good morning everyone
good to see you all uh i want to start
today
uh talking about multilateralism the
trump administration wants
multilateral institutions to function to
actually work but multilateralism just
for the sake of it just to get together
in a room and chat
doesn't add value that brings me to the
international criminal court
a thoroughly broken and corrupted
institution
the united states has never ratified the
rome statute that created the court
and we will not tolerate its
illegitimate attempts to subject
americans to its jurisdiction
in june the trump administration
authorized the imposition of economic
sanctions against
foreign persons directly engaged in icc
efforts to investigate u.s or allied
personnel
and those who materially assisted in
those
in that effort today we take the next
step
because the icc continues to target
americans
sadly pursuant to executive order 13928
the united states will designate icc
prosecutor fatou bensouda
and the icc's head of jurisdiction
complementarian cooperation
division pakiso mochichuko
for having material assisted prosecutor
bensouda
individuals and entities that continue
to materially support those
individuals risk exposure to sanctions
as well
additionally state department has
restricted the issuance of visas for
certain individuals
involved in the icc's efforts to
investigate u.s
personnel on the multilateral front
further i look forward to seeing my
asean indo-pacific counterparts next
week at a host of virtual meetings
we'll have discussions that will be
wide-ranging
including uncovered north korea south
china sea hong kong
and burma's rakhine state
i'll also raise how the trump
administration is restoring reciprocity
to the u.s china relationship and today
we continue that necessary work
for years the chinese communist party
has imposed significant barriers
on american diplomats working inside the
prc
specifically the chinese communist party
has implemented a system of opaque
approval processes
designed to prevent american diplomats
from conducting regular business
attending events securing meetings and
connecting with the chinese people
especially on university campuses and
via the press and social media
today i'm announcing the state
department has established a mechanism
requiring approval
for senior chinese diplomats in the
united states to visit university
campuses and to meet with local
government officials
cultural events with groups larger than
50 people hosted by the chinese embassy
and council of posts outside our mission
properties
will also require our approval
additionally we're taking further steps
to ensure that all official
prc embassy and consular social media
accounts are properly identified
as government accounts chinese
government accounts i have david
stillwell our assistant secretary of
east asia pacific affairs with me today
he'll take questions
we're simply demanding reciprocity
access for our diplomats in china should
be reflective
of the access the chinese diplomats in
the united states have
and today's steps will move us
substantially in that direction
further on china under secretary crock
sent a letter recently to the governing
boards of american universities
alerting them to the threats the chinese
communist party poses
to academic freedom to human rights
and to university endowments these
threats can come in
the form of illicit funding for research
intellectual property theft
intimidation of foreign students and
opaque
talent recruitment efforts university
governing boards can help ensure their
institutions have clean
investments and clean endowment funds by
taking a few key steps
disclose all prc companies investment
and invested in endowment funds
especially those
in emerging market index funds divest
from chinese companies on a commerce
department entity list
that are contributing to human rights
violations military
coercion and other abuses
and simply understand the
recommendations issued by the
president's working group on financial
markets which examine the risk to
investors
of chinese companies that are listed on
u.s stock exchanges
staying on china but moving beyond our
borders we're hoping for a peaceful
resolution of a situation on the
india-china border
from the taiwan strait to the himalayas
and beyond the chinese communist party
is engaged in a clear and intensifying
pattern of bullying its neighbors
that bullying is also evident in the
south china sea last week the united
states imposed sanctions and visa
restrictions
on chinese individuals and entities
responsible for the ccp's imperialism
there
doing things such as unlawful energy
surveillance activities in the economic
zones
for ally the philippines and other
countries
we also remain concerned talked about
this before the activities more than
300 chinese flag vessels near the
galapagos
which are almost certainly engaged in
illegal fishing
in light of this maritime lawlessness
it's no surprise that beijing's
candidate
in the international tribunal for the
law of the sea election last week
received more abstentions than any other
candidate china is the most flagrant
violator of the law of the sea
convention
and nations all across the world are
registering their disapproval
we're also concerned about chinese
actions in tibet in light of the general
secretary's
recent calls to synthesize tibetan
buddhism and fight splitism
there we continue to call upon beijing
to enter into dialogue with the dalai
lama or his representatives without
preconditions
to reach a settlement that resolves
their differences
we're also tracking the situation in
belarus closely deputy deputy secretary
began traveled there
uh last week at my direction belarusians
deserve the right to choose their own
leaders through a truly free
and fair election under independent
observation
we demand an immediate end to the
violence against them and the release of
all who are unjustly detained
and that includes u.s citizen vitali
shirishikov
