Symptoms of distress show US infected with harmful political virus: China Daily editorial

That US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent nearly two-thirds of his 14-minute speech in the capital of the Czech Republic on Wednesday lashing out at China comes as no surprise, as this is not the first time the top US diplomat has treated a foreign country as a rostrum for instigating a witch hunt against what he portrays to be a malign power.

As the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Prague said, the top US diplomat is trying to drive a wedge between China and other countries, as he has done during his visits to other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Yet despite these attempts, China's economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges with most of these countries have been thriving.

That is because most of Pompeo's listeners, including those in countries that are allies of the United States, are well aware that the charges he directs at China are groundless and politically driven. It is the administration's fear of the US losing its hegemony that has prompted Pompeo and others in the administration to become so hysterical in their bad-mouthing of China.

But as the facial expressions and body language of the three Czech officials sitting behind Pompeo while he was delivering his speech suggest, most of his listeners are uncomfortable at the thought of their countries becoming pieces in the US' bid to form ranks in a frosty standoff with China. Especially those countries that used to be the frontline of the Cold War.

Pompeo talks the same talk on his seemingly never-ending tour. But the US administration doesn't provide help so these countries can upgrade their infrastructure, improve their public services or offer a market for their products.

China does. Pompeo called it China's might that it leverages to exert its influence. If that is the case where has the US used its might?

Should its withdrawal from the World Health Organization when the world desperately needs the global body to coordinate the fight against the novel coronavirus be seen as its might? Should its brazen interference in other countries' internal affairs, its "targeted liquidation" and political kidnapping of persons it dislikes, and its eavesdropping of even its allies' leaders be counted as demonstrations of its might?

If so, the freedom he says the US wants for the world is nothing but the shining shackles of slavery.

The witch-hunting of China that the top US diplomat tirelessly promotes should alert other countries, particularly those close allies of the US, that the US administration is spreading a political virus that will cause dangerous delusions if they do not maintain prevention and control measures to curb its transmission.