According to a draft of the speech, to be delivered Thursday afternoon, Mr. Pompeo says Chinese leader Xi Jinping is a “true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology.” Mr. Pompeo stops shy of explicitly calling for regime change, urging allied countries and the people of China to work with the U.S. to change the Communist Party’s behavior.
The Communist Party “fears the Chinese people’s honest opinions more than any foreign foe,” Mr. Pompeo plans to say in the speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The U.S. “must also engage and empower the Chinese people,” Mr. Pompeo says, according to the draft.