EVIL INTENT
MIKE Pompeo says China's Xi Jinping is a bigger threat to the world than Vladimir Putin - adding: "He wants to own you."
The former US Secretary of State said Xi's "vicious objective" is to achieve total dominance across the world.
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Pompeo was appointed CIA boss by Donald Trump in 2017 and was then his foreign policy chief for three years.
And in an interview with Sky News to be broadcast tonight, he reveals what he thinks about the dangerous tyrants he met.
He recalls meeting Putin, and claims he annexed Crimea after sensing weakness in the Obama administration.
Pompeo says: “I met with him. He's a bad guy. I looked in his eyes. I didn't see a soul. I saw evil.
"Make no mistake about it, he's a bad guy.”
But he reckons President Xi is much more of a threat.
He tells Sky's Beth Rigby: “He wants to own you.
“He wants hegemonic intent across the world with his Marxist-Leninist vision, and Chinese economic and political dominance in every corner of the world.
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“That his vicious objective. We have an obligation to the next generation to push back against it.”
Asked if Xi is more really dangerous than Putin, Pompeo replies: “Absolutely. Not even close”.
“Vladimir Putin has a very capable nuclear program, and an economy that is dependent on a single industry (oil and gas).
“And if we produce energy in America, that industry would be a lot less valuable to him.
“Xi Jinping is a different creature. The globe is dependent on him economically, he has 1.4 billion people.
“He has an economy that rivals the size of that of the United States of America, a highly capable space and military and cyber program. And that's the capabilities. And we have now also seen his intention.”
“Vladimir Putin, as much as he believes in greater Russia and going after all of Europe, he has no illusions about his capacity to dominate the world.
“Xi Jinping believes this is not folderol. He believes he's going to dominate the world.
“Those are two fundamentally different risks for our way of life in Europe, in the United States, in Asia, in the Middle East, everywhere.”
Pompeo goes on to claim the Trump administration "stopped Putin from invading Europe", and blame Joe Biden for the last year's invasion of Ukraine.
"He allowed the war to happen. The tragedy here is that this began," ex-Army captain Pompeo says.
And he believes the West was "too slow" to send arms to help Ukraine defend itself - which "gave Putin the green light".
He says: "We knew that this war was going to begin in September of the year before the attack, and we did nothing to deter and stop it.
"And it has resulted in the death of thousands of Ukrainians.
"Vladimir Putin is responsible for these deaths.
"But make no mistake about it, the West has been slow, and late, and fearful of escalation, and that's been a mistake.
"And so we should do our best to fix that today."
Pompeo also speaks of his regret on the failure of peace talks with Kim Jong-un, and the January 6 Capitol riots.
The full interview will be shown on Sky News at 9pm tonight.
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Meanwhile Pompeo has also published a memoir - which has been seen as his opening salvo of a bid to be US President.
He has also shed 90lbs since leaving office.
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