Fact check: Pompeo's fact-twisting China speech versus the truth

   Full Text: Pompeo's Fact-twisting China Speech Versus the Truth

   BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his recent speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, negated every aspect of China-U.S. relations, maliciously attacked the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China's political system, and attempted to drive a wedge between the CPC and the Chinese people. He also wantonly criticized China's domestic and foreign policies, spread the so-called "China threat", and called for an anti-China alliance to contain China's development.

   Pompeo's baseless, fact-distorting speech misrepresents history and the reality. It is full of ideological prejudice and driven by a Cold-War mentality. His remarks have not only been condemned by the Chinese people, but also criticized and opposed by sensible people in the United States as well as the international community.

   To debunk the lies fabricated by Pompeo, let the facts speak for themselves.

   1. Mike Pompeo: The Chinese people are completely distinct from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The biggest lie that they tell is to think that they speak for 1.4 billion people. The CCP fears the Chinese people's honest opinions more than any foe.

   False.

   Fact check: The Communist Party of China (CPC) does not have any special interest of its own. It takes seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation as its original aspiration and founding mission. It represents the fundamental interests of the greatest possible majority of the Chinese people and remains dedicated to wholeheartedly serving the people. The CPC believes that all is by the people and for the people. It puts the people's interests first, with safeguarding the people's interests as the starting point and ultimate goal of all of its work. Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people have won independence, freedom and liberation, and continued to make great achievements in the process of national construction and development.

   -- The CPC comes from the people and is rooted in the people. The CPC's position of leadership is the choice of history and the people. Since its founding 99 years ago, the CPC has grown from a small party with just more than 50 members to a large party with nearly 100 million members. The CPC is deeply rooted in the Chinese people and closely linked to them, and has maintained its great vitality. By the end of 2019, the CPC had 91.914 million members and 18.992 million applicants for Party membership. It is the world's largest party that governs the world's most populous country on a long-term basis. No one can turn a blind eye to the fact that the CPC is supported by the Chinese people. James Palmer, senior editor with the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy, noted that the CPC is deeply woven into the fabric of ordinary Chinese life. It is a common belief that "without the party, there would be no new China" and trust in the CPC is the mainstream public opinion in China.

   -- Kishore Mahbubani, a professor at the National University of Singapore and former Singaporean ambassador to the United Nations, wrote, in an article carried by The National Interest, that while Pompeo claimed that the Chinese people are completely distinct from the CPC, the fact is that each year a large number of Chinese apply to join the CPC and only a small number of them get in, making it as difficult to join the CPC as it is to get into leading universities in America. The CPC is not a party about to crack up under American pressure as it is floating on an ocean of legitimacy among 1.4 billion Chinese people.

   -- The CPC upholds a thinking of development that puts the people in the center. Under the leadership of the CPC, China has seen its per capita GDP increase from less than 120 yuan in the early 1950s to more than 70,000 yuan today, the basic needs of nearly 1.4 billion people well met, impoverished population drop by 850 million, employment provided for 770 million people, and basic support extended to the 250 million elderly people, 85 million people with disabilities and more than 60 million urban and rural people living on subsistence allowance. China, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, has made a historic leap forward from poverty, to a life of subsistence and to one of moderate prosperity. China has put in place the world's largest systems for education, social security, health care and democratic elections at the primary level.

   -- Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the CPC and the Chinese government have put the people and their lives front and center, saving lives at all costs and protecting people's health and safety. Everything possible has been done to treat every patient, whether he or she is 108 years old or a new-born baby. China has scored major strategic achievements in bringing the virus under control. China's economic growth shifted from negative to positive territory in the second quarter this year, up 3.2 percent. China's economy is seeing the resumption of growth and steady recovery. Experts from the Institute of International Finance, UBS and other well-known international institutions, as well as media outlets, have expressed optimism about China's economic prospects.

   -- At the height of the COVID-19 epidemic when the people's lives and safety were in grave danger, upon a call for action from the CPC Central Committee, Party members and officials came to the fore. More than 4.6 million primary-level Party organizations operated in full gear. From racing against the clock to save more lives in intensive care units to visiting urban and rural communities for possible infections, from working overtime for production of supplies in factory workshops to pursuing a breakthrough in virus research at laboratories, more than 39 million Party members had been working day and night at the front-line to fight the epidemic. In this process, nearly 400 Party members laid down their lives, as they, together with other CPC members, faced danger squarely. The Party flag has always flown high at the front line. All of these speak to the fact that CPC organizations at all levels have acted as strong bastions against the virus and Party members and officials have played an exemplary role. They are the mainstay of the country in this fight.

   -- In August 2018, Ipsos, a well-known market research company in the world, released a report titled What Worries the World. It found that China led the world in national optimism as 91 percent of its people believe that their country is going on the right track. China claimed the top spot in 28 countries surveyed, leaving the United States far behind in the ranking.

