Pompeo warns Xi Jinping is 'watching' how America is handling situations abroad

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Sunday that Xi Jinping is "watching" how America is handling situations abroad amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict and argued that if America does not help the Taiwanese people prepare to defend themselves, "this will only embolden" the president of China. 

Pompeo made the argument on "Sunday Morning Futures" during his first interview since returning from Taiwan and Singapore. 

He told host Maria Bartiromo that he believes the U.S. has been "behind" in helping Ukraine. 

"The Biden administration has been behind since last summer," Pompeo said. "We have known for months that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin was building forces and building capability. We should have been helping the Ukrainians build forces and capability, and we were too late, too slow, too small at every turn." 

He went on to say that "there is still enormous hesitation."

"Everyone in the Biden administration talks about, ‘If we do anything, there will be provocation,’" he continued. 

"My observation, I think the world can see is that what’s provocative is the weakness. What’s provocative is being behind. What’s provocative is letting Vladimir Putin drive the agenda and the mission and the timeline [as] the Ukrainian people want to stand up to defend their homeland, and we’ve let Vladimir Putin walk all over them with no response that was serious, timely and strong to give them the tools the Ukrainians needed to do that mission set."

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment. 

Pompeo made the comments as it was revealed by Ukrainian national police that an American journalist was killed and at least two others were wounded when they came under fire by Russian forces near the capital city of Kyiv as the conflict continued into its third week. 

He also told Bartiromo fear is growing that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be next if Beijing becomes emboldened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"Everybody knows they have never been part of mainland China, communist China. They don’t want to be," he continued. "We ought to be doing the things that we failed to do last summer for the Ukrainian people, we ought to be doing for Taiwan. The Trump administration did that. We worked diligently to provide weapons systems to the Taiwanese."

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Pompeo said the Taiwanese "are prepared to do the hard work themselves," but argued that Taiwan will "need support" from the United States, Japan and South Korea. 

"These southeastern Asian countries are all worried," Pompeo said. "They know Xi Jinping is watching."

He pointed to the final month of America's longest war, which was mired in controversy, eventually leading to a frantic evacuation effort from Kabul as the Taliban took over much of Afghanistan and closed in on its capital.

That chaos led to 13 American service members losing their lives during the evacuation effort after a bomb exploded near an airport checkpoint.

A recent report by Republicans on the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs places most of the blame for their deaths at the hands of senior leaders, while noting that the job of evacuating Afghanistan remains incomplete five months after the U.S. withdrawal.

Pompeo argued on Sunday that Xi Jinping watched "America abandon Afghanistan in such a disastrous way."

"He is watching the United States get rolled by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping is watching the things that America is prepared to do to help our friends and allies around the world," he continued. "If we don’t help the Taiwanese people prepare to defend themselves, this will only embolden Xi Jinping," 

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Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Michael Lee contributed to this report.