Opinion | US-China relations: Pompeo speech shows few new ideas towards the ‘evil empire’
- US secretary of state’s recycling of the Reagan-era phrase shows some ideas are just too good to retire, especially in the absence of new ones
- Neither China nor the US appear to care what anyone thinks any more, leading to a perfect storm of distrust and failures of communication
Some speeches are unforgettable while others are hard to forget no matter how hard you try. Last week, the top US foreign policy official erupted on China in a speech for the ages, if not for war.
Its trendiest idea drew from 1983, when president Ronald Reagan denounced the “evil empire”, which was then the Soviet Union. Last week, Pompeo recycled this notion by evil-empiring China. It seems some ideas are just too good to retire, especially in the absence of new ones.
“If we don’t act now,” Pompeo said, “ultimately the CCP will erode our freedoms and subvert the rules-based order that our societies have worked so hard to build. If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party, whose actions are the primary challenge today in the free world.”
00:48
‘Frankenstein’ China requires more assertive global response, says US top diplomat Pompeo