US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China poses a risk to ‘freedom-loving countries and democracies’ with its global expansion drive in his latest blast against the Communist superpower.
Pompeo said China had backed out of promises not to send warships to the South China Sea and ‘diminished’ the One Country, Two Systems policy in Hong Kong.
He said China’s actions take the dispute between the US and Beijing ‘far beyond’ coronavirus.
Speaking to right-wing news site Breitbart, he said: ‘What the Chinese Communist Party is doing, it goes so far beyond what’s happened in the time of this coronavirus.
‘I think the American people, and I hope people all across the world, understand the risk to the globe—to freedom-loving countries and democracies around the world—that are presented by the actions of the Chinese Communist Party.’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) said China (Chinese President Xi Jinping, right) poses a risk to ‘freedom-loving countries and democracies’ in his latest blast against the Communist superpower
China has significant influence over Asia, Europe and parts of Africa with seaports, roads and rail routes spanning miles
State Department IG fired by Trump was investigating Pompeo
By LAUREN FRUEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
The State Department inspector general fired by President Trump was said to have been investigating claims Mike Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog and pick up his dry cleaning.
Donald Trump announced the planned removal of Inspector General Steve Linick in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Friday night. That made him the fourth government inspector general to be ousted in recent weeks.
Trump announced late Friday that he was firing the inspector general, Steve Linick, pictured, an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of what it saw as political bias in the State Department’s management
Two officials have now told NBC Linick was looking into whether Secretary of State Pompeo made the staffer carry out personal tasks, including booking dinner reservations for the Republican and his wife.
Democrats demanded on Saturday that the White House hand over all records related to Trump’s latest firing of a federal watchdog, suggesting Pompeo was responsible, in what ‘may be an illegal act of retaliation’.
One White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: ‘Secretary Pompeo recommended the move and President Trump agreed.’
Trump’s adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday downplayed the firing of the State Department’s top internal watchdog, saying the ‘deep state’ has caused problems for the administration and those who are not loyal must go.
The top Democrats on the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees questioned the timing and motivation of what they called an ‘unprecedented removal.’
‘We unalterably oppose the politically-motivated firing of inspectors general and the President’s gutting of these critical positions,’ House panel chairman Eliot Engel and Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel, said in a statement announcing the probe.
The two Democrats said it was their understanding that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo personally recommended Linick’s firing because the inspector general ‘had opened an investigation into wrongdoing by Secretary Pompeo himself.’
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Linick had been fired but did not comment on the Democratic investigation or Pompeo’s role in the dismissal.
The agency said Stephen Akard, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, would take over the watchdog job.
Linick, who was appointed to the role in 2013 under the Obama administration, is the fourth inspector general fired by Trump since early April following the president’s February acquittal by the Republican-led Senate in an impeachment trial.
Pelosi called the ousting an acceleration of a ‘dangerous pattern of retaliation.’
Pompeo’s statements are the latest in a war of words between the two superpowers over their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first cases of which were reported in Wuhan.
The US has joined international demands for an independent inquiry into the handling of the disease with calls set to be made for a full probe as the World Health Organization holds its virtual assembly today and tomorrow.
The WHO is braced for heavy criticism from the US, with Trump having accused it of a ‘China centric’ approach to the pandemic and frozen funding.
Last month, Pompeo accused the Chinese Communist Party of not being transparent about spread of the coronavirus, claiming they had not shared samples of the bug ‘making it impossible to track the disease’s evolution.’
On Friday, China admitted that it destroyed early samples of COVID-19 at unauthorized laboratories.
Earlier this month, Pompeo said there was ‘enormous evidence’ that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.
His harsh words prompted a state-run Chinese newspaper to accuse him of betraying his faith.
The Global Times, a major Communist propaganda outlet, alleged that as a ‘devout Christian’, Pompeo had committed the sin of lying and suggested that he should be punished while the Chinese state broadcaster labelled him ‘evil’.
Today, China branded Trump, Pompeo and top trade adviser to the President Peter Navarro the ‘professional lying trio’.
In his interview with Breitbart this weekend, Pompeo said: ‘They’ve come at me too. All kinds of names.’
He added: ‘Those attacks demonstrate weakness, not resolve, by the Chinese Communist Party.’
Pompeo’s critiques echoed that of the Presidents in recent weeks as the coronavirus death toll in the US continued to soar, making the country the worst-affected in the world.
Donald Trump has insisted that Beijing recklessly concealed important information about the outbreak.
Trump claimed that he had seen evidence that coronavirus started in the Wuhan virology laboratory and warned he could impose tariffs of $1trillion on China in retribution for the pandemic.
And on Wednesday, the President said ‘the ink was barely dry’ on a trade deal when the ‘world was hit by the Plague from China’.
It comes as Pompeo remains embroiled in controversy over the State Department inspector general fired by President Trump.
Inspector General Steve Linick was said to have been investigating claims Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog and pick up his dry cleaning.
Trump announced the planned removal of Inspector General Linick in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Friday night.
That made him the fourth government inspector general to be ousted in recent weeks.
Yesterday, Pompeo warned China against interfering with American journalists working in Hong Kong.
In a statement, he said: ‘It has recently come to my attention that the Chinese government has threatened to interfere with the work of American journalists in Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, the President said ‘the ink was barely dry’ on a trade deal when the ‘world was hit by the Plague from China’
China has acknowledged it destroyed early samples of COVID-19, confirming a claim put forward by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late last month. A worker is pictured inside a laboratory in Wuhan, China
‘These journalists are members of a free press, not propaganda cadres.’
‘Any decision impinging on Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms as guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law would inevitably impact our assessment of One Country, Two Systems and the status of the territory.’
‘One Country, Two Systems’ is the arrangement under which Hong Kong was handed back to China from Britain in 1997, designed to guarantee rights and freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.
In February, China kicked out three journalists from The Wall Street Journal after the newspaper ran an opinion piece on the coronavirus crisis with a headline that Beijing deemed racist.
Weeks later, Washington curbed the number of Chinese nationals from state-run news outlets in the United States.
Beijing responded in March by expelling more than a dozen American journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
China’s foreign ministry also made the landmark announcement that these journalists would not be allowed to work in Hong Kong, even though the financial hub is nominally in charge of its own immigration policies.
The semi-autonomous financial hub is a major regional base for international media partly because it boasts certain liberties denied on the authoritarian mainland. In the past, foreign journalists expelled from China often relocated to Hong Kong.
The deputy director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department Zhao Lijian said in response: ‘We have said many times that Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs, and no foreign government organizations or individuals have the right to intervene.’
On Friday, it was reported in Chinese state media China is planning ‘necessary’ retaliation measures to punish the American politicians.
Liu Dengfeng (pictured), a supervisor with China’s National Health Commission, admitted that early samples of the coronavirus had been destroyed
Beijing’s sources stressed that the sanctions to be announced by the Communist Party ‘ will impact’ the upcoming US presidential election in November.
The punitive penalties will also be given to Missouri and ‘other US individuals and entities’ that have sued China over its perceived mishandling of the health crisis, reported the Global Times citing insiders.
Missouri filed a lawsuit against China last month, accusing it of ‘lying to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19’. Mississippi said a day later it was also preparing to sue Beijing for similar reasons.
Last month, the US deployed two ships for combined exercises not far from where a Chinese government survey ship, Haiyang Dizhi 8, was said to be operating. Pompeo said China had backed out of promises not to send warships to the South China Sea
The United States Navy announced that it has deployed the USS Montgomery (seen above on Friday) to a contentious area of the disputed South China Sea
China brands Trump, Pompeo and White House adviser Navarro as the ‘lying trio’ as it intensifies anti-US campaign due to coronavirus tensions
By BILLIE THOMSON and JEMMA CARR FOR MAILONLINE
China’s state TV has labelled US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro as a ‘lying trio’ as it steps up its rhetoric against Washington amid coronavirus tensions.
CGTN, the English arm of Beijing’s state broadcaster CCTV, accused the Trump administration of ‘spinning a web of coronavirus lies’ to dodge their responsibilities after failing to contain COVID-19 in the United States.
The news came as Pompeo warned over the weekend that China poses a risk to ‘freedom-loving countries and democracies’ with its global expansion drive in his latest rant against the Communist superpower.
CGTN blasted Trump, Pompeo and Navarro last Friday during an opinion show ‘Headline Buster’.
CGTN, the English arm of China’s state broadcaster, has attacked the Trump administration by calling Trump, Pompeo and Peter Navarro as a ‘lying trio’ amid escalating political tensions between Beijing and Washington. President Trump is pictured at the White House on Sunday
‘Over 80,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus so far, with over 1.4 million infected.
‘The US economy is in freefall. Unemployment is heading [towards] record highs and Americans are understandably upset,’ criticised the show’s Canadian-Chinese anchor Li Qiuyuan.
‘Now somebody’s got to take the fall, and Trump is bound and determined it’s not going to be him,’ she continued.
Ms Li then told her audience to look at what she referred to as the ‘facts’.
US Secretary of State Pompeo (pictured on May 6) warned over the weekend that China poses a risk to ‘freedom-loving countries and democracies’ with its global expansion drive in his latest rant against the Communist superpower. Chinese media called him ‘evil’ and ‘insane’
Peter Navarro, 70, has become one of the White House’s most prominent spokespeople, first over trade with China, and now as point man for procurement of essential supplies to deal with the coronavirus crisis. He is pictured preparing for an interview at the White House on Friday
She said: ‘Months were squandered between January 21 – when the US reported what was [at] the time thought to be its first case of coronavirus – and March 31 when Trump declared a national emergency and started talking or taking steps to fight the virus domestically.’
‘Trump, Pompeo, Navarro team up to debut as the “lying trio”,’ the station claimed on its account on Weibo, the equivalent to Twitter, while introducing the episode of the weekly programme.
The coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December before sweeping across the world. The pandemic has so far killed more than 315,000 people and infected over 4.7 million.
Li Qiuyuan, a Canadian-Chinese anchor, ripped Trump, Pompeo and Navarro one by one in an opinion show from Beijing. She is seen during the programme ‘Headline Buster’ on Friday
The coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December before sweeping across the world. The pandemic has so far killed more than 315,000 people and infected over 4.7 million. Pictured, patients wait at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan on January 24
The United States has been the country hit the worst by the disease, with more than 90,000 deaths. Chinese officials have reported 4,634 fatalities, but Western countries have expressed doubts over their virus figures.
Political tensions between China and the United States have erupted in the past few months due to the coronavirus pandemic as the two superpowers slam each other’s handling of the health crisis.
The US accuses China of covering up the full scale of its epidemic and hiding the virus’s origin. Trump and Pompeo have repeatedly used the phrases ‘China virus’ and ‘Wuhan virus’ to describe the pathogen.
China accuses the US of carrying out ‘smear campaigns’ and avoiding its responsibilities in containing the disease. A spokesperson also suggested that the virus was planted in Wuhan by the US troops.