When talking about his work at the Central Intelligence Agency, the former director Mike Pompeo has never been that honest: "We lied, we cheated, we stole ... It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."

It is regrettable that the disgraceful behaviors have been viewed as a motto by a handful of hardliners in Washington, including Pompeo himself, the incumbent U.S. secretary of state, and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

During the past several months, they have been obsessed with China-demonizing campaigns, blatantly pointing fingers at China's domestic affairs, and even hyping up an ideological confrontation with Beijing.

What they have done not only is far from the truths and science, but has dragged the world's most important relationship into a dangerous zone.

Washington has never stopped launching disinformation and defamation campaigns against China. Certain political leaders in recent days spared no efforts to stigmatize China over the coronavirus, which has drawn strong worldwide condemnation. More ridiculously, the U.S. embassy and consulates in China last month retweeted an apparently photoshopped picture uploaded by the spokesperson of the State Department, trying to cook up a story about China's human rights violation in Xinjiang.

It once again proves that some politicians in the United States would resort to all means in their fanatical effort to attack China.

Washington has never stopped attempting to sow division between China and its overseas partners with groundless claims, for example by accusing China of setting up "dept traps" in developing countries.

But facts speak louder than words. No countries in Africa or Latin America have complained about falling into such a "debt trap" because of their cooperation with China. That's why Robert Zoellick, the former World Bank president, has said: "Those who see China only as a disruptor are misleading themselves. Frankly, self-deception is very dangerous in diplomacy."

Washington has never stopped abusing national and political power to repress law-abiding Chinese tech companies. Although Washington has failed to give any credible evidence to support its claim that Huawei poses a security threat, it has spent months piling pressure on other countries to exclude the Chinese tech giant from their 5G networks. More recently, the White House threatened to ban outright TikTok, a hugely popular video-sharing app worldwide.

Such a blatant act of bullying runs against the World Trade Organization's principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination and has exposed the hegemonic nature of the world' sole superpower.

Behind these vicious lies and cheats are Pompeos and Navarros' selfish political calculations that motivate them to cover up their incompetent and chaotic response to the raging pandemic and shift public opinion for the coming elections. And most importantly, it is the scheme of China hawks to contain China's development and maintain Washington's hegemony.

However, their awkward and dirty tricks will fool no clear and rational minds across the world. If those politicians continue moving in the wrong direction, Washington's dwindling credibility will be further eroded and more shame will be brought onto its diplomacy.