We closed this ‘den of spies’ consulate: Pompeo takes hard stance on China during Senate hearing

The US secretary of state has taken a tough line on Beijing as he testified in the Senate by calling China nothing less than a “central threat of our times” and slamming the Chinese Houston consulate the US closed as a spies’ den.

Mike Pompeo virtually designated China America’s new number one adversary by telling the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee that Washington sees “the Chinese Communist Party for what it is: the central threat of our times.” He also boasted of the US’ success in building up an “alliance” to counter China’s influence on the world stage.

“Our vigorous diplomacy has helped lead an international awakening to the threat of the CCP. Senators, the tide is turning," he said only to immediately admit that Beijing enjoys a lot of support as well. The secretary of state said he was “surprised and dismayed” by the number of countries that sided with China – particularly in its approach toward the longstanding protests in Hong Kong.

The State Department head also justified the closure of a Chinese consulate in Houston – a move that further soured the relations between the two nations and prompted a mirror response from Beijing – by bluntly calling the diplomatic compound a “den of spies.”

Earlier, Pompeo also gave an interview to Simon Conway of the Joe Pags radio talk show, where he did not mince his words either and squarely blamed China for “stealing our stuff and destroying millions of jobs here in the United States and creating enormous risk and security issues” – all while accusing the Obama-Biden administration of “doing nothing” to address this supposed injustice.

He also openly stated that Washington wants the Chinese Communist Party to “participate on the global stage in the way that we demand every country does.” He did not stop at that and warned Beijing that, in case of non-compliance with such demands, Washington will “be vigorous in ensuring” that not just the US but “other countries around the world” will act “in a way … that will protect Americans each and every day.”

China is unlikely to comply with any of these demands regardless of how much Secretary of State Pompeo would like it. Earlier on Thursday, China’s ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, accused the US of wanting to trigger a new Cold War only because it needed a scapegoat ahead of the forthcoming presidential elections scheduled for November.

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