As China wins praise and support from various countries for its efforts to fight the novel coronavirus epidemic, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently told another massive lie about China at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, maliciously misrepresenting normal ties between China and U.S. states in total disregard of the facts.

 “The competition with China is not just a federal issue,” Pompeo stressed, saying to America’s governors that “it’s happening in your states with consequences for our foreign policy, for the citizens who reside in your states and indeed for each of you.”

Last year, a think tank in Beijing produced a report that assessed all 50 of America’s governors on their attitudes towards China, said Pompeo, exaggerating it as an attempt by the Chinese government to influence state and local level politics.

The Chinese government has analyzed the system and vulnerabilities of the U.S., and it’s decided to “exploit our freedoms to gain advantage over us at the federal level, the state level, and the local level,” Pompeo claimed.

“Competition with China is happening inside of your state, and it affects our capacity to perform America’s vital national security functions,” said Pompeo, who asked the governors of the U.S. to adopt a “cautious mindset” when it comes to doing business and not lose sight of the competition from China that’s already present in their states.

These remarks about China were a ridiculous whopper cooked up by Pompeo, who totally disregarded the history and reality of the ties between China and the U.S.

During the past 40 years, since the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and the U.S., despite experiencing twists and turns, the two countries have overcome difficulties and pushed forward with their bilateral ties, thus witnessing mutually beneficial and win-win results in both state-level and local-level cooperation in various fields including economy and trade.

In 2018, the value of trade in goods between China and U.S. exceeded $630 billion, and accumulated two-way investment between the two countries surpassed $240 billion. Although not all states in the U.S. benefited equally from the bilateral trade and investment, very few of them were left out, which led all the states to scramble to expand their cooperation with China.

Local-level cooperation has played an important role in the development of China-U.S. cooperation. By February 2019, China and U.S. had formed 50 pairs of sister provinces/states, 227 pairs of sister cities, and carried out a great number of exchanges, which helped bring about many agreements on major cooperation projects and created many beautiful stories of people-to-people friendship.

In recent years, thanks to the Trade and Investment Cooperation Joint Working Groups established between Chinese provinces and cities and the U.S. states of California, Iowa, Texas, Michigan, and Washington and the city of Chicago under the support of both countries’ leaders, a large number of mutual visits by groups from both countries have facilitated a significant increase in trade and investment and implementation of major projects between Chinese provinces and U.S. states. 

Labelling this mutually beneficial cooperation carried out in a consensual way as China’s attempt to influence, infiltrate, or even monitor the U.S. is irresponsible and ridiculous.

As for the claim that China “assessed” U.S. states in an effort to find out which states will carry out cooperation with China, it’s just normal, reasonable, and legitimate business research, rather than under-the-table deals. 

Warning America’s governors of such “threats” from China is just worrying about troubles of one’s own imagining.

As Secretary of State of the U.S., instead of putting into practice the promise of U.S. President Donald Trump, who said the U.S. fully supports China’s fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic, Pompeo made the remarks against China just when Chinese people were fighting the crisis in solidarity. 

At a time when China and U.S. are seeing a positive turn in their bilateral ties, Pompeo hasn’t made any effort to promote the sound development of China-U.S. relations, but has been obsessed with peddling the so-called “China threat” idea.

However, such ridiculous remarks will neither stop Chinese people from overcoming all difficulties and marching forward, nor change the general direction of the development of China-U.S. ties and local-level cooperation between the two countries.

Just like the leaders of the U.S. government, U.S. state governors would never abandon the Chinese market and their two-way investment with China, as they know they should base their China policy on the interests of their citizens rather than on ideology. 

In fact, the most despicable thing may not be the lie itself, but the old way of thinking and Cold War mindset, which are actually the “real central threat” to efforts to maintain world peace, promote common development, facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.