US-China relations: Chinese state media steps up attacks on ‘fact-twisting’ Mike Pompeo
- Piece running to 33,000 words defends Beijing’s policies towards Xinjiang and Hong Kong and rejects a series of ‘false’ claims about China
- Pompeo has been singled out for denunciations in recent months as relations between the two sides deteriorate
China has stepped up its attacks on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with a 33,000-word article printed in official state media.
The article headlined “Pompeo’s fact-twisting China speech versus the truth” by state news agency Xinhua was given three full pages in the official Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Tuesday.
It was published in both English and Chinese by state broadcaster CCTV and Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with People’s Daily.
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State media has consistently attacked Pompeo as relations between the two countries have deteriorated over the past two years.
The article quoted Pompeo’s past speeches on China, making a point-by-point rebuttal of 26 criticisms, that also included accusations over the origin of the coronavirus and the charge that China was taking advantage of the US over trade.
The main focus was a speech the US secretary of state made at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library late last month, which called for free societies to stand up to Beijing and said the policy of engagement had failed.
Each of Pompeo’s quotes was followed by the word “False!” and then a more lengthy defence of Beijing.
For example, it responded to his comment “the United States is a beacon of freedom for people all around the world, including people inside of China”, by arguing that was “no more than an illusion that deceives both its people and the world”.
The article included 15 references to Xinjiang and 41 to Hong Kong as it sought to counter accusations of human rights abuses and undermining the city’s autonomy and freedoms.
In response to Pompeo’s accusation that China was setting up concentration camps in Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million Muslims have been detained, the article said: “There are no so-called ‘oncentration camps in Xinjiang, and its vocational education and training centres were established in accordance with the law.”
The article also rejected Pompeo’s claims that there were “massive imbalances in the US-China relationship” and “Chinese trade abuses sucked supply chains away from America”.
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It argued that the US was responsible for threatening global trade by trying to forcibly “decouple the Chinese and American economies”, repeating its line since Donald Trump launched a trade war in 2018 by slapping tariffs on Chinese goods in an effort to close a trade deficit Washington says stood at US$419.2 billion that year.
The article also highlighted domestic and international opposition to the Trump administration, quoting a survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations that said “only one third of people across the world acknowledge the United States’ leading position”.
It also cited a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research in July that found 80 per cent of Americans believed the country was heading in the wrong direction.
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