Top US diplomat still unashamedly undiplomatic

The US Secretary of State is supposed to be the nation's top diplomat, but the current holder of the office, Mike Pompeo, is decidedly undiplomatic.

Pompeo's petty needling of China continues apace, even at a time when China is stricken with a tragic epidemic caused by a poorly-understood virus.

"We know that there are security issues here," Pompeo told his hosts on a diplomat trip to Kazakhstan. "A good example is what's going on with the coronavirus. You've got a long border with China, which is where this disease has emanated from."

He skirted around the issue of Kazakhstan's close ties with China with this disingenuous claim that the US fully supports Kazakhstan's freedom to choose to do business with whatever country, it wants."But I am confident, I am confident that countries get the best outcomes when they partner with American companies." Given the punishing diplomatic toolkit the US has at its disposal, "best outcomes" is a chilling phrase.

Speaking to the thorny question of religious repression in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Pompeo plays the saint, urging Kazakhstan to accept "those seeking to flee China. Protect human dignity, just do what's right".

Human dignity? Just do what's right?

This from a man who has admitted to targeted killing, lies, clandestine intrigue and dirty tricks around the world.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, fresh from orchestrating the assassination of Iranian general Qassim Suleimani, fresh from running shameless political interference for his boss, and fresh from the petty put-down and subsequent banning of an NPR journalist for asking tough questions, is now on the warpath with China.

"China is the central threat of our time," Pompeo announced smugly in London on Jan 29 on the first stop of a Eurasian tour in which he has criticized China every step of way.

At a time when the world needs to work closely with China to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, he is burning bridges, sowing discord and piling on the hate.

Armchair warrior Pompeo has no qualms about signing off on kill missions or kicking someone who is down, even if it's only a temporary stumble, if he thinks there is a strategic advantage in doing so.

Pompeo's incessant attacks and heated rhetoric on China have primed the global public, nervous about an unknown disease, to see China as the enemy. His speech is hate-mongering of the first degree and not something any true diplomat would be proud of.

Pompeo rashly stokes the flames of war in Iran and elsewhere in the Mideast, cosseting cruel autocrats in places like Saudi Arabia, embracing injustice, quashing underdogs.

Pompeo's right-hand man, Michael D'Andrea, is known "affectionately" within policy circles as the "Dark Prince" "the Undertaker and "Ayatollah Mike."

D'Andrea has a record of advocating the torture of prisoners, the dropping of killer drones and assassination. Even though a member of congress described D'Andrea as "a murderer" for his illicit work. Pompeo, while still at the Central Intelligence Agency, promoted him in 2017 to run Iran programs in a more "muscular" fashion.

The carnage continues. Pompeo helms the State Department in Foggy Bottom as if it were a cloak-and-dagger division of the CIA in Langley, Virginia.

Hypocrisy is not uncommon, perhaps even inevitable in high politics, but Pompeo has taken it to a whole new level.

He accuses China of the precisely the kind of abuse that his own administration is most guilty of.

The author is a media researcher covering Asian issues. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.