Flailing kicks of a dying horse will be of no avail

During the four years of the Donald Trump presidency, the US administration has left no stone unturned to undermine China. The administration and its beneficiaries, and biased media outlets have not missed even a single opportunity to smear China.

As the top diplomat of the US administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been spearheading the anti-China campaign. He always finds an excuse, even if lame, to slander China and the Communist Party of China, without realizing that people laugh at his gaffes and absurd comments against China.

With the incumbent US administration committing one blunder after another vis-à-vis economic and anti-pandemic measures, and strengthening of ties with the international community, it is no surprise that Pompeo has given diplomacy a burial and resorted to blaming China for every problem the United States faces, in order to cover up the failures of the administration. He has spared no efforts to raise doubts over China's success in largely containing the novel coronavirus at home.

First, Pompeo tried to propagate a conspiracy theory that China developed the virus in a lab. But his efforts failed, as scientists around the world categorically ruled out such a possibility.

Second, he took upon himself the ludicrous task of making the world believe that China has concealed the actual numbers of fatalities and infection cases. Which too failed, because nobody bought his lies.

And third, he started making irrational, fabricated and unacceptable remarks against the CPC. He targeted the Party to hide the failures of the US administration to contain the pandemic and revive the economy.

Pompeo also tried his best to persuade Americans that the US is not the only country to have failed to contain the virus, because China has also failed to do so, while he continued to question China's anti-pandemic measures.

And even after Joe Biden seems set to be sworn in as the next US president, Pompeo continues blaming China for every ill that the US suffers from. He has ramped up his anti-China rhetoric, and continued passing controversial and objectionable remarks against China.

Of all his rhetoric, however, a recent statement,"Taiwan has not been part of China", is the worst in his already poor diplomatic career, not least because it violates the three joint Sino-US communiqués, which form the basis of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington and emphasize that there is only one China and Taiwan is an integral part of China. His remarks are also a gross violation of United Nations Resolution 2758 and international law, and a direct interference in China's internal affairs.

On Oct 25, 1971, the 26th session of the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 2758, making clear that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal representative of China in the UN and one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Since the signing of the three joint communiqués, successive US administrations have abided by the principles laid out in those documents. And Sino-US ties are based on the commitment that "the Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China".

Many observers believe Pompeo made the remarks out of frustration, as the anti-China policy has boomeranged on the US administration. But venting personal frustration on China by targeting the very basis of diplomatic relations is not what is expected of the US secretary of state. Pompeo's remarks are also contradictory to the long-standing official foreign policy of the US.

To be sure, the comments of the outgoing secretary of state won't affect the shaping of the incoming US administration's China policy, because they are nothing but the last kicks of a dying horse.

The author is a Bangladeshi journalist and columnist now based in Beijing.