US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Photo: AFP

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently has kept spreading lies or misleading the public. 

It is generally believed that Pompeo is a devout evangelical Christian. Sometimes he even "preaches" at diplomatic occasions, for which he was criticized. It seems that he does not care about being a subject of controversy. Nonetheless, his lying for political purposes is contrary to his label as a so-called "devout Christian." 

It is widely known that Christian doctrine opposes lying - it's a sin. A false witness shall not go unpunished. And he that utters lies shall perish. From the "Ten Commandments, the ninth says, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

In an interview on Sunday, Pompeo said, "enormous evidence" exists that shows the COVID-19 outbreak began in a laboratory in Wuhan. It must be pointed out that there are many speculations about the origin of the virus. 

For example, some Chinese, Japanese and even Americans have long suspected that some COVID-19 patients turned up when the US seasonal flu began last winter. There are even some reports that the lipoid pneumonia cases from vaping e-cigarettes observed in the US last year were actually the COVID-19 cases. But these theories cannot be promoted as an official conclusion, especially by governments. The world's top scientists believe the virus came from the nature. No US scientist has proven it came from a laboratory in Wuhan. Where can Pompeo find what he calls "enormous evidence?" 

Pompeo accused China of hiding the outbreak. Wuhan didn't send out strong enough alert at the early stage. However, we have to be clear that it took time for medical experts in China to learn about the new virus. 

Before the scientists reached consensus on the human-to-human transmission nature of COVID-19, it was very hard for the local government of Wuhan to make the right decision about virus controls. The same circumstance also happened in the US and Europe. For instance, the White House repeatedly ignored warnings about the virus outbreak. In March, the US President Donald Trump said that the coronavirus risk to Americans was low and the situation was "totally under control". As result, the US government failed to issue social distancing guidelines at the early stage of the outbreak. How could it blame China for hiding the virus information? 

In terms of epidemic controls, Wuhan was taken by surprise because of the lack of virus information. The US, by contrast, shall find no excuse for its incompetence since it had tips from many places in February. In this case, Washington and the White House shall be blamed for hiding facts. 

As a senior US official who once headed the Central Intelligence Agency, Pompeo knows that there is nothing more serious in the anti-epidemic measures used in Wuhan. In fact, both the US and European countries have made much more serious mistakes than Wuhan in dealing with the virus. The deadly outbreak in the US is a result of systematic failure in which officials, lawmakers, media and the President are all involved. 

Pompeo is playing an old trick by smearing China for hiding the truth and echoing anti-China sentiments in Western media in order to fool the American and Western public. 

He claims that China should be held accountable for the epidemic outbreak in the US, Europe and even worldwide. He purposely confuses the relationship between the people's discontent with political and legal liabilities. He is not just telling a lie; he is trying to introduce an absurd logic into global politics. 

He was aware that US failures in responding to the coronavirus epidemic were caused by the chaotic US political system and the malfeasance of the White House. But he passed the blame to China. His lies misled people's understanding in the responsibility of the pandemic. 

The gradual understanding of the coronavirus didn't prevent China from notifying the WHO with critical information it had discovered at that time. Records show that the first notification was on January 3, which was quick. The US claimed that China should have informed the US of the epidemic in December. This is nonsense. The Chinese people didn't understand what was happening at that time. What could we tell the US?

Lies are usually driven by interests. Pompeo aims to kill two birds with one stone by spewing falsehoods. First, he hopes to help Trump win reelection this November, which affects his interests. Framing China can reduce American anger toward Trump's poor response to the epidemic. Second, Pompeo hates socialist China and, in particular, cannot accept China's rise. He hence launched a propaganda campaign to ruin China's image. 

Despite the initial problems in the early fight against the virus in Wuhan, the overall performance of China's response to the epidemic is bright enough to outweigh the flaws. China has never denied the possibility that the virus first appeared in Wuhan, but it is conceivable that the virus first contacted humans in other places. China's attitude is decent and clear: let scientific research guide us. No matter where the virus first appeared, it was an attack on the entire human race, 

But politicians like Pompeo have completely politicized this question.

Pompeo has been lying. He has brought shame to the evangelical Christians in the US, misusing their trust in the Republican party. He is no doubt a degenerate politician and despicable from the perspective of religion.