Even if we come up short with a definitive answer, what we're going to have is a foundation for additional revelations to come out from scientists around the world who are now going to be emboldened because they know that this is a priority of the United States.

Matthew Pottinger

I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign. That's where I knew that I was leaving that day.

Matthew Pottinger

Assembling dossiers on people has always been a feature of Leninist regimes, but Beijing’s penetration of digital networks worldwide, including using 5G networks… has really taken this to a new level.

Matthew Pottinger

It's a worthy objective to try to drive a wedge between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, but at this point they're basically Siamese twins, you're not going to be able to pull those guys apart. This is a ten-year effort to stitch themselves to one another—driven primarily by Xi Jinping personally—to make Vladimir Putin his junior partner in a new axis.

Matthew Pottinger

I commend the Biden administration for calling that out, for using intelligence and making intelligence public, i think the Biden administration is handling that correctly.

Matthew Pottinger

So, the Party now compiles dossiers on millions of foreign citizens around the world, using the material that it gathers to influence, target, intimidate, reward, blackmail, flatter, humiliate, and ultimately divide and conquer.

Matthew Pottinger

Well, look, I think what slowed down efforts more than anything else were the early statements that were published by a few scientists dismissing the idea that it could have come out of a lab, and in fact, caricaturing people who thought that it might have come out of a lab.

Matthew Pottinger

Well, you know, there are political mistakes that lead to, to, you know, trouble in government. And then there are institutional shortcomings.

Matthew Pottinger

I think we can, it might take more than 90 days, but look, if this thing came out of a lab, there are people in China who probably know that.

Matthew Pottinger