‘Crazy person’: Chinese tabloid Global Times aims vitriol at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
- ‘Most hawkish of American hawks’ has become a threat to world peace, newspaper says in opinion piece picked up by state broadcaster CCTV
- Pompeo has ‘tainted the glorious role of the diplomat’, article says
Just days ahead of a crucial meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, China’s state media has ramped up the rhetoric by describing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the “source of all chaos” in international affairs.
The accusation was made in an opinion piece published on Tuesday by tabloid newspaper Global Times, which accused the official of being “crazy” and the “hawk of hawks” in his efforts to direct Washington’s foreign policy against China.
“As the US national strategy has taken the historical twist of adopting a cold war mindset, [Pompeo] has twisted this further for his own extreme ends … and become the most hawkish of all US foreign policy hawks,” it said.
“It is extremely rare for a world power to have such a crazy person as their top diplomat … He has become a person who threatens world peace, and adds fuel to flashpoints between countries with conflicts.”
While it is unusual for China’s state media to openly name the target of its vitriol, it was even more surprising that the Global Times article was covered by state broadcaster CCTV during its prime time news bulletin on Tuesday evening.
When featuring editorial pieces from other media, the station typically restricts itself to material published either by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily or news agency Xinhua.