China says Peter Navarro’s fictional source shows that US makes ‘policies based on lies’
- Chinese government connects a White House adviser’s fake expert in his 2011 book to a Mike Pompeo comment about the CIA’s lying and cheating
- Seizing on Navarro’s made-up book source as evidence that the US smears China ‘without scruple’
The Chinese government has weighed in on news that US President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser faked a source in a book critical of Beijing, portraying the matter as evidence that Washington makes “policies based on lies” and pulling the US State Department into the controversy.
The revelation that Vara is fake “shows that out of personal or political hidden intentions, certain people in the US can do whatever they can think of to contain and smear China without scruple”, Hua said on Tuesday at a news conference with foreign correspondents in Beijing. “It is absurd and extremely dangerous to make lies, spread lies and even formulate policies based on lies.”
While declining to cite US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by name, Hua used a comment he made in an exchange with university students this year as proof that Washington employs falsehoods to “fuel” wars and garner support for its position on a range of global issues.
“We did hear the acknowledgement by a certain person in the US that: ‘We lied, we cheated, we stole. It is the glory of American experiment’,” Hua said, citing remarks Pompeo made in a question-and-answer session with students at Texas A&M University in April.