 -- In May 2020, Edelman, a renowned communications firm headquartered in the United States, updated its report of Trust Barometer. It revealed that the Chinese people have 95 percent trust in their government, making the country the top of the countries surveyed, whereas the United States was placed next to last, in the territory of distrust.

   -- In July 2020, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School made public a survey titled Understanding CCP Resilience: Surveying Chinese Public Opinion Through Time. It found that Chinese citizen satisfaction with government has increased virtually across the board since 2003, and people in poorer, inland regions are actually comparatively more likely to report increases in satisfaction. Breakdown data also showed a near-universal upturn in the people's satisfaction toward all four levels of government from 2003 to 2016, with approval ratings running as high as 93.1 percent.

   -- The China Data Lab in the University of California, San Diego, recently released an article, saying that the Chinese public's trust in and support of their government have grown from strength to strength. They have significantly rallied since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. According to this survey, as of May 2020, the average level of trust in the central government has jumped to 8.87 on a scale of one to 10, and 83 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed to the statement that they prefer living under China's political system as compared to others.

   -- Unlike what the CPC has done for the people in coping with COVID-19, politicians in the United States held on to the primacy of personal political gains and "capital first". To this end, they played down the epidemic, ignored science, and even resorted to blame game. The result is a major outbreak that has taken a heavy toll on Americans' lives and health. According to media tallies in May, more than one third of coronavirus deaths in America's 31 states came from nursing homes.

   By Aug. 24, the United States had recorded a cumulative total of 5.69 million confirmed cases, more than 63 times of that in China. More than 170,000 people had died, equivalent to about 540 deaths per million, which were 37 times and 160 times the corresponding numbers in China. With a population of four percent of the world's total, the United States made up 24 percent of global infections and 22 percent of global deaths.

   The public's anxiety has continued to climb up. Some 81 percent of Americans in a recent poll reported feeling "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about the virus. A latest NPR/Ipsos poll released on Aug. 4 found that two thirds of respondents said they believe the United States is handling the epidemic worse than other countries. Among them, 41 percent contended that the country's performance is "much worse" than that of other countries, while 25 percent rated the performance as being "somewhat worse."

   Americans have come to a pretty dire place in the combat, said a pollster with Ipsos, and they are looking for sweeping, really broad, powerful action. The U.S. economy has suffered a heavy blow as its GDP contracted at an annualized rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter, the deepest drop in output since record began in 1947. Fitch, one of the three major credit rating agencies in the world, revised its outlook on the country's sovereign rating from "stable" to "negative."

   2. Mike Pompeo: China is not a free country, as 1.4 billion Chinese are surveilled and oppressed. China is repeating some of the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made - rejecting property rights and predictable rule of law.

   False.

   Fact check: China practices socialism with Chinese characteristics. An essential feature of the socialist democracy is that the people are the masters of the country. The socialist political system with Chinese characteristics upholds the unity of Party leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance, and features enhancing institutional safeguards for the running of the country by the people.

   -- China achieved freedom from the oppression of imperialism and colonialism. Freedom, democracy and rule of law are codified in China's Constitution. They are also part of the core values of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In 1997, the 15th CPC National Congress committed to "...ensuring that the people enjoy extensive rights and freedom endowed by law, and respecting and guaranteeing human rights." In 2007, respecting and guaranteeing of human rights was added into the CPC Constitution for the first time. In 2017, the 19th CPC National Congress established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guiding thinking of the CPC, and categorically stated that the CPC should "strengthen legal protection for human rights to ensure that the people enjoy extensive rights and freedoms as prescribed by law," and stressed protecting people's personal rights, property rights, and right to dignity. The Chinese government earnestly respects and fully protects the human rights and freedoms of Chinese citizens in accordance with China's Constitution and other laws.

   -- On May 28, 2020, the third session of the 13th National People's Congress adopted the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, representing an important milestone in the country's advancement of socialist rule of law in the new era. With seven parts, 1,260 articles and more than 100,000 words, the civil code was compiled based on systematically incorporating and modifying existing civil laws and regulations formulated in different periods, including the general principles of the civil law and laws on real rights, contract, guarantee, marriage, adoption, inheritance, tort liability and personality rights. It adjusts personal and property relations between natural persons, legal persons and other civil subjects, and provides equal protection of rights in various areas including safeguarding life and health, property safety, convenient transactions, people's happiness and dignity.

   -- China safeguards freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law. The country has nearly 200 million religious believers, more than 380,000 clerical personnel, and about 140,000 places of worship registered for religious activities. The scriptures of Islam, Buddhism and Christianity among other religions have been translated, published and distributed in multiple languages. In Tibet Autonomous Region, there are 1,787 religious venues which house more than 46,000 Buddhist monks and nuns. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has 24,800 religious venues including mosques, churches, temples and Taoist abbeys; there is one mosque for 530 Muslims on average in the region; the number of clerical personnel is 29,300; students have access to undergraduate programs in Islamic institutes; and more than 1.76 million copies of the Quran and Selections from Sahih of al-Buhari have been distributed.

