BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Amid the worsening pandemic situation in the country, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recently earned himself more public exposure, but in a rather disgraceful way.
The top diplomat in Washington said on Sunday there is "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, though he has failed to give any.
Tracing the origin of the virus is a serious scientific research and needs professional proofs. Many scientists around the world have demonstrated that the virus originates from nature.
For example, Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Translational Institute in the United States, said in his latest study that the coronavirus "is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus."
Pompeo's remarks are full of empty words. When China was in the depth of the outbreak, he announced on several occasions that the United States will earmark 100 million U.S. dollars to assist China and other countries affected by the virus. However, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told a press conference on April 3 that China "has not received a cent" from the U.S. government.
It seems that this Washington's top diplomat has a history of issuing rubber cheques. In recent years during his visits to Ukraine, Africa and other parts of the world, Pompeo frequently promised that his country would help local infrastructure investment and construction, but most of those promises turned out to be lip services. Even U.S. media mocked him for "lying about his lies."
Pompeo's remarks are full of cliche. By accusing China of setting up "debt traps" in developing countries, and slandering certain Chinese high-tech companies as security threat to the world almost everywhere he went, Pompeo has been spreading those so-called "China threat" theories like a repeater.
However, facts speak louder than words. No African countries have complained that their cooperation with China has led them into the alleged "debt traps." Instead, their trust in deepening cooperation with China has been growing. In the field of high-tech cooperation, some European countries such as Britain and Spain have adopted a relatively objective attitude towards Washington's accusations, and expressed their willingness to provide a level playing field for Chinese enterprises.
As the epidemic in the United States becomes ever more serious, Pompeo and other like-minded Washington politicians' intention to employ those disinformation to shift blame for the White House's botched pandemic response and to stigmatize China could not be clearer.
Pompeo's reckless verbal bullying against China has provided nothing useful for the world's anti-virus fight, and will not change the broad international recognition of China's achievements in the pandemic fight and its sincere assistance to those who need help.
Pompeo is giving away his most basic rationality to political paranoid. He is becoming one of the most destructive forces on the world stage. And his lies and demagoguery have damaged the credibility of the United States.
Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Post, wrote recently that "Pompeo's pandemic performance will ensure his place among the worst ever." That is perhaps the most impartial comment the top U.S. diplomat can get. Enditem
