Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said reports that a Chinese gene company was collecting the DNA of pregnant women displays the communists' goal of world dominance.
Reuters reported Wednesday that BGI Group, formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute, was selling prenatal tests developed in collaboration with China's military, and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women internationally for sweeping research on the traits of populations.
"The Chinese Communist Party is no longer capable of surprising me," Pompeo said Thursday on "The Interview with Hugh Hewitt" podcast.
"Everything that their government does is connected to the military. And everything that comes under the face of their private sector is connected to that government and that military."
Pompeo, considered a potential contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said news about the BGI Group's prenatal tests shows China is "trying to figure out how to create how traits follow genetics."
"We know this history of Communist parties and totalitarian regimes," Pompeo said. "They are big. They are capable. It's not just this prenatal testing. I talked about it with respect to the data collection that TikTok was engaged in and tied to their military apparatus.
"This is a broad-based effort to collect information, to collect data for the benefit of a regime that has the intent on global hegemony."
Pompeo then said: "This is another example of the Chinese Communist Party that is going to use every tool that they have in their power to create what they view as this Middle Kingdom, this all-important, all-powerful entity that emanates from Beijing, that the world must rise up to stop it."
Pompeo also spoke about Russia, another country where the government rules with an iron fist.
The former CIA director said recent Russian ransomware hackers likely had connections to Russian officials.
"It is important and reasonable to hold the Russian government accountable for the actions that take place inside of the country," Pompeo said. "I suppose it's possible these are rogue operators. My experience both as CIA director and Secretary of State indicate there are deep connections to Russian intelligence services and the Russian government that are often connected to these Ransomware attacks we’re seeing.
"The Russian government has the capacity and the responsibility to push back against them."
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden said he would "deliver" a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the latest ransomware attacks targeting American businesses.
"I’m not particularly interested in what [Biden] says. I'm very interested in the responses that the United States government takes," Pompeo said. "It doesn’t necessarily have to be responses that the American people know about, but these need to be serious.
"This is just like any other attack on the United States of America. We need to impose real costs on the decision makers that have the capacity to deter this. This is an attack on America, and the American government has the responsibility to deter and impose costs until that deterrence takes effect."
Pompeo said Biden’s recent meeting with Putin in Geneva failed to deter the Russians.
"President Biden says he drew a red line," Pompeo said. "It’s not the red line. You have to enforce it, but it is more important is to make sure that we communicate clearly and then demonstrate that we’re prepared to impose real costs on the Russians until they change this behavior."
Pompeo added that the right message needs to be sent.
"You have to make clear to them you can’t do these kinds of attacks and ask for $10-$15 million dollars and allow American businesses and American workers to suffer at the hands of these Russian rogue actors," he said.
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