China hits US exec over fake source
Beijing also scores state secretary Pompeo for US global policy ‘based on lies’
BEIJING—CHINA scored White House trade adviser Peter Navarro for making up a fictitious economist he repeatedly quoted in his books. Beijing also criticized US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after he admitted that the United States “lied, cheated, stole” in its global diplomacy. “Making policy based on lies is not only ridiculous, but also extremely dangerous,” China said.
BEIJING—THE world is “shocked” that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro made up a fictitious anti-china economist in his books, China’s foreign ministry said.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week that Navarro repeatedly quoted a sinophobic economist named Ron Vara in six of his nonfiction books, including “Death by China” published by Pearson in 2011.
Readers should be told
Pearson announced last week that reprints of the book will alert readers about the faked source.
For Navarro, principal champion of the tariff war footing of the Trump administration, it was all a joke.
Navarro said in a statement that the name he used was “a whimsical device and pen name I’ve used throughout the years for opinions and purely entertainment value, not as a source of fact.”
Navarro admitted that “Ron Vara” was an anagram of the trade adviser’s surname.
Taken seriously
But former California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher endorsed it as a “clarion call” that “intricately details the clear and present dangers and anything but peaceful rising China poses to the world.”
California-based human rights activist Tang Baiqiao wrote in the foreword to “Death by China”: “Most Americans never see … how the Chinese people have paid for all this ‘progress’ with a dramatically damaged ecosystem, corruption, social injustice, human rights abuse, poisonous foods, and most seriously, the moral degradation of their souls.”
Last week, Tang told the South China Morning Post that he was not told nor did he know there was a fictional character referenced in the book.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the international community was “in uproar shocked” by the report.
“Making up and peddling lies, even making policy based on lies, is not only ridiculous, but also extremely dangerous,” she told a daily news briefing on Tuesday.
“It will not only impact and threaten normal international relations and order, but in the long run, it will ultimately harm the interests of the United States itself.”
US has done it many times
The United States has made things up before, on Syria and Iraq, and continues to do so on issues such as Xinjiang and Hong Kong, she added.
“We hope that certain people in the United States will return to rationality as soon as possible,” Hua said.
“Some opinions or arguments that certain people in the United States are trying to sell must be carefully screened.”
The revelation that Vara is fake “shows that out of personal or political hidden intentions, certain people in the US can do whatever they can think of to contain and smear China without scruple,” Hua said.
“We did hear the acknowledgment by a certain person in the US that: ‘We lied, we cheated, we stole. It is the glory of American experiment,’” Hua said, referring to remarks of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo told students at the Texas A&M University in April that diplomacy with different countries require different strategies.
Glory of American experiment
“What’s the cadet motto at West Point? ‘You will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do,’” Pompeo said, according to a state department transcript.
“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It’s—it was like—we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment,” he said.