new_content_item","content_type":"video","sel_position":"hero","po_article":null,"text_call_to_action_text":"Full Text","image_background_image":3104,"tf_has_video":false,"text_headline":"Determination of the Secretary of State on Atrocities in Xinjiang","url":"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/determination-of-the-secretary-of-state-on-atrocities-in-xinjiang\/","date_publication_date":"January 19, 2021","image_featured_image":false,"ta_description":"","group_video":{"sel_video_source":"brightcove","group_brightcove":{"text_brightcove_code":"6215257406001"},"group_youtube":{"oembed_youtube_url":"