Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is, according to the official Chinese narrative, an “enemy of humankind” practicing “highly venomous” diplomacy. He’s a “super-spreader” of a “political virus.” He’s a “rumor monger” with a “dark mind.”
This past week, the organs of the Chinese state have unleashed personal salvos against America’s top diplomat in a manner reminiscent of the way North Korea spoke about then-national security adviser John Bolton. (He’s “human scum,” according to Pyongyang.)
In response to Pompeo’s criticism of Beijing over the corona virus outbreak – including unsupported claims that the virus could have leaked from a Wuhan lab – China’s most-watched nightly news broadcast has devoted prime airtime to lambasting the secretary of state.
The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, has spent whole editorials attacking him. TV screens on Beijing’s subway have even been showing photos of Pompeo with “liar” stamped in big red letters across his face.
The tirades underscore the baleful state of relations between the world’s two superpowers.
China and the United States are not only battling in areas of competition, such as trade and technology, but also in areas where they should be cooperating, like combating the corona virus pandemic and planning in case the rumors about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un‘s incapacitation turn out to be true.
Some Chinese experts agree. “The bilateral relationship is arguably at its lowest point since 1972,” said Xie Tao, professor of international relations at Beijing University of Foreign Studies.
Pompeo is pressing China to allow inspectors into the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab that has previously done research on bat-related corona viruses. “The Chinese Communist Party tells us they want to be our partners. . . . There is a continuing obligation on the part of reliable partners to share this information,” he said Wednesday.
This comes on top of Pompeo‘s insistence on calling covid-19, the disease caused by the novel corona virus, the “Wuhan virus.” He refused to sign a Group of Seven communique unless it used the label.
Pompeo‘s hard-line approach toward China is not new. He has repeatedly castigated the nation over human rights abuses and suppression of religion, military expansionism and trade practices, and increasing encroachment on Hong Kong’s semi-autonomy.
But the pandemic and the need to find a vaccine against it has not led to an outbreak of cooperation. It has created more friction, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Source :The Nation Thailand
