Former US Secretary of State and ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo said the Chinese Communist Party has been waging war against America for four decades - and the question "will there be a war" lost its relevance long ago.
Pompeo made the remarks in an interview with Natalia Moseychuk recorded on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, "Hvylya" reports.
"When people ask me if there will be a war - my answer is: it's already underway," Pompeo said. China steals American intellectual property, runs propaganda campaigns, wields political influence in Latin America and Africa, and conducts espionage inside the US and across Europe, he said.
When the journalist pressed him about a "hot war" like the one between Russia and Ukraine, Pompeo responded that the Chinese Communist Party has been carrying out military provocations for years: harassing Philippine ships, surrounding Vietnamese vessels, deploying its fishing fleet near Taiwan. "This is already a real military conflict," he stressed.
The former secretary of state warned that a full-scale war between the West and China "would be a catastrophe, a disaster for everyone." But preventing it, he said, cannot be achieved through appeasement or "trade delegations bowing to Xi Jinping."
"When you demonstrate weakness, you get what we see today in Ukraine: aggressors who think - this is my hour, this is my moment - and become even more aggressive," Pompeo concluded.
Experts note that China remains a "black hole" even for the world's top analysts. Meanwhile, Sullivan and McMaster warned that China will offer Trump a "deal" - but take Taiwan in return.
Also read Zeihan's analysis of why China's economy has only single-digit years left.