   -- Liberty does not mean a free rein, and science, reason, law, order and international rules are all foundations of liberty. Liberty, says Montesquieu in "The Spirit of the Laws," is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid, he would be no longer possessed of liberty. Freedom has boundaries. Even the so-called "free nations" delimit a "no-go zone" for liberty and never allow anyone to challenge the bottom line of the legal system. The Chinese government has the power conferred by the law to take various measures to safeguard national unity, ethnic solidarity and social stability. It is also duty-bound to protect the lawful rights and interests of the vast majority of the people by taking these measures. The exercise of its power and the fulfillment of its duties fall within China's domestic affairs and no interference from external forces will be tolerated.

   -- The constitutions of more than 100 countries provide that the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms should not jeopardize national security. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that the freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs, the right to freedom of expression, the right of peaceful assembly, and the right to a public trial among other rights may be subject to limitations that are necessary to protect public safety or order. The European Convention on Human Rights also has similar provisions. The United States, Britain, Canada and Australia among other countries have built strict legal systems to safeguard national security and stay tough on fighting crimes endangering national security.

   3.Mike Pompeo: The United States is a beacon of freedom for people all around the world, including people inside of China.

   False.

   Fact check: The United States proclaims itself as a "beacon of freedom," which is no more than an illusion that deceives both its people and the world. According to a survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 80 percent of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction, an all-time high in AP-NORC surveys. According to a poll published by the Pew Research Center on July 1, only 12 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country, while 87 percent say they are dissatisfied, and most Americans are dissatisfied with how the government operates. According to a Gallup poll, American pride has reached the lowest point in two decades, with only 20 percent of Americans satisfied with the way things are going in their country. Extreme pride among whites has fallen below 50 percent for the first time and non-whites 24 percent.

   -- The United States is highly unpopular around the globe, as only one third of people across the world acknowledge the United States' leading position. A survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations shows that people from multiple countries are losing their trust in the United States. Researchers conducted the survey among 11,000 people from nine European countries, and over two thirds of respondents from Germany, France, Spain and Denmark said that their views of the United States have worsened. The country's reputation dropped particularly drastically in France and Germany, as 46 percent of French respondents and 42 percent of German respondents said the United States' image has "severely worsened" due to COVID-19. The 2020 Best Countries report also showed that the world's trust in the United States has dropped by more than 50 percent since 2016, the sharpest drop of any country assessed in the report.

   -- An annual survey report published by Gallup on July 27 showed that "U.S. leadership remains unpopular worldwide." The "free world" proclaimed by the United States, in particular, disapproves U.S. leadership. The approval of U.S. leadership is at its lowest among the country's traditional allies in Europe, where 61 percent of respondents disapprove of its performance, and only 24 percent approve of it. In the United Kingdom, the figure is 65 percent disapprove, with a similar outcome in France. In Germany, the U.S. stature is even worse, as 78 percent disapprove the leadership coming from Washington. In Australia, whose government follows closely its U.S. counterpart, there is deep skepticism about the United States as well, with 67 percent disapproving its performance.

   -- Tara D. Sonenshine, former U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and currently a fellow in public diplomacy at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, recently said that the United States is losing its global leadership, with its international reputation hitting the bottom and its allies giving up on it. Over the past few years, many of the key policies put forward by the United States are broadly unpopular around the globe, especially the "America-first" principle which provoked discontent among many of its allies. According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, just 20 percent of the respondents has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs.

   -- U.S. citizens' personal dignity and privacy suffer systematic violation. The Dallas Morning News reported last December that Texas is home to eight secretive surveillance centers, supported jointly by federal, state and local law enforcement departments, which share information and monitor social media and other online forums for potential threats. A report of the U.S. Government Accountability Office released in June 2019 said that the FBI's Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation Services Unit may search at its will in the database of over 641 million face photos without any legal permission.

   -- The United States lacks sufficient protection of ethnic minorities' human rights and fundamental freedoms. Ethnic minorities in the country suffer bullying and exclusion, facing long-term, widespread and systematic discrimination in the political, economic, cultural and social areas. For American Indians alone, the U.S. government, for a long time, implemented compulsory policies of ethnic extinction, isolation and assimilation against them.

   In nearly 100 years after the United States of America was founded, the country drove out and killed American Indians on a large scale during the Westward Movement. By the beginning of the 20th century, the number of American Indians within the border of the United States dropped sharply to 250,000 from five million in 1492. Currently, American Indians only account for two percent of the country's total population.

