US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told a US Senate committee China is the "principal challenge" facing America and he cited Australia's new foreign interference laws as a rare example of a western ally responding to the Asian power.
Mr Pompeo, a day after attending AUSMIN in California with Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, Defence Minister Marise Payne and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC "the west, not just the United States" was too slow to identify China's global expansion.
Pompeo said he did not believe the west had the structures in place to comprehensively respond to China, but was buoyed by Australia's parliament passing new foreign interference laws last month.
"I was with our Australian partners yesterday at a meeting with Secretary Mattis, myself and our Australian counterparts," Pompeo told the hearing.
"They just passed non-interference rules on China.
"They are all getting up to speed in the same way you all look at CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) and FIRRMA (Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act).
"We are beginning to strike that comprehensive response versus China that I think will ultimately do what has historically happened - allow America to prevail."
America's blueprint for the region is expected to become clearer next Monday when Pompeo delivers a keynote speech at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Washington DC titled "America's Indo-Pacific Economic Vision".
Share
