Pompeo rebuked for smearing China

The Chinese embassy in Japan on Wednesday accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of "maliciously creating political confrontation" after he once again sought to portray China in a bad light during an interview on the sidelines of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue on Tuesday.

Speaking in Tokyo before the start of meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan, India and Australia, Pompeo called for the Quad members to stand together as a bulwark against China's growing influence in the region.

In a statement published on its website, the embassy said Pompeo's accusations were "fabricated lies" and it urged Washington to abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice and treat relations with Beijing in a constructive manner.

"China has always advocated that any multilateral cooperation should uphold the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and transparency", the embassy's statement said, while warning against attempts to form a "closed exclusive circle".

"We hope that relevant countries will do more to enhance mutual understanding and trust among countries in the region and promote regional peace, stability and development, not the opposite," it continued.

The statement said Pompeo's attempt to create division in the region would not succeed as it runs counter to the trend of peaceful development and win-win cooperation.

"Pompeo is more interested in dumping dirt on China rather than focusing on rallying countries to cooperate to prevent and control the spread of the novel coronavirus," said Yu Qiang, a researcher of Japanese studies at the University of International Relations in Beijing.

"Not only has he failed to offer leadership in the global fight against the virus, but Pompeo is cynically using the pandemic to spread hatred and estrangement, which undermines global cooperation at a time when it is most badly needed," Yu added.