US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to reporters after a Security Council meeting on non-proliferation at the United Nations headquarters in New York in December 2018. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese state media outlets and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have frequently and specifically criticized US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with unusually strong words in recent days, while Chinese analysts pointed out that this is a warning from Beijing to Washington that US diplomacy could be misguided and get more unreasonable due to the impact of some senior officials. 

Xinwen Lianbo, prime-time news program of China Central Television (CCTV) read an editorial from the Global Times on Tuesday titled "Pompeo's role as troublemaker runs counter to diplomacy" to specifically slam the US Secretary of State. 

The Xinhua News Agency also released a commentary on June 15 titled "Pompeo's view of glory disgraces US diplomacy." The commentary quotes Pompeo's remarks at a public forum at Texas A&M University in April, in which Pompeo said, "I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole... We had entire training courses," and "It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment." 

Such "glory" has been translated into numerous lies, Pompeo told the press and the public, disguised as pompous excuses to serve US interests, the commentary said.

The Global Times editorial read by CCTV also said "Having a secretary of state of this caliber is a tragedy of US politics and the sorrow of international politics."

Lü Xiang, a research fellow on China-US relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said that "Pompeo has been a member of the US House of Representatives from Kansas' 4th district, which is an industrialized region, and based on this, he should support free trade and should be open-minded in diplomacy." 

"But what he is doing now is isolating the US from the international community, and is betraying the interest groups and people that used to support him," he said.

Unpopular worldwide

This month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has named Pompeo and slammed his accusations on China four times on June 4, 10, 11 and 24 because Pompeo has repeatedly mentioned and attacked China on many international issues. Pompeo has harshly criticized and accused China, including on China's Xinjiang affairs, Huawei and China's 5G technology, religion policy and the political turmoil in 1989.

Pompeo is being criticized by other countries as well. On Tuesday, a protest was staged in New Delhi against visit to the country, and protestors held banners with slogans such as "India No Partner to US' Disastrous Foreign Policy" aimed at US protectionism and unilateralism in trade and Middle East policies, especially on the Iranian nuclear issue, Xinhua reported.

When Pompeo visited Hungary in February to pressure Hungary to stay away from cooperation with China, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told him that "When it comes to China, I think hypocrisy should be left finally behind," the Wall Street Journal reported on February 11.

North Korea criticized Pompeo again on Wednesday after it demanded that the US to remove Pompeo from talks between the two countries in April after the unsuccessful summit in Hanoi in February, North Korea's national media Korean Central News Agency reported. 

A spokesperson for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Pompeo's comment that maintaining sanctions will make talks with North Korea possible is "an outright challenge to the DPRK-US Joint Statement adopted at the DPRK-US summit in Singapore and a manifestation of the most extreme hostile acts by the US towards the DPRK."

Unqualified top diplomat

Diao Daming, an assistant professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times that extreme senior officials like Pompeo are misguiding US diplomacy. "They give the US little choice on foreign affairs and make it unlikely to become rational," he said.

Lü said Pompeo should take responsibility for many failed diplomatic activities, including the failed negotiations with North Korea in Hanoi and worsening China-US relations, so this makes him unqualified to be the US' top diplomat.

"Appointing a Secretary of State is a US domestic matter, and China won't say anything on it. But China is expressing its concern over the problem to the US - some extreme US politicians are making trouble for not only China but also many other countries, which is bad for the US as well," Diao noted.

If the US realizes such problems and makes improvements, it would be welcomed by many members of the international community, Diao said.

Pompeo is becoming a "negative asset" of US diplomacy, and "he might not stay on in his position before the Trump administration completes its term," Lü said.