Editor’s note: This is an excerpted translation of a Global Times editorial published on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been spreading malicious lies about China lately, aside from trying to mislead people around the world with unsubstantiated “intelligence”. Pompeo has painstakingly projected himself as a devout evangelist over the years, to the point he was publicly criticized more than once for inappropriately incorporating his personal faith into diplomatic exchanges with foreign entities. However, he seemed to genuinely enjoy such controversies and has gone so far as to routinely tell lies for political purposes — much to the detriment of his “devout Christian” image.
It is widely known that lying is strongly despised as a sin in Christian teachings.
Compared with Wuhan, where the local government was taken by complete surprise, the US had at least two months’ worth of necessary information to know very well what it was up against but managed to waste it all. If any government is truly guilty of cover-up it is the one in Washington
Did Pompeo lie? The answer is a resounding “yes”. For example, in an interview on Sunday, he claimed that there was “enormous evidence” proving the virus that causes COVID-19 came from a Wuhan lab. As many people already know it is just another product of pure speculation, one of many floating around since the infectious disease broke out. Some people in China and Japan suspect that many of the fatalities during the US flu season last winter were actually caused by the coronavirus. Such suspicions are shared by some Americans. Another popular theory suggests the “e-smoke pneumonia” which has led to a ban on vaping in some US states was COVID-19 being misidentified. Because this is all speculation no responsible government has subscribed to any of it. It is for top scientists around the world to find out where exactly the novel coronavirus originates, but so far most of them are convinced it is a natural pathogen. And no American researcher has shown the public any concrete evidence that it was “leaked” from a lab in Wuhan. Where and what is the “enormous evidence” Pompeo was talking about?
Pompeo constantly accuses China of concealing the severity of COVID-19. Initially, the health authority in Wuhan indeed failed to issue strong alarms, because it is a new virus after all, which took the experts a while to know better. When scientists around the world were still not certain the novel coronavirus had adapted to become transmitted among humans, it was not hard to see why the local health authority in Wuhan did not “jump the gun” on that conclusion. Meanwhile, many European and American governments displayed similar reluctance to take the new virus seriously in the beginning. The White House repeatedly ignored warnings from its own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and kept describing the risk of a global pandemic as “minimal” well into March. US President Donald Trump even claimed more than once it was “completely under control”. And that is why America did not take preventive measures such as mandating social distancing until it was clearly very late. On what grounds Washington feels comfortable to accuse China of a cover-up is beyond human comprehension. Compared with Wuhan, where the local government was taken by complete surprise, the US had at least two months’ worth of necessary information to know very well what it was up against but managed to waste it all. If any government is truly guilty of cover-up it is the one in Washington.
As a high-ranking US federal official who briefly led the CIA, Pompeo has to know what happened in Wuhan was not nearly as outrageous as what transpired in his own country. In fact, the US and most of its European allies found themselves in much worse situations than Wuhan was simply because of their own unjustifiable bias, especially in the US, where decision makers from the president down to many officials, legislators and mainstream media chose to indulge in their own systematic prejudice against China instead of appreciating and using every piece of information China has been sharing with the rest of the world since the very beginning. Anyone who is not blinded by any bias can see easily what really went wrong in the US. By accusing China of cover-up without a shred of evidence Pompeo is merely trying to fool fellow Americans and the public in other countries with more lies directly or through a sympathetic press.
By mud-slinging against China and insisting that Beijing should be held responsible for the outbreaks in the rest of the world and the US in particular, the likes of Pompeo are maliciously fueling anti-China sentiment. This is in an attempt to blur the line between general frustration and politico-legal liability based on verifiable and quantifiable evidence. This is more than in-your-face lies now. They are forcing the international community to accept and follow a preposterous logic of epic proportions that turns everything in international politics as we know it on its head.
Of course, Pompeo knows very well what has failed America so spectacularly — an ill-prepared central command and helplessly inadequate political structure bewildered by a constantly floundering, yet unapologetic White House. He is so dedicated to telling all sorts of lies, such as blaming China for all the mistakes his boss has made because he sees nothing worthier than that at this point, not even his Christian faith and basic human decency.
It took China some time to learn more about the novel coronavirus, but that did not prevent the country from informing the World Health Organization (WHO) of what it found out about it every step of the way. Records kept by the WHO show the first batch of information was sent to its headquarters on Jan 3. This is as timely as any disciplined member state can be under such circumstances. Now, more than four months later, Washington is saying China should have told the US everything in December, when nobody in Wuhan knew what exactly happened. Did the US government know something we didn’t?
Lies are usually driven by perceived benefit, and Pompeo wants to kill two birds with one stone in this case. First he wants to help Trump win re-election, which is crucial to his personal interest. Apparently he believes demonizing China will deflect at least some of the public anger toward the president over his failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic properly or decently. Then he has always been a massive China hater for the socialist path it has chosen to follow. And China’s peaceful rise in particular is absolutely unacceptable to him. Naturally it is a great pleasure for Pompeo to vilify China in whatever way he can, unless his boss tells him not to.
In the battle against the coronavirus, China has no doubt achieved overall success than otherwise so far. And we have not ruled out the possibility that the novel coronavirus indeed hit Wuhan first, even though this possibility also exists in other parts of the world, including the US, not to forget the fact that extensive studies are underway in many capable laboratories around the world that are bound to find more about the pathogen in the near future. China remains steadfast in trusting that honest scientific research will lead us to an inevitable conclusion about this virus. No matter where it originated the novel coronavirus does not recognize races or national borders. Politicizing the pandemic cannot and will not help or save the sick and dying, but Pompeo seems to believe he will profit from the impossible, which is why he has bet everything on it like any unconscionable politician would.
Pompeo has been telling lies in total disregard of his well-advertised “evangelical Christian” brand and, by doing so, has put numerous fellow Americans of the same persuasion to immense shame. He is not just a corrupt politician who has sold his soul to the devil but also an unrepentant traitor to his own religion. Pompeo is without question one of the self-advertised Christians we know today who routinely try to harm other people with all kinds of lies and relish the resulting pain they have inflicted.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