   Since the COVID-19 outbreak, African Americans are over four times more likely to catch the disease than white Americans, with much higher mortality rates as well, highlighting racial inequality in the country. Fatal police shootings are not uncommon either, with the number of such cases reaching 1,004 in 2019 alone. Among the 7,036 bias-induced hate crime cases reported by U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2018, 57.5 percent were motivated by a race, ethnicity or ancestry bias. Furthermore, of hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry, 46.9 percent were against African Americans. African Americans accounted for 47.1 percent of the 5,155 victims of race-based hate crimes. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an African American man in the state of Minnesota, was killed by a white police officer, triggering large-scale protests across the United States. The United Nations Human Rights Council held an urgent debate and adopted a resolution, strongly condemning the incident and calling for the United States to take concrete measures to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of African Americans.

   -- The United States has the widest wealth gap among Western countries. In January 2017, the Business Insider published a chart by Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank's chief international economist, which showed the share of U.S. household wealth by income level. Notably, the top 0.1 percent of households hold about the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90 percent. From 1989 to 2018, the bottom 50 percent of families saw basically no net increase in their wealth. In light of COVID-19, employers in the United States have laid off tens of millions of employees since this February, dealing a particularly heavy blow to low-income workers and dragging the employment rate 35 percent lower than the pre-COVID-19 level.

   -- The United States suppresses the media and restricts freedom of the press. The Washington Post reported in April 2019 that for the third time in three years, the United States' standing in an annual index of press freedom declined. In 2019, 38 journalists in the country suffered attacks; journalists were rejected from attending government open events for 28 times; and nine journalists were arrested or faced criminal charges. Media organizations including The New York Times and The Hill in the United States and The Guardian in the United Kingdom frequently reported news of journalists being attacked or arrested while reporting the protests concerning George Floyd, with 148 journalists involved from May 26 to June 2 alone -- 40 journalists were shot by gun; 34 physically assaulted by police; 33 arrested or detained; and one female photojournalist even permanently lost vision in her left eye after being shot by a rubber bullet. A report by The Guardian in December last year said the current U.S. administration "has dealt the most sustained assault on press freedom in U.S. history."

   -- Abusing the concept of national security, the U.S. administration uses national resources to smear, attack, encircle and contain Chinese private companies including Huawei, ByteDance and Tencent, forbid U.S. service providers from purchasing equipment made by Huawei and ZTE, and ban Chinese social media applications such as TikTok and WeChat. The acts violate market principles of fair and free competition. This is sheer daylight robbery. How can such a country serve as the beacon for the Chinese people?

   -- On July 25, The Atlantic published an article titled "Pompeo's surreal speech on China" by Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He pointed out that Pompeo said the United States will organize the "free world" while alienating and undermining the "free world." Pompeo extolled democracy while aiding and abetting its destruction at home in the United States. Pompeo praised the Chinese people while generalizing about the ill intent of Chinese students who want to come to America. Pompeo's tirade will discredit the case for competition with China among U.S. allies, in Asia and Europe, who are petrified of a full-blown Cold War between the United States and China, Wright said.

   4.Mike Pompeo: China seeks global hegemony. China threatens international agreements and treats international agreements as conduits for global dominance.

   False.

   Fact check: The Constitution of the Communist Party of China and the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) have made it clear that China follows a path of peaceful development and opposes hegemony. No matter what stage of development it reaches, China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion. That's what China says, and also what it does. Since its founding 70 years ago, the PRC has never started any war or occupied an inch of the land of others. In contrast, the United States has never made such policy announcement. In a speech delivered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 2019, he pointed out that the United States had only enjoyed 16 years of peace in its history of more than 240 years, making the country "the most warlike nation in the history of the world."

   -- China firmly upholds the international system with the United Nations at its core and an international order based on international law, including a series of international conventions signed within the UN framework. China actively advocates a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation, develops all-round friendship and cooperation with other countries, and establishes a global network of partnerships. China is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind. It advocates an international order that features fairness and justice and calls for global cooperation through extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and for upholding justice while pursuing shared interests. It has all along worked to safeguard the norms governing international relations, the multilateral system and stability of the international order. According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, China has become an important pillar of the multilateral system, with the aim to establish a community with a shared future for mankind through practicing multilateralism.

   -- As the first founding member to sign the UN Charter, China firmly upholds its purposes and principles and honors the spirit of contract and the international rule of law. China has all along kept its promises, followed rules and fulfilled agreements. China opposes acts that undermine the authority and sanctity of international law, including unauthorized use of force and withdrawal from treaties and organizations. China is also the second-largest contributor to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping operations, actively fulfilling its financial obligations to the UN as a developing country.

   -- China has signed or joined 20 multilateral arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation treaties, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It also actively participates in the international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation process, opposes arms race, and safeguards global strategic balance and stability. China has also voluntarily downsized its military personnel by over 4 million since reform and opening up.

