Photo taken on March 25, 2020 shows the US Capitol in Washington D.C., the US. Photo: Xinhua

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the US is uncertain that the coronavirus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. But he also claimed "there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory." "Those statements can both be true," he further quibbled. 

Two days ago, Pompeo claimed the US had "enormous evidence" to prove the virus came from a Wuhan lab, which was rejected by the WHO, US experts and intelligence officials, putting him in an awkward position. He was forced to backtrack while at the same time managed to defend this change. This is a major setback for the Trump administration's campaign to frame the Wuhan laboratory as the origin of the virus. Although Washington will continue to make an issue of the lab, it's hard to garner attention as the world knows that it's lying. 

However, the Trump administration won't wind down its attacks on China. Targeting China has become the primary strategy for the Trump administration to win re-election and it has become a matter of life and death in politics. Pompeo on Wednesday blamed China for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world while US President Donald Trump claimed the coronavirus attack is "worse than Pearl Harbor" and "the World Trade Center." Both of them were trying to stir Americans' emotion and increase their resentment of China. 

Claims that China should be held accountable for the pandemic outbreak will gradually lose their appeal. Accusations that the coronavirus originated from a Wuhan laboratory have been proven wrong and more early infected cases have been found in the US and Europe. As the pandemic drags on, accusations over the origin of the outbreak will become increasingly pale. More than 73,000 people have died in the US and resuming work will cause more deaths. China cannot be blamed for this. 

To win in the elections, there is nothing else White House can do than to pass the buck to China. And the only way to achieve that goal is to create more friction with China to keep the China-US tensions and "hold China accountable" hot topics. 

Trump has inappropriately threatened China with the phase one trade deal. In addition, some Western media outlets, including some in the US, have repeatedly released reports saying the US would punish China jointly with its allies and the West will move their industrial chain out of China. The US is behind these reports. 

The farce of suing China will continue, and US senators who support Trump will continue to assist. In short, they won't allow peaceful and stable relations between China and the US in the next few months.

The Trump government smears China because the US two parties and the elites, including anti-Trump ones, have created an anti-China atmosphere in the US. Such being the case, smearing China costs little, even nothing. More and more people now believe the Wuhan laboratory is innocent, but Pompeo and others who threw mud at it don't need to pay any price or only a small price. 

US political and public opinion elites have collectively fanned the public's anger toward China. The Trump team has skillfully taken advantage of such "public will" in the election campaign, building its campaign strategy on people's anti-China sentiment, and has capitalized on Democrats' efforts to demonize China before the curtain on the election is lifted. 

Does the Democratic Party dare to tell the truth about who is to blame for the epidemic? Can mainstream US media outlets that support Democrats objectively report on China's anti-epidemic performance? They are swaying and hesitating. Overwhelmed by Trump's rude and groundless accusations against China, they claimed Trump is responsible for the US failures in the virus fight, but on the other, dare not say China has no responsibility for the US' matters. 

The US system has fueled the political hooliganism of the Trump team. No force in the US is able to contain it. China should prepare for a fierce public opinion war with Washington, discarding any illusion that we can reason with a hooligan.