Follow 'Western rule set' for nation building: Pompeo advises China

Washington D.C. [USA], June 23 (ANI):US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that China has illegally claimed territories in the South China Sea, threatening vital sea lanes. He advised Beijing to follow the "western rule set" for building their nation. 

"I hope that the Chinese Communist Party will begin to recognize that if they want to rise, if they want to continue to build out their nation, that they need to do so on a Western rule set that honors the rule of law and honors freedom and respect for sovereignty," said Pompeo in a video message last week. 

"The PLA has escalated border tensions. We see them today in India, the world's most populous democracy. We watch as its militarises the South China Sea and illegally claiming more territory there, threatening vital sea lanes," said Pompeo.

"The Chinese Communist Party decreed an end to freedom in Hong Kong violating an UN-registered treaty and the rights of its citizens, one of many international treaties that the CCP has violated," Pompeo said on the recent developments in Chinese activities across the region.

Pointing to China's discrimination and forced detention of Uighur Muslims in its northwest province of Xinjiang, Pompeo said General Secretary Xi Jinping has "green-lighted a brutal campaign of repression against Chinese Muslims-- a human rights violation scale we haven't seen since World War 2".

The Pompeo's remarks comes at a time when India and China are holding military-level talks to defuse the border tensions after the violent face-off in Ladakh's Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives. Indian intercepts have revealed that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured. (ANI)