   -- China has fully fulfilled its obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and made efforts to build a global climate governance system that is fair, equitable, and mutually beneficial. Compared with 2005, China's carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 45.8 percent in 2018, achieving emission reduction target set for 2020 two years ahead of schedule, and non-fossil energy accounted for 14.3 percent of China's total energy consumption. China leads the world in the investment, installed capacity, power generation and consumption of renewable energy, and has more than half of the world's new energy vehicles. Since 2000, China has contributed to a quarter of the world's newly increased afforestation areas.

   -- The United States always seeks selfish gains under the pretext of upholding international law. Its all-time principle is to apply international law in a selective way. The United States has withdrawn from more than 10 international treaties and organizations, severely undermining international fairness and justice, as well as peace, stability and development in the world.

   In 1982, the United States, to maintain its maritime hegemony, refused to sign the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which it is still not a party.

   In 1985, the United States refused to recognize the compulsory jurisdiction of the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) after Nicaragua complained that U.S. armed intervention violated its sovereignty.

   In 1995, the United States announced its withdrawal from the UN Industrial Development Organization and refused to pay arrears by claiming domestic budgetary constraints.

   In 2001, the United States refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, saying that it was not in its national interest to meet relevant environmental obligations. It is still not a party to the protocol.

   In 2001, the United States announced its withdrawal from the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance after failing to prevent discussion of Israeli military action against Palestinians.

   In 2002, the United States formally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972, aiming to develop its anti-ballistic missile systems.

   In 2002, the United States announced its withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, citing unfavorable terms for American soldiers, diplomats and politicians.

   In 2017, the United States announced its withdrawal from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) due to "concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO."

   In 2017, the United States announced its formal withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it believed that the multilateral trade agreements were not in its best interests and hindered its "America First" policy.

   In 2017, the U.S. government announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, believing that it hindered the U.S. economic development and calling global climate change a "created concept."

   In 2017, the United States announced that it has decided to end participation in the UN process to develop a Global Compact on Migration, saying that "our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone."

   In 2018, despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran's fulfillment of its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commitment and that the United States had no clear evidence to show Iran's breach of the deal, the United States announced its withdrawal from the JCPOA, a deal that has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran, and prevented other countries from implementing the deal through "long-arm jurisdiction."

   In 2018, the United States announced its withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council, claiming it failed to effectively protect human rights.

   In 2018, the United States announced its withdrawal from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes relating to the jurisdiction of the ICJ in response to Palestine's complaint to the ICJ over the U.S. government's relocation of its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.

   In 2019, the United States announced its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to develop advanced capabilities without restraint.

   In 2020, the United States announced steps to exit the Open Skies Treaty despite the opposition from its allies, saying the steps would start on May 22 and would be finished six months later.

   In 2020, U.S. national security agencies discussed the possibility of resuming nuclear tests, which has met with wide criticism from the international community, causing concerns that the possible resumption would violate the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, provoke a nuclear arms race, and further undermine global strategic stability and security.

   In 2020, the U.S. government, looking for scapegoats for its botched response to COVID-19, announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization. It should be noted that the United States still owes more than 200 million U.S. dollars in assessed contributions, which should be paid off before the exit takes effect.

   -- For some time, the U.S. government has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from a series of international organizations and treaties, including the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and even the UN. Turning wantonly away from international organizations and treaties is against the spirit of contract and international justice. The rules must be observed in fairness and be mutually binding, and must not be compromised by "pragmatism" and "double standards."

   -- According to a Pew Research Center survey in February 2019, 45 percent of the surveyed believe the United States poses a grave threat to the world. There are 10 nations surveyed where roughly half or more now see U.S. power as a major threat, including Germany, Japan and South Korea. Recently some U.S. media, experts and scholars publicly said that the country posing the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States is precisely the United States itself.

    5. Mike Pompeo: The CCP will subvert the rules-based order that the free world have worked hard to build. The CCP's actions are the primary challenge today in the free world. The free world must triumph over this new tyranny. It's time for a new alliance of democracies. The division is between freedom and tyranny, not about siding with America or China.

   False.

   Fact check: To arbitrarily label a country as "free" or "tyrannical" is a kind of groundless and preposterous arrogance and prejudice. The obsolete prejudices in the last century will not help solve the new problems in the 21st century. The call of our world today is peace and development and all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are entitled to choose their own social system and development path. Preserving world peace and stability and achieving mutually-beneficial cooperation ought to be a common choice of the people of all countries around the world. To foment ideological confrontation is to intentionally lead the world into a new Cold War, and is a resurgence of the notorious McCarthyism that is going against the trend of the times.

   -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his recent article published in Foreign Affairs magazine expressed concern of Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries over the tensions between the United States and China, saying that Asia-Pacific countries do not wish to be forced to choose between the two. He said regional arrangements should be open and inclusive. "They should not, whether by design or result, keep any party out, undermine existing cooperation arrangements, create rival blocs, or force countries to take sides...It is natural for big powers to compete. But it is their capacity for cooperation that is the true test of statecraft," he said.

