Why China’s reaction to Pompeo-Esper offensive from India is darkly funny

The only thing greater than China’s Great Wall and its vast, cold deserts is the ruling communist party’s propaganda machine. It has been quite active and bizarre lately, caught off guard by India’s unexpected resistance and aggression to its advances at Galwan and Pangong Tso.

But after United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper openly attacked the Communist Party of China (CPC) during their New Delhi visit to attend the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, the propaganda machine is in a robotic meltdown.

The Chinese embassy in India issued a statement on October 27. ‘The US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and other senior official repeated old lies, attacked and made allegations against China, violated the norms of international relations and basic principles of diplomacy, instigated China's relations with other countries in the region, which once again exposed their Cold War mentality and ideological bias,’ it read, kicking off the rant.

Pompeo violated no diplomatic norms. Diplomacy does not demand nations to be sterile and silent in the face of systematic diplomatic violations by the other side.

‘It is known to all that China has been unswervingly committed to peaceful development and developed friendly cooperation with our neighbours based on mutual respect’, the Embassy statement read.

A collective laughter must be emanating from China’s neighbourhood. Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and others have been on the receiving end of China’s fictional ‘friendly cooperation’ and ‘mutual respect’. Not to mention Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong, who have been fighting a desperate war to free themselves from the clutches of the dragon.

China’s next claim is even lamer. “The leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a choice of history and the people,” it states.

When was the last time China trusted its people to vote for whoever they wish? Who carried out the Tiananmen Square massacre on young students because they dissented against its brutal, authoritarian regime? Is the CPC the choice of Uighur Muslims, over a million of whom are in detention camps, being forced to abandon their religion and culture?

The statement gets worse, and careens into Orwellian darkness and irony.

‘This year, under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people have achieved strategic victory in fighting the virus,’ it reads. ‘According to surveys conducted by international authoritative institutions, the Chinese people's satisfaction and trust toward the CPC-led Chinese government exceed 90 percent… What China has done and achieved in our fight against the virus are open for all to see.’

It fails to mention a minor fact: that the COVID-19 virus is China’s gift to the world. According to several sources even within China, it came from the laboratories of biological mischief the Chinese State runs in Wuhan. The world will never see what China has failed to achieve in containing its own virus because that is how all dictatorships work.

The statement says the ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’ proposed by the US is to stir up confrontation among different groups and blocs and to stoke geopolitical competition in a bid to maintain the dominance of the US. It talks about ‘peaceful development and win-win cooperation’ as the only right path forward.

Coming from a rabidly expansionist power which does not respect the land or culture of its neighbours is rich. While China talks about de-escalation with India through bilateral dialogue, it continues to post silly, sabre-rattling war videos like a petulant teenager.

Instead of writing these farcical statements, it is time for China to introspect. A very large number of influential nations now hate it. It has only its brutal arrogance and bullying to blame.

Today, it is more hazardous to be China’s friend — North Korea has been deliberately kept as a rogue state and puny attack dog against the US, Pakistan has been reduced to a grovelling, dependent colony — than being its enemy.

Abhijit Majumder is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Earshot.