U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, April 22, 2019. (Photo: Xinhua)

 
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s smearing remarks about China on human rights and religious subjects during his visit to Rome, the capital of Italy, reeked of ideological prejudice and ignorance toward China, renounced the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Italy.
 
The Chinese Embassy in Italy strongly opposed and denounced Pompeo’s remarks made on Wednesday when he was visiting Italy, where he attacked China’s record on religious freedom and human rights.
 
When the People’s Republic of China was founded 71 years ago, Chinese people have taken a road that is most suitable for their own development. They have ever since enjoyed an unprecedented sense of achievement, happiness and security, said the embassy spokesperson, noting that it is most important to note what the 1.4 billion Chinese people have to say about the quality of China’s human rights and religious condition, rather than those irresponsible comments made by some foreign politicians.
 
The embassy then quoted an Italian idiom “chi semina vento, raccoglie tempest” (which translates to “you reap what you sow” in English), noting that the jabbering Pompeo would do well to keep his mouth shut about issues that are quite literally “foreign” to him.
 
After his visit to Rome, Pompeo also visited the Vatican, where he again played his well-worn card of criticizing China. He told Fox News after meeting with his Vatican counterpart, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, that he urged them “to take a stronger view, to express their moral witness against these depredations that are taking place there in China,” according to Reuters.
 
Previously, Pompeo also exerted pressure on the Vatican to avoid renewing the provisional bishop agreement between China and the Vatican. But many experts told the Global Times that his remarks are unlikely to sway the Vatican’s stance on the deal’s renewal.
 
Global Times