   -- Kishore Mahbubani, a professor at the National University of Singapore and a former Singaporean permanent representative to the United Nations, noted that China regained its strength by plugging into the rules-based global order established in 1945. He said China has no desire to overturn this order, and it would be happy to cooperate with America within it. "In short, a prosperous China can live together in peace with a prosperous America, as inconceivable as this thought might seem in the toxic political environment in the U.S."

   -- On July 25, an online international meeting themed "No to the New Cold War," organized by scholars and activists from multiple countries, was streamed live on several platforms. One of the initiators, British scholar John Ross said the theme was not about a "pro-China" statement, but was because the U.S.-led new Cold War will be against the interests of humanity and is a threat to humanity. He said the new Cold War is an attempt by the present U.S. administration to impose its policies on the world and force other countries to follow.

  -- The U.S. administration has withdrawn from many international treaties and organizations and wantonly wields the big stick of sanctions, disregarding international obligations and norms. It has become the biggest destroyer of international order and the world's top source of instability. Many Western strategists have pointed out that it is absurd that the United States considers itself a representative of the "free world." By resorting to ideological tactics to build a coalition to contain China, the United States puts itself on the wrong side of history.

   -- The United States has instigated multiple coups in other countries under the pretext of "freedom" that resulted in military governments coming to power, and provoked chaos through "color revolutions." Lindsey O'Rourke, an associate professor of Boston College's political science department, observed in her book "Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War" that the United States carried out 64 regime-change operations in other countries between 1947 and 1989. The Manila Times reported in September 2019 that the United States had, in the last decade alone, invaded and managed regime change in over 20 countries around the world. Even today, people in countries including Libya and Syria are still suffering from turmoil caused by wars, with freedom from fear and scarcity nowhere in sight. The international community has seen it increasingly clear the real purpose of the United States' trumpeting for "freedom".

   -- In an article by Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University, which was titled "How to Ruin a Superpower" and published on Foreign Policy website on July 23, he pointed out the mistakes the United States committed, one of which was adopting a grand strategy of liberal hegemony in the uni-polar era, which sought to spread democracy, markets, and other liberal values far and wide and to bring the whole world into a "liberal order" that was designed and led by the United States.

   -- Zheng Yongnian, a professor with the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said in an article published in Lianhe Zaobao that an oversimplified classification of a country's political system as "democracy" or "autocracy/a system concentrating nationwide effort and resources on key national undertakings" will inevitably lead to politicization and ideologicalization, resulting in a double standard that prevents one from seeing the truth. The United States and Western "democracies" have always assumed a posture of being ready to wage a war against China for defending democracy, as if threats to Western democracy come from China. This is, in fact, utterly wrong. The threats to Western democracy only come from within, not from external challenges.

   -- On July 25, experts and scholars from 48 countries held a meeting and issued a joint statement, pointing out that the words and deeds of the U.S. government against China are becoming increasingly fierce, which poses a threat to world peace, and that a new Cold War in any form is completely against the interests of humanity. The attendees supported China and the United States developing relations on the basis of dialogue and jointly working for solidarity of mankind.

   6. Mike Pompeo: President Richard Nixon said "the world cannot be safe until China changes." The engagement the U.S. has been pursuing has not brought the kind of change inside of China that President Nixon had hoped to induce. The old paradigm of blind engagement with China has failed. The U.S. must induce China to change.

   False.

   Fact check: The U.S. engagement with China is deliberate rather than blind, and serves the national interests of the United States. President Nixon promoted the normalization of China-U.S. relations not to change China, but for the common interests of both countries. During his first visit to China in 1972, Nixon told Chinese leaders that he had come for U.S. interests. In a toast at the Great Hall of the People, Nixon said "We began our talks recognizing that we have great differences, but we are determined that those differences not prevent us from living together in peace. You believe deeply in your system, and we believe just as deeply in our system."

   -- The assertion that the policy of engagement with China pursued by successive U.S. administrations has failed is just a rehash of the Cold War mentality. It turns a blind eye to all that has been achieved in China-U.S. relations over the past decades, and shows ignorance of the historical process and lack of respect for the Chinese and American peoples. This is a political virus which is understandably questioned and rebuked by people in the United States and the international community.

   -- As two major countries of the world, China and the United States have coexisted peacefully over the past 40 years and more. There have been no wars or sharp confrontations. Instead, both countries have overcome difficulties and kept developing. This is the greatest achievement of the engagement policy. China-U.S. relations are of vital importance to the well-being of the two peoples and to world peace, stability and prosperity.

   -- Pompeo's assertion ran contrary to historical facts, said former U.S. senior diplomat Charles Freeman, who joined Nixon's visit to China in 1972 as an interpreter. "Those who don't understand what engagement achieved argue that it failed to change the Chinese political system, something it was never intended to do," he said.

