Mike Pompeo has urged the UK to join the US in making "every effort to push back" against Chinese aggression at a meeting with the PM and Foreign Secretary today.

The US Secretary of State said there needed to be a "global coalition" of countries to keep China's power in check and welcomed the UK's "principled" decision to scrap extradition with Hong Kong.

After a meeting with Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, Mr Pompeo said today: "We want every nation to push back against the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) efforts in every dimension."

In a tirade against China, Mr Pompeo said: "You can't threaten countries and bully them in the Himalayas, you can't engage in cover ups and co-op international institutions like the World Health Organisation."

"We want to see every nation who understands freedom and democracy and values that and knows that it's important to their own people, their own sovereign country to be successful to understand this threat the CCP is posing.

"And to work both themselves and collectively to restore what is rightfully ours."

He accused China of "stealing American intellectual property" and reminded people that coronavirus originated in China.

He added: "We want every country to work against that kind of activity. It's not about language it's not about words.

"We hope we can build out a coalition that understands this and work collectively to convinced the CCP it's not in their best interests to engage in this kind of behaviour."

Mr Pompeo's anti-China speech struck a very different note to the PM's insistence yesterday he would not be pushed into a "knee-jerk Sinophobe" reaction on everything to do with China.

"What we won't do is completely abandon our relationship with China, China is going to be a giant factor in our geopolitics, we've got to have a calibrated response," Mr Johnson said yesterday.

"We're going to be tough on some things but also continue to engage (with China) on others."

The Secretary of State said he supported the UK's decision to refuse to extradite to Hong Kong after China imposed tough new national security laws on Hong Kongers.

Mr Raab said the pair discussed how the UK and US need to work together to make sure the global telecoms industry is more diverse after the Government decided to ban Huawei from Britain's 5G network.

Mr Pompeo said keeping Chinese state-owned Huawei out was essential to keep citizens private data safe.

A spokesperson for the PM said earlier today: "They spoke about shared global security and foreign policy issues, including China’s actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the situation in Iran and the Middle East Peace Process."

The U-turn decision to scrap Huawei came after heavy pressure from Mr Pompeo earlier this year to deny the Chinese state-owned telecoms giant access to Britain's networks.

Mr Pompeo said this afternoon he had had a "constructive visit" with the PM.

He said: "Our two countries' long-standing, strong bilateral relationship has laid the foundation for today's candid discussion on issues ranging from 5G telecommunication to our negotiations for a U.S. - UK free trade agreement."

In a statement to the House of Commons on UK-China relations, Mr Raab said: "Given the role China has now assumed for the internal security of Hong Kong, and the authority it is exerting over law enforcement, the UK will extend the arms embargo we have applied to mainland China.

"The Government has decided to suspend the extradition treaty immediately and indefinitely.

"We will not consider reactivating those measures unless there are clear and robust safeguards which are able to prevent extradition from the UK being misused under the new national security legislation.

"I will just say this the UK is watching and the whole world is watching."

Mr Johnson's spokesman said the US and the UK were still working towards a trade deal as negotiations with Brexit continued to stall.

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Mike Pompeo urges Britain to join US in ‘push back’ against Chinese aggression
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