Former State Secretary Pompeo warns China will use AI against the US

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned that China will use artificial intelligence (AI) against the U.S. He made the warning during a Feb. 4 interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. According to the former official, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will use AI to comb through huge libraries of personal data using Chinese technology and mobile apps. It will then weaponize the information against the U.S. in order to gain the lead in the race for supremacy.

Pompeo’s warning came as a response to a question by Bartiromo regarding sanctions on Chinese companies imposed by the Trump administration. She asked the former state secretary if President Joe Biden should keep these restrictions or lift them altogether. “[The CCP] will use that information … [and] use artificial intelligence to gather it up. And then they will turn around and tell us that if we don’t act in a way that’s consistent with what the [CCP] wants, they will impose real costs on the U.S.,” Pompeo said.

He replied in the affirmative when the Fox News host asked if the information could be used for blackmail. Pompeo remarked that the data illegally obtained from Americans “will be used for bad intent, … to harm the U.S.”

The former state secretary elaborated that China uses technologies in both the U.S. and Europe that can be found in common items such as cars, television sets and mobile phones. Information gathered by the Chinese regime included people’s addresses, social circles, medical conditions and even genetic data. “That information goes back to the Chinese national security state,” he commented.

Former President Donald Trump penalized a number of Chinese technology firms during Pompeo’s tenure as secretary of state. Telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE were among the companies sanctioned by the Trump administration. Pompeo explained that the sanctions “were put in place to protect the American people from these twin evils,” referring to the two Chinese companies.

Pompeo was one of the vocal anti-CCP officials in the Trump administration

The former state secretary was among a group of Trump administration officials sanctioned by the Chinese regime over their tough stance on China. He shared with Bartiromo his efforts to warn U.S. allies of the CCP’s deceptive nature, advising a “distrust but verify” approach. Pompeo commented that the Chinese regime has consistently broken its promises over the past 20 years.

Pompeo said he spent a lot of time traveling the world and talking to leaders in Europe, Asia and South America to warn them about China. “I spent a lot of time reminding them that while China might show up with a little bit of money, the intent behind that was to create leverage and power. [Other countries] ought not to join an idea that is anti-Western [and] anti-democratic,” he continued. (Related: China exploiting Caribbean nations to build military and missile bases that can threaten the continental United States.)

As of writing, the former Trump administration official has been warning of the CCP’s domestic infiltration. He claimed the Chinese regime is working to influence federal, state and local levels of power to do its bidding.

Pompeo wrote in a Feb. 3 tweet: “Not only has the CCP destroyed millions of American jobs, but [it’s] behind the gates … lobbying members of Congress [and] working our school boards and city councils to try and change our way of life. We, along with our allies, must take the China threat seriously.”

Back in September 2020, Pompeo said in an interview with Fox Business host Lou Dobbs that Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in schools nationwide would be closed by the end of the year. Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms are cultural exchange programs that have come under scrutiny for their role in promoting the CCP’s espionage and propaganda efforts.

“I think that everyone’s coming to see the risk associated with them and the recruitment of spies and collaborators inside of these institutions,” he told Dobbs. (Related: SAT test maker touts ties with Chinese Communist Party-funded Confucius Institutes.)

He also mentioned at that time that the U.S. government will address China’s theft of American intellectual property developed at educational institutions. “In the coming days and weeks … the U.S. [will] confront this in a very serious way. [This includes] students [from China] that are studying here [who] are part of this network,” Pompeo stated.

Visit CommunistChina.news to read more about the CCP’s use of technology against the U.S.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com 1

Video.FoxBusiness.com

Twitter.com

TheEpochTimes.com 2