Former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration “was wildly soft” when dealing with communist China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted on Friday.

Pompeo told the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN):

Relative to this administration, they were wildly soft. It wasn’t just trade. It was during the previous administration that the Chinese Government began to arm the South China Sea, something that General Secretary Xi [Jinping] said he would not do. The previous administration didn’t respond. It allowed them to continue to develop their capacity to move their People’s Liberation Army [PLA] – excuse me – People’s Liberation Navy out and around in the South China Sea. That was the kind of things that the previous administration permitted, and this administration has worked very hard to turn that around and make sure that everywhere there was an American interest we strongly protected it.

In early 2018, the U.S. military warned that China’s “impressive military buildup” over the previous years could soon enable the PLA to challenge America’s military dominance “across almost all domains” in the Indo-Pacific region, home to the South China Sea.

This month, the presumed Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, argued that Americans are paying the price for Trump’s failure to hold China accountable over the coronavirus pandemic.

An ad disseminated by the Biden campaign argued that Trump was too soft on China. The ad recycles several false claims, including that the former VP urged the Trump administration to send American health experts into China, but the president refused.

Responding to the ad’s criticism, Pompeo told CBN:

First, this president and this administration worked diligently to work to get Americans on the ground there in China to help to the World Health Organization [W.H.O.] try to get in there as well. We were rebuffed. The Chinese Government wouldn’t let it happen, indeed just the opposite of transparency. They kicked American journalists out and denied access to American and other Western scientists at the time that it was frankly most critical that we understand what was going on there. My second thought is: I’ve seen the difference in how this administration relates to the Chinese Communist Party. The previous administration allowed China to walk all over us and gain trade, great opportunities, create wealth and trade benefits for China. This president has taken fundamentally a hundred and eighty degrees different approach with respect to how we respond to the challenge that China presents to American security.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has also linked Biden to corruption affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In recent months, the Trump administration has repeatedly lambasted China for hiding the extent of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic during the early stages of the virus, a move that slowed the world’s response and allowed the deadly and highly contagious disease to spiral out of control.

Pompeo has condemned China for launching a coronavirus disinformation campaign to sow panic in the United States. Beijing has denied downplaying the coronavirus threat and promoting disinformation

On Thursday, the secretary of state told Fox News that anger at China is justified, adding that he is “very confident that the Chinese Communist Party will pay a price” for allowing coronavirus to spread.

The Trump administration is also investigating whether or not the disease currently plaguing the world originated in a lab in China’s Wuhan region, the birthplace of the coronavirus.