Pompeo, you must be joking about Hong Kong and China

When it comes to undermining the autonomy of other countries, and mistreating and killing Muslims, the US secretary of state and his band of merry hypocrites should look at themselves in the mirror

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo: AFP

Alex Lo

Alex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China.

Published: 9:05pm, 8 Jan 2020Updated: 8:48pm, 9 Jan 2020

Listening to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lecture China about human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong is beyond comical. Has this guy no sense of decency or at least irony?

Don’t get me wrong. Beijing does have a lot to answer for, but not to people like Pompeo or the legion of hypocrites in the White House and US Congress. Sadly, many Hong Kong protesters don’t know the first thing about the United States and the vileness of its foreign policy.

Speaking at a Washington press conference, Pompeo said Beijing must respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and called on the international community to condemn China over its “brutal treatment” of Uygur Muslims.

This is Mr Assassination talking. According to a report in The New York Times, America’s top diplomat “was the loudest voice in the administration pushing President [Donald] Trump to kill Iran’s most important general”.

The killing of Qassem Soleimani may push the Middle East into another major war. But I thought political assassinations were illegal under United States laws. Well, apparently, you shouldn’t do it with poison-tipped umbrellas or a bullet to the head.

But somehow, it’s not assassination if it’s done by a pilotless drone, which was what killed the general and his entourage. But actually, those nefarious methods tend to kill just the targets, whereas drone bombing gets a lot of innocent bystanders too.