“They will have to back down, otherwise there won’t be any dealings with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party),” one former Trump administration official who still works for the US government and has been sanctioned told Reuters. The person spoke on condition of anonymity due to sensitivities around who might get jobs in a new Trump administration.
China’s embassy in Washington declined to comment.
“President Trump will put America first by selecting officials for his administration that he deems are best fit to serve the American people – whether China likes it or not,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Reuters.
SANCTIONS FOR “CRAZY MOVES”
In January 2021, China sanctioned 10 former Trump officials by name for “crazy moves” it said “gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs”.
In addition to Pompeo and O’Brien, China hit Trump’s top diplomat for East Asia David Stilwell, former White House economist Peter Navarro, and Keith Krach, an official who raised Beijing’s ire when he visited Taiwan in 2020, among others. Some, including former national security adviser John Bolton, have had public splits with Trump, making a return in a second administration unlikely.
China sanctioned another 18 people at the time without disclosing their identities.
Many of these helped implement Trump’s aggressive, if chaotic, approach to China, underscored by waves of tariffs that plunged the two countries into a trade war, and a declaration that Beijing was committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
Chinese officials are most openly antagonistic toward Pompeo, who visited Taiwan in 2022 as a private citizen and called for the US to recognise the island as a country, prompting Beijing to say the “former politician” bankrupted his credibility.
China claims Taiwan as its territory, and the issue is a red line in its relations with Washington.
Pompeo has suggested he would consider working in a second Trump administration. At the Republican National Convention in July, he said it was his “greatest honour” to have served under Trump and labelled China the United States’ “greatest threat”.
Pompeo and O’Brien did not respond to requests for comment.
