China slams Pompeo speech
▶ Washington cherry-picks multilateral rules: FM
China said on Wednesday the US has distorted the international order by wielding its big stick of unilateralism and protectionism in the name of “America First,” following a top US diplomat’s claim that China undermined the international order.
“The international community sees US egotism and choosing multilateral rules in its favor while ignoring others,” Geng Shuang, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said at a routine press conference on Wednesday.
Geng’s remarks were made after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke in Brussels on Tuesday, accusing China, Russia and Iran as “bad actors” who are exploiting international agreements and organizations.
Geng commented that Pompeo’s speech did not conform with the spirit of the meeting between the two countries’ leaders at the G20, and highlighted China as the builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order.
China and the US both benefit from peaceful coexistence and suffer from conflicts, said Geng, adding “No one can get rid of the other, and no one can change the other.”
In his speech, Pompeo also claimed that China’s economic development did not lead to democracy and regional stability but resulted in more political repression.
He said that China has routinely exploited loopholes in World Trade Organization rules and the US withdrew from the Pairs Agreement on climate change because “the current pact would have siphoned money from American paychecks and enriched polluters like China.”
Chinese analysts believed China’s economic development, and the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative aiming at win-win economic cooperation with other countries, has instead benefited regional and international communities by creating many job opportunities for local people and fostering regional stability.
Pakistan’s Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said in October that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s move from road construction to the building of economic zones raises Pakistan’s workforce standards.
The minister said the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative is a starting point of a wide regional network of economic cooperation and development.
Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the China Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies, told the Global Times that it is the US government that succumbed to the pressure from big enterprises, slashed spending on environmental protection and kept quitting from international organizations.
“It sparked greater pressure on China to force it to compromise on trade negotiations,” Liu said.
Liu also pointed out that during the 90-day trade negotiations, the US may raise more issues as bargain chips, including the Taiwan question and the South China Sea to challenge China.