Pompeo on Moving 2022 Winter Olympics from China: 'We'll Have to Take a Look at That'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday weighed in on the possibility of moving the 2022 Winter Olympics from China as a result of the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Although Pompeo is “focused on today,” he said he will “have to take a look” at moving the Olympics as a way to punish the Chinese Communist Party which he said “has fallen too short” of being a civilized nation.

“We’ll have to take a look at that,” Pompeo told Hugh Hewitt of “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” “I’m really focused on today. But Hugh, you do have to go back to other things that the Chinese Communist Party has committed to. They promised there’d be one country, two systems in Hong Kong, and yet they have expanded their repression there. They’ve promised that what was going on in the west, in Xinjiang, wasn’t harming the Muslim population, the Uighurs there in the west. We know what’s taking place. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe. Xi himself in the Rose Garden promised that they wouldn’t arm islands all across the South Pacific. They’ve done that. They’ve put significant weaponry there. And this is a country that the whole world needs to ensure that we watch what they do and not what they say. They want to be a great power. They want to join the community of civilized nations. To do that, you have to be open, you have to be transparent, you have to tell the truth. That’s our expectation of the Chinese Communist Party. And it has fallen short of that too often.”

He added of China’s leadership, “There is enormous frustration, and not just with this incident, but with the growing challenges presented by a Chinese Communist Party that appears intent on failing to live up to its international obligations. I don’t know precisely what that response will be. But the time for accountability will come. And when we do that, we need to do it in a way that reflects the full scope of the problem set, not just what has occurred as a result of this pandemic, but the full problem set that it has presented.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent