Pompeo will be destroyed by 'endless resistance' and end up worse than Steve Bannon, says Chinese state media
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's angry takes on China are nothing new. He has frequently locked horns with the Asian powerhouse since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic by blaming it for the planet’s suffering and the latter has also retaliated. Pompeo has also been vocal against China's recent confrontations with Hong Kong, Taiwan and India and now, China's state-run Global Times has hit back at him again, saying he will be destroyed by "endless resistance".
The 56-year-old Pompeo, who is a former CIA director and took over as President Donald Trump’s second secretary of state after Rex Tillerson in April 2018, called the Chinese consulate in Houston that was recently closed down as a "hub of spying". On July 23, Pompeo took a strong dig at Beijing in an address in California saying Washington will no longer accept the Asian power's efforts to usurp the global order. He said the US extended a friend’s hand to China’s citizens to only find the Communist Party there exploiting its free and open society.
Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of Global Times, hit back at the top American diplomat over his aggressive stance against the Chinese. In a tweet, he made a reference to former White House strategist Steve Bannon to attack Pompeo. He said: "Pompeo seems very ambitious and wants to create an epic confrontation between great powers to put himself in the history books. Unfortunately for him, he misunderstands the current world; endless resistance will destroy him, making him look even worse than Bannon in the end." Bannon, a controversial Trump aide, did not last even seven months in his position because of conflicts within the administration.
The journalist's criticism of Pompeo came on the same day Chinese officials accused him of declaring a "new crusade" against Beijing. China also shut down the American consulate in Chengdu as a retaliation against the Houston move. In an editorial on July 24, the Times said that China’s decision to order the consulate’s shutdown was justified.
"We believe in China that no one wants to see a free fall in China-US relations, but the latest reciprocal measure taken by China demonstrates that we won't indulge in the US provocations," it said, adding: "China will not flinch in order to safeguard its bottom line."
Also on July 24, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also targeted Pompeo by calling him an ant. She said in a tweet that the secretary of state’s apparent efforts to establish new relations between the two big powers are "as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree". "It’s about time that all peace-loving people around the world stepped forward to prevent him from doing the world more harm," Chunying said in reference to Pompeo’s speech on July 23. "China is increasingly authoritarian at home and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom everywhere else," Pompeo said, adding that China is a "new tyranny".
Pompeo has found an ally in Trump who has also slammed China time and again over the coronavirus pandemic and called it "China virus".