Allies should try to keep US in check: China Daily editorial

After first praising China for its efforts and transparency in combating the novel coronavirus, the US administration has since sought to disavow that, trying to portray China both as the source of the virus and guilty of a cover up that allowed it to spread.

It seems the domestic turmoil in the United States, that is as much a result of the administration's shambles of a response to the pandemic as the country's institutionalized racism, has not given the country's top diplomat cause to pause and reflect. He continues to monotonously bang the same old drum as the principal cheerleader for the US administration's desire to build a wall of exclusion around China.

In an interview with the media on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited information theft and the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons to call upon European allies to "keep China in check".

Given the spurious nature of the allegations Pompeo likes to make against China and the damaging consequences of the US administration's actions over the past few years, it would be far better for the US' European allies to try and keep the US in check.

After all, Pompeo has already admitted that the US will lie, cheat and steal to get what it wants. It even stole face masks and other essential medical supplies that were on their way to its European allies. With a friend like this who needs enemies.

Sure the US claims it wants "an open and constructive relationship with China". But it is not the Chinese government that has "continually violated its promises", as he claims.

The administration's attacks on China come because it fears the US is losing its leadership and by corollary all the advantages it has enjoyed as a result. Thus, it is seeking to build what can only be described as a cold wall around what it perceives to be its biggest rival in the hope that history will indeed repeat itself.

The problem for the US is that it grew complacent, accepting the notion history had reached its end and apogee with its post-Soviet Union dominance. That having proved not to be the case and the dominance it then enjoyed diminishing — as a result of its ill-judged military adventurism as much as anything — it is now fearful of the future and has a paucity of ideas of how best to approach it. Thus, US policymakers have been looking back to the time when the US was indisputably at the zenith of its influence for ideas on how to proceed.

That has prompted its confrontational approach to China and its attack on multilateral agreements, in a bid to make the world seem more threatening, thus enticing countries to come under its protective umbrella.

But if nothing else does, the sufferings of the disadvantaged groups during the pandemic, and the protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd should awaken European countries to the true character of their "friend" across the Atlantic.