   -- Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Pompeo sought to commit the United States to a path that is bound to fail. It is not within America's power to determine China's future, much less transform it. How China addresses its challenges "will be for the Chinese people and their leaders to determine," Haass noted.

   -- Paul Heer, an expert from the Center for the National Interest, a U.S. think tank, pointed out that the 50 years of engagement with China, which Pompeo denounced as a failure, actually worked. Success in the Cold War against the Soviet Union, which was aided in part by China's decision to align strategically with the United States; China's reform and opening-up policy which greatly expanded U.S.-China economic and cultural relations; decades of an endless supply of inexpensive imports and an export market for American farmers and manufacturers; a gradual Chinese embrace of multilateralism and more responsible proliferation behavior; and a dramatic opening up of Chinese society compared to what it had been.

   -- Kishore Mahbubani, a professor at the National University of Singapore and a former Singaporean ambassador to the United Nations, said that when future historians look back, they'll be puzzled by the Western expectation that a country like China, with 4,000 years of political history, could be changed by a country like the U.S., with a history of fewer than 250 years. The assumption that the rest of the world will, over time, become just like the West is arrogant.

   There is a fundamental difference between the United States and China, said Mahbubani, noting that the United States believes that it has the best society in the world and any other countries can be better off by copying it. However, the world has seen in the past few years how difficult it is to transform a society. When the United States exported democracy to Iraq, it ended in disaster.

   Mahbubani said Chinese people have a different position, which is simply that only we Chinese can be Chinese; you choose the system that is good for you, and we choose our own. The reality is that China is now getting stronger and certainly also becoming more capable of execution.

   7. Mike Pompeo: America can no longer ignore the fundamental political and ideological differences between the U.S. and China, just as the CCP has never ignored them. The U.S. must induce China to change in more creative and assertive ways.

   False.

   Fact check: Every country takes its development path on the basis of its cultural and historic traditions. No force is entitled to negate the choice of other countries. No country will alter its own system just because others do not like it. China has repeatedly stated that it never intends to challenge or replace the United States, or have a full confrontation with it. China has no intention to engage in rivalry of systems and ideological confrontation with the United States. China never exports ideology, never interferes in other countries' internal affairs, and never seeks to change the U.S. system. However, the incumbent U.S. administration is afraid to make such an aboveboard declaration as China does.

   -- China and the United States differ from each other in history, culture, social systems, development paths and national conditions. Therefore, it is inevitable for the two countries to have some differences and frictions. What is important is for the two sides to correctly understand and properly handle such differences. Early on after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the United States pursued a containment policy toward China. The two countries even fought each other on the Korean Peninsula and then fell into 22 years of confrontation. In the 1970s, Dr. Henry Kissinger secretly visited China and then the two countries resumed exchange and opened the gate for peaceful coexistence and common prosperity under the efforts of former U.S. President Richard Nixon, Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. Ups and downs over the past few decades fully show that confrontation and conflict are not in the interests of China or the United States and dialogue and cooperation are the right way of getting along with each other. For the sake of our two countries and the world at large, China and the United States should not seek to remodel each other. Instead, they must work together to find ways to peaceful coexistence of different systems and civilizations.

   -- When China-U.S. relations were normalized in 1972, the most fundamental reason for the realization of the cross-Pacific Ocean handshaking between leaders of the two countries was that both sides upheld the principle of mutual respect and seeking common ground while shelving differences, including our ideological differences.

   -- As the Joint Communique of the People's Republic of China and the United States of America (Shanghai Communique) issued on Feb. 28, 1972 states, there are essential differences between China and the United States in their social systems and foreign policies. However, the two sides agreed that countries, regardless of their social systems, should conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, non-aggression against other states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. The communique explicitly acknowledges that there are essential differences between the social systems of China and the United States, but the differences have not affected the establishment and development of China-U.S. relations.

   -- According to the Joint Communique of the People's Republic of China and the United States of America (August 17 Communique) signed on Aug. 17, 1982, respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in each other's internal affairs constitute the fundamental principles guiding China-United States relations. The United States government attaches great importance to its relations with China, and reiterates that it has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China's internal affairs, reads the communique. It adds that the development of China-United States relations is not only in the interests of the two peoples but also conducive to peace and stability in the world.

   -- On Nov. 17, 2009, China and the United States signed a joint statement, stressing that each country and its people have the right to choose their own path, and all countries should respect each other's choice of a development model. The United States reiterated that it welcomes a strong, prosperous and successful China that plays a greater role in world affairs.

   -- In a joint statement by the two countries, which was signed in Washington on Jan. 19, 2011, China and the United States underscored that each country and its people have the right to choose their own path, and all countries should respect each other's choice of a development model.

   -- U.S. President Donald Trump paid a state visit to China from Nov. 8 to 10, 2017. The two sides agreed to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas on the basis of mutual benefit, properly manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples and strengthen communication and coordination on major international and regional issues so as to move forward the China-U.S. ties.

   -- What has happened in China-U.S. relations over the past generations demonstrates that this monumental choice made by the two sides is the right one. Over the past 40 years and more since the two countries entered into diplomatic ties, several generations of Chinese and Americans have worked together to advance China-U.S. relations. As a result, bilateral ties have become one of the most deeply interwoven relationships in the world with broadest cooperation areas and most extensive common interests. The ups and downs in China-U.S. relations provide ample evidence that confrontation and conflict are not in the fundamental interests of both sides, and dialogue and cooperation are the only way to go.

   8. Mike Pompeo: The United States must distrust and verify when it comes to the CCP.

   False.

   Fact check: Pompeo's so-called "distrust and verify" approach to China abounds with strong Cold War mentality, ideological bias, condescending and bullying attitudes, as well as ignorance towards China. Indeed, there is a trust deficit between China and the United States. Its root lies in the Cold War mentality, ideological bias, and zero-sum game mindset of certain U.S. politicians, who have misread, misjudged or even deliberately distorted China's strategic intention and its internal and external policies.

   -- Engagement between countries should be built on a foundation of integrity, a premise of equal treatment and a goal of peace, development and win-win cooperation. Bilateral relations should work in reciprocal ways: one country cannot have the other be responsible without taking its own responsibility for the other side. Likewise, one country cannot be concerned only with its own benefits and security without considering those of the other. If the United States assumes China to be a "potential enemy", eventually it is bound to "create an enemy". Only by regarding each other as partners can China and the United States avoid confrontation and become friends.

   -- China has maintained a highly stable and consistent policy toward the United States, and China stands ready to develop a China-U.S. relationship featuring no conflict and confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation based on coordination, cooperation and stability. This will require the two sides to work in the same direction, respect international law and rules, and engage in equal dialogue and consultation.

   -- While the United States unscrupulously contains and smears China around the world, and meddles in China's domestic affairs, it should not demand unrealistically that China show understanding and support to the United States in bilateral and global affairs. As an independent sovereign country, China has every right to uphold its sovereignty, security and development interests, safeguard the achievements that the Chinese people have made through hard work, and reject any bullying and injustice imposed on it.

   -- The U.S. government has continuously pulled out of international treaties and organizations. It wields the stick of sanctions wherever it wants and ignores its international obligations and the international norms, making itself the most damaging force of the current international order and the biggest source of global instability. The current U.S. administration has pulled out of more international treaties than any one before it. It is the United States, not others, that deserves the "distrust and verify" approach the most.

   9. Mike Pompeo: The CCP fails in its promises to the world, leading to the continued rise in the pandemic's death toll.

   False.

   Fact check: The Chinese government has taken the most comprehensive, strict and thorough prevention and control measures in the shortest time, containing the epidemic mainly in Wuhan. Data showed that very few cases were from China, and the transmission chain of the virus was effectively cut off. A Science magazine report estimated that the aforementioned measures reduced the number of infected people in China by more than 700,000.

   -- When Wuhan was locked down on Jan. 23,2020, there was only one confirmed case in the United States. When the U.S. on Feb. 2 closed its borders to all Chinese citizens and foreigners who had been to China over the past 14 days, it reported merely more than 10 confirmed cases. When the U.S. declared a state of emergency on March 13, the country's COVID-19 tally was 1,896. When the Chinese government lifted the lockdown on Wuhan on April 8, the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. reached 400,000. The country saw its tally rise from one to 1 million in less than 100 days. Currently, the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has exceeded 5.69 million with the death toll over 170,000.

   -- From the onset of COVID-19, the largest emergency humanitarian operation in the history of the People's Republic of China has been carried out. The nation widely shared its experience in COVID-19 prevention and control, provided medical supplies and dispatched medical teams to where they were needed overseas. By early May, seven versions of the diagnosis and treatment guidelines and six versions of the prevention and control guidelines had been made public through an online knowledge center. A 2-billion-yuan special fund had been set up to fight COVID-19, and over 120 video conferences had been held with experts and officials from more than 160 countries and international organizations. Medical supplies had been provided to more than 150 countries and international organizations, and 29 Chinese medical teams had been sent to 27 countries. China set up a joint expert group with the EU, and established a prevention and control cooperation mechanism with the Republic of Korea. China sent a cash donation of 50 million U.S. dollars to the World Health Organization, pledged to make COVID-19 vaccines global public goods, and provided the world with more than 70 billion face masks. In response to the G20 call for debt repayment moratorium for the poorest countries, China has agreed to suspend principal and interest repayments on the debts of 77 developing countries due from May 1 to the end of this year. The international community commended China's help and support which reflected the spirit of sharing weal and woe and helping each other, and further highlighted the importance of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

   -- On May 1, the website of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report by CDC Principal Deputy Chief Anne Schuchat and CDC COVID-19 response team, which showed that after the United States' first confirmed case was reported on Jan