US wants to build coalition to counter China, says Pompeo

LONDON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States wants to build a global coalition to counter China as he accused Beijing of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to further its own interests.

U.S. President Donald Trump identifies China as the United States’ main rival, and has accused President Xi Jinping of taking advantage over trade and not telling the truth over the novel coronavirus outbreak, which Trump calls the “China plague”.

“We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively to convince the Chinese Communist Party that it is not in their best interest to engage in this kind of behaviour,” Pompeo told reporters alongside British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

“We want to see every nation who understands freedom and democracy...to understand this threat that the Chinese Communist Party is posing to them.”Pompeo offered no evidence of how China had exploited the coronoavrius.

Pompeo urges ‘entire world’ to stand up to China: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged “the entire world” Tuesday to stand up to China but denied forcing Britain´s hand in its decision to ban the communist superpower´s private telecoms giant Huawei.

Pompeo met Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the heat of an emerging crisis in relations between London and Beijing over everything from China´s treatment of Hong Kong to its persecution of more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities. The top US diplomat used a press conference with his UK opposite number Dominic Raab to air a host of grievances President Donald Trump´s administration had built up against Beijing.

He accused China of engaging in “a cover-up and co-opting” the World Health Organization by allegedly suppressing early details of the “preventable” coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 610,000 people globally.

The Chinese Community Party´s “exploitation of this disaster to further its own interest has been disgraceful”, he said. Pompeo also castigated China for claiming disputed areas of the South China Sea “you have no lawful claim to” and trying to “threaten and bully” its neighbours.

“We think that the entire world needs to work together to ensure that every country, including China, behaves in the international system in ways that are appropriate and consistent with the international order,” he said.