India-China standoff: Mike Pompeo criticized China for “instigating” a deadly confrontation.
Washington:
Criticizing China for its aggressive actions against its neighbors, including for “sparking” a deadly confrontation with India in eastern Ladakh, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing could not threaten countries and try to intimidate them in the Himalayas.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Tuesday, Pompeo said China was an important part of his talks with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
“You cannot go and make claims for maritime regions over which you have no legal claim. You cannot threaten countries and intimidate them in the Himalayas. You cannot engage in cover-ups and co-opt international institutions like the World Health Organization ”, declared Mr. Pompeo.
Mike Pompeo’s comment on China’s bullying of its Himalayan neighbors came in response to a question of whether the United States would like the United Kingdom to do more to take on China.
“I don’t think of it that way; we don’t think of it that way. We believe that the whole world should work together to make sure that every country, including China, behaves in the international system. in an appropriate manner and in accordance with the international order, ”he said.
“We talked about how we saw Hong Kong’s freedoms crushed. We saw the CCP intimidate its neighbors, militarize the features of the South China Sea and trigger a deadly confrontation with India,” Mr. Pompeo.
Indian and Chinese troops have been stranded in a stalemate in several areas along the line of effective control in eastern Ladakh since May 5. The situation deteriorated last month following clashes in the Galwan Valley which left 20 members of the Indian army and an unknown number of Chinese. Army personnel died.
China recently claimed the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Board and opposed funding for the project.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory. China has built military bases on man-made islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The talks between Mike Pompeo and Dominic Raab came hours after the UK suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to a controversial security law imposed by China on former British territory.
He praised the UK for its recent move on China, especially those related to Hong Kong and Huawei’s ban from UK 5G networks.
“I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the British government for its principled responses to these challenges. You have made the sovereign decision to ban Huawei from future 5G networks. You have joined other free nations in condemning the non-promises. held by China on the Sino-British Treaty, ”he said.
The United States wants to see every nation that understands freedom and democracy and values and knows that it is important for their own people, their own sovereign country to succeed, to understand this threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to them and to to work. both themselves and collectively to restore what is rightfully theirs, he said.
Describing his meeting with Mr Raab as productive, Mr Pompeo said they spoke about the challenge presented by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the COVID-19 virus originating in Wuhan, China.
“On behalf of the American people, I would like to offer my condolences to the British people for your losses due to this preventable pandemic. The CCP’s exploitation of this disaster to promote its own interests has been shameful. Rather than helping the world, Secretary General Xi (Jinping) showed the world the true face of the party, ”he said.
Earlier Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, in his interaction with London think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, described the aggressive activities of the Chinese military “destabilizing” and said America was watching “very closely” the situation between India and China along the line of real control.
Mr. Esper also highlighted the “increased” military cooperation with India and called it “one of the most important defense relations of the 21st century”.
In his remarks, Mr. Esper said that China has a catalog of bad behavior that accompanied a pattern of its blatant disregard for international commitments, from its failure to meet its obligations under the World Trade Organization to no – due respect for the rights of other nations under the 1982 Act of the Sea Convention.
Mr. Esper called on Chinese leaders to abide by international laws and standards that China and the Chinese people have greatly benefited from over the years.
“We are determined to have a constructive and results-oriented relationship with China and in our defense relationship to open lines of communication and reduce risk,” Esper said.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