we're closely coordinating two with our
transit landing partners and are
together reviewing significant targeted
sanctions on anyone involved
in human rights abuses and oppression
turning to the middle east where i just
got back
from a productive trip and where we have
senior officials there today
the region is changing rapidly thanks to
president trump's leadership
building up ties between israel and its
neighbors
the abrahamic courts are clear proof of
just that
so is the first ever direct flight from
tel aviv to abu dhabi which took place
this week in the first direct
flight between israel and sudan which i
was honored to make during my trip
additionally at every stop i urge my
counterparts to stand
united against the islamic republic of
iran's threats to the region
which leads to my next point forty years
ago
forty years ago this month the iranian
regime arrested nine members of the
baha'i national spiritual
assembly of iran no one has heard from
them
sadly we must conclude that these nine
individuals met the same fate
as the more than 200 other iranian
baha'is who who have been executed for
peace
peacefully practicing their faith
we asked the international community
when will iran's regime be held
accountable
for those crimes in africa we welcome
the news that sudan's civilian-led
transitional government initiated a
historic peace agreement with several
opposition groups that's good news they
suggested to me when i was visiting them
that would likely occur
good on them and here closer to home in
the western hemisphere the united states
candidate mauricio clever caron
is the right person for the presidency
of the international development bank
the vote currently scheduled for
september 12th should not be a delay
that should happen
that day and on venezuela 34 countries
have now joined the growing list
the growing international consensus in
favor of a transitional government
more and more nations know that the
fraudulent national assembly election
scheduled for
scheduled by manure for december 6th of
this year will neither be fair
fair nor free we also call on free and
fair elections in haiti as soon as
technically feasible
and with that i'm happy to take a
handful of questions today
uh okay let's start vivian
i wanted to ask you about your decision
to address the rnc from jerusalem
there was guidelines sent to state
departments staff uh
advising against participation in any
partisan politics and so
um what message does that send to the
men and women of the state department
also obviously
the house foreign affairs committee has
has raised this issue as part
of its uh complaint against you and so
if you can address all those issues
all i can say in my role as secretary of
state uh i did this in my
personal capacity all i can say in my
role as secretary of state is the state
department reviewed this
was lawful and i personally felt it was
important that the world hear the
message
of what this administration has
accomplished christina
thank you um u.s government china report
uh military china report came out
yesterday
it said that uh china intends to double
its nuclear
warheads by in the next 10 years
and grow its global and naval presence
how do you think the u.s and its allies
should respond and what do you think is
the most alarming trend
of china's military so what was in that
report yesterday doesn't come to
as news to anyone who's been following
this issue for
the past years this administration is
the first one that has truly called out
the chinese communist party for this
military aggression this build-up that
has undertaken and then of course
responded to it we've done a number of
things first
presidents put the largest defense
budgets in american history
in front of congress and they've passed
it 700 plus a billion dollars
two years running so we're making sure
that america has the tools it needs to
respond to any threat including
threats that emanate from the chinese
communist party uh second
on particular pieces of this i'll give
you an example
the nuclear weapons we have implored the
chinese to be part of our strategic
dialogue
we've we've suggested it's in their best
strategic interest it's our best
strategic
it's in the world's strategic interest
to reduce the risk from these
most dangerous weapon systems and uh
where
productive conversations with the
russian on this very if the chinese
communist party is serious about
participating
on the global stage and being a nation
of size and scale that is part of this
community
then it has an obligation when you build
out a nuclear arsenal with the kind of
missile testing
more missile tests in china last year
than i think all western nations
combined
if you're if you're going to be serious
you have to you have to use those in a
way that is consistent with how
nations undertake their obligations
under the nuclear proliferation treaties
all those obligations written unwritten
signed and unsigned
and then they should enter in these
strategic conversations well we want to
make sure that the
the risk of using those weapons systems
in particular
is diminished and we we stand ready to
have them join this conversation with
the questions i hope that they will
thank you a deputy to president order
gun just said that washington
partial lifting of arms sell to cyprus
will agitate
the conflict in the eastern or the
mediterranean how do you respond to that
and how do you
assess turkey's influence in the middle
east and on lebanon sir if i can
um the french president just wrapped a
visit to beirut he met with all
political leaders yet we have assistant
secretary david schenker
in beirut and he did not meet with any
political leaders
is this a message and are you
coordinating with the
french on any initiative so as for
lebanon we're certainly in close
conversations with the french we shared
the same objective
uh ambassador hale was in beirut several
weeks back now he met with
a number of political leaders the
objective is the same
business unusual in lebanon just is
unacceptable i think president macron
said the same thing
uh this this has to be uh a government
that can
conduct significant reforms real change
it's what the people of lebanon are
demanding
and the united states is going to use
its diplomatic presence and its
diplomatic capabilities to make sure
that we get that outcome i think
the french share that i think the whole
world frankly sees the risk look the
the risk there's you in the face missile
systems precision guide missions that
the hezbollah
holds in the south we all remember the
history of lebanon everybody disarms but
hezbollah
this is the challenge that is presented
and so those
people who are either part of that or
are playing ftse with hezbollah
should know that that's not productive
it's not what the people of lebanon want
and it's not what the regional security
situation demands so i'm confident that
the united states the french and all of
us who are working there on the ground
both
uh to meet the immediate needs and the
result as that that flowed from the
explosion that took place now several
weeks back as well as the longer term
challenges that are presenting 11 and
we'll all work on it
together you asked yes about the
decision we made yesterday announced
yesterday with respect to cyprus
it's been a long time coming we've been
working on this for an awfully long time
uh we we know that this uh decision was
announced in light of
heightened tensions in the eastern
mediterranean but we thought it was the
right thing and so i made the decision
we would move forward with it on the
timeline that
our decision was reached president
trump's been
in conversations with president erdogan
he's spoken to the prime minister in
greece
we're urging everyone to stand down to
reduce tensions and begin to have
diplomatic discussions about
the conflicts that exist there in the
eastern mediterranean the security
conflicts the energy resource conflicts
the maritime conflicts they need to sit
down and have conversations about this
and resolve this diplomatic it is not
useful to
increase military tension in the region
uh only only negative things can flow
from that i'll take a couple more
okay hi um how do you justify the us
not joining the who led kovacs effort
to provide a vaccine globally when more
than 170 other countries have joined
there is no nation that has been or
will be as deeply committed to
delivering vaccines all around the world
as the united states of america not just
in terms of dollars we will dwarf
every nation in terms of the financial
resources the goodness of the
american people uh to give
our money to make sure that these
vaccines are delivered all around no
nation will match us it
won't even be close but it is also
imperative that when we do that
we need to just do so in a way that's
effective it's not political
that it's a science based and what we
have seen demonstrate from the world
health organization that it is not that
yes it's a question on mexico
u.s energy groups have written letters
to you and others in the administration
expressing concerns
about developments in the energy sector
in mexico they complain about
the lack of legal certainty investors
rights
for u.s companies in mexico taken by
actions taken by the mexican government
what is the trump administration willing
to do to defend u.s interest in mexico
in the
energy sector and has this been risen to
the presidential level
your most important i'm familiar with
this issue we we want american companies
to have the opportunity to invest down
in mexico it's what the
usmca was designed to achieve we think
there's been real progress there
but make no mistake we've been clear
this isn't about
you talked about what we do to defend
american interests down there
this is in mexico's best interest it's
in mexico's best interest to have
american investment the technology that
is brought to develop mexican energy
resources to benefit the people of
mexico and so
we're in constant conversations with the
mexican government about this certainly
at every level of the united states
government it's important
we think this cooperative set of
agreements that was reached between the
united states can and mexico can deliver
on those outcomes in a way that nafta
never could so we'll continue to work
on that challenge thank you thank you
all have a wonderful day
to talk about uh the if there's an
escalation at the indian chinese border
the lac
where does the united states stand there
uh and uh it also says uh
the chinese foreign ministry has come up
with a statement saying that the u.s
role in
cause for tibet um is the cause for
tibet uh how do you respond to that
for the uh conflict in the himalayas uh
like all things
especially uh related to the prc's uh
differences of opinion with its
neighbors is we advise them
to return to dialogue resolve these
things peacefully without coercion use
of force that
that applies to uh the many conflicts
that are going on
in china's periphery right now you
mentioned tibet
xinjiang very concerned still about what
they're doing there
hong kong activities south china sea i
could go on and on
what we've seen since the since the
corona outbreak from wuhan is it seems
the prc is trying to take advantage of
the situation
and india i think is one of those uh
examples of that so
you know to our friends in beijing i
would ask them to follow their
commitment to resolve these things
through peaceful means and dialogue
just to follow up in case there's an
escalation uh will
the u.s share intelligence with india
will will they assist india will defer
defer that question to
others who are more closely uh related
to the indian party
nick thanks for doing this um since we
have you can you just explain why you
think
this move that the secretary announced
is is necessary and as you know
as a former military man there are
service members
pensions that also have chinese
companies in them and if you could
address that
and then just while we have you on
taiwan is there
support from the department of state on
a free trade
agreement and those talks and uh did
taiwan's recent easing of beef and pork
uh imports ease shall we say some
internal opposition
uh maybe outside this building to those
talks
great questions on the taiwan question
especially on the trade aspect i
will gladly defer to ustr on that one
however we did announce though that um
under secretary crock would begin
a economic dialogue with the with taiwan
to look for those areas
as you saw we moved the tsmc chip
manufacturing into arizona or we're
moving
in that direction which is great news uh
both for the us and for taiwan so
we're early on in this this this new
position but it's very welcome decision
out of president tsai
uh to remove one of those last uh
obstacles uh as far as tsb
uh you you heard the secretary mention
again a letter from keith crockett
universities to
better understand what your money is
going into where your endowments are
being funded and understand about the
need for transparency on those things as
you know
uh chinese companies uh in in investing
in the us
are not subject to the same audit
restrictions that any other company
and then when we tell the chinese that
they do need to submit themselves
subject themselves to those
requirements they complain that they're
being treated unfairly somehow and so
uh you know let's as they say you know
make truth uh seek truth through facts
let's clarify all this and make the
words
in the reality match finally on the um
the announcement the secretary has made
about reciprocity
this is not new we've been doing this
since last nov october as you remember
we asked the chinese diplomats
to notify us about their travels to all
these locations
see governor's mayors school boards all
these other things that we know they're
doing
and we did that in an effort not to
reduce the
relationship interaction but to get them
to understand that we are going to
insist on getting this relationship back
in balance because it is clearly
way out of balance and balance to me
equates to stability
and that uh the instability in this
relationship causes
all of us concerned we're taking steps
to fix that thanks
thank you for being here to answer our
questions so as you know the chinese
pretty much always respond in kind
whenever
the u.s places sanctions or some sort of
new restrictions
uh so what are you anticipating this
time and can you give us a sense where
this is all leading
and are you already starting to prepare
some particularly stiff sanctions
to be enforced after september 20th
since they've made it clear they will
not
uh go along with u.n sanctions
on iran let me talk to the uh
the anticipated prc response
um i depend on on you all i mean i mean
that sincerely
uh to help people understand that what
they're doing
uh is grossly out of proportion to our
simple desire
to reap to balance this this
relationship and and so
we have seen we've seen both we've seen
sometimes where they have
understood that this was long overdue
and there's been no response and
especially in terms of media they have
taken
some very unfortunate steps of late and
they continue to
do things to media in the prc especially
those reporters
who understand what's going on those
with language skills and those who
investigate issues they would rather not
the world not
know finances of elites
got new york times and bloomberg in big
trouble when i was out there in 2011
2012.
uh most recently the wall street journal
published a
a very balanced op-ed that was titled
sick man of asia
and that they bounced two americans in
an australian for that
and so if there's concerns about
reciprocal
uh what they call reciprocal uh
retaliation is a better word
um let's make sure we paint a very clear
picture of what is
what they're what they're doing what
that real balance looks like you know
there's 150
or more chinese diplomats here they're
chinese state media folks who work for
the
ministry of propaganda here in the us
operating you know without restriction
and there's only a handful of american
journalists left in china right now
let's let's paint that picture so
everyone understands what we're talking
about
thanks um can you comment on the
possible
impact of china blocking the export of
artificial intelligence
and its fallout with the possible sale
of the american branch of tick tock
and also are you concerned about the
announcement that there are going to be
um increased coveted tests throughout
hong kong apparently there's concern
among activists that this would be used
for
dna collection to your your second
question
i can't speak to what the intentions are
in hong kong i have noted
folks in hong kong are having they have
concerns
as you would imagine both your questions
are related because they deal with
information
uh and china's collection of that for an
analog though i would point you back to
before we had the so-called vocational
training centers the
the uyghur internment camps we had mass
genetic testing and it was it was masked
it was
portrayed as health checks for uyghurs
and so they were collecting dna on
uyghurs under the guise of doing health
checks so the
given that example i think the hong kong
people are rightly concerned
and then as far as tick tock and ai
again i'm not an expert on tech but i do
know that information
is the new currency it's like oil it's
it's something everybody
can use and needs and all that but in a
country
that does run uh under the
auspices of rule of law i think people
can trust that their information will be
used for
good things and not for nefarious
outcomes you know the prc doesn't have
that reputation we know what they do
with information
uh they target individuals with it if
it's the greatest
state security apparatus anybody's ever
seen anybody's been there
every street corner not just one camera
it's got like eight on every corner and
so
we we know that we use facial
recognition all those things to
affect your social credit score to uh
affect your ability to get a job or
put your kids into school so i think the
hong kong people are right
rightfully concerned
just to try and uh uh get to tick-tock
specifically i know that
there's only so much you can say but you
know as kim mentioned
the chinese changed the export rules
over the weekend
and it seems that may stop a sale
to a u.s company do you believe that the
chinese are trying or do you believe it
will
stop a sale to a u.s company in the
sense that the new rules essentially
require bite dance the parent company
uh to seek approval first
i think there's two forces at play here
obviously uh the chinese desire to
prevent the u.s from
protecting itself by making sure that
this
software operates i mean we're not the
first ones remember uh india led off
with this with and i think they're over
60 right now
uh apps uh that are not available for
use in india for the right reasons
i will point to the irony though of the
ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson
using twitter to say it's on it's
completely out of bounds for the us to
block
uh you know apps chinese apps in the us
on our own twitter accounts but
uh all that is to note that um
again i can't speak to the exact details
but there's an economic versus security
balance here
that that we all have to deal with and
allowing the sale would allow you know
the profits and and all that to continue
whereas uh blocking the sale obviously
there's a financial loss but
for the chinese that should hopefully
dampen their
uh their decision um
thank you very much for doing this call
um just to go back to the
potential of the taiwan deal
if the administration were to move
forward with that what kind of backlash
would you anticipate from the chinese
regime on that
against the second question about
chinese response that
it's all about beijing's decision matrix
but
you know our job is to obviously think
through what those are and anticipate
them
and if you look at the language from the
three communiques and the taiwan
relations act the announcement we made
earlier this week
the economic relationship cultural
exchanges all those things are
fully allowed that there's nothing that
prohibits those things
and so they should there should be no
lash back you know the
uh the efforts to increase prosperity
between the two countries
should have no effect
i'm kim i'm from the jtvc south korea
the tv news channel uh let me ask about
north korean issue so you state
department issued
in this industry advisory on north korea
ballistic
missile procurement yesterday yesterday
i'd like to know the background of it
have you find any specific signals such
as
north korea trying to export their
techniques or
is it just a warning people is a warning
comment broadly on north korea can i
leave that to the special representative
steve beagan
and alex wong you definitely pose the
questions if you want specifics on that
but i would note that
uh this administration has uh done more
like
my first tour as a military guy in korea
was in 1981.
i've been you know involved in this for
quite a long time and this
administration has gone far further
uh than any other in taking strong
actions to let north korea know
that they're going to have to negotiate
they can't just sit back
and threaten and launch and all things
they've been doing and so this is
another step
in that direction is to demonstrate to
north korea that there is a brighter
future for your people
but you're going to have to you know
step up and negotiate and and talk about
these things rather than
remain isolated
[Music]
you on the phone yeah i have a question
about the cyber security threat from
north korea
so a few days ago uh the u.s government
issued several advisors against the
north korean cyber threat so
how do you assess north korean cyber
threat in the way
i think we all remember the sony
pictures hack from 2014
um that was operation deny christmas for
me and my family
we spent every day thinking through that
one that it is a
clear threat as you know a lot of those
cyber actors
are operating in other places in a
dispersed manner
uh getting at this is going to be uh
difficult
um you know we're again i'll defer
to the folks in homeland security and
who deal with cyber threats specifically
but again there's strong evidence that
they do operate in that in that regard
and the goal i find is to get currencies
to get funding to continue with
missile procurement and the rest so the
the quicker we can
slow or stop that the better off we'll
all be safer
so you probably bet you're best
qualified to answer it
my question is that we are a little bit
confused on the u.s position
on annexation of the west bank because
mr kushner says one thing
mr netanyahu says one thing and the
secretary had not really clarified it
so can you explain to us your position
on annexation is it
you know as a result of the
normalization between
uae and israel has it been put off
indefinitely uh
i i have to look exactly at what we what
we said but i believe
that the government of israel um and uh
and uh the secretary and kushner when we
talked about the abraham accords
uh said that it had i think the word
that we had used is postponed
um haven't given a a timeline
but would just say that you know we
still fundamentally believe the vision
for peace that we put out in
february i think it was uh is the right
vision for peace for the middle east
and we've seen by the first agreement
between arabs and israelis in 25 years
that this is
um the the positive way forward that we
hope for
everybody in the middle east uh israelis
palestinians and we hope the palestinian
leadership
will come to the table and so we will
see
we're making progress and it was as the
secretary said earlier
it was quite an honor and experience to
be on the first flight last week
the first non-stop flight from israel to
sudan so that was a great moment okay
thanks saeed
thanks everybody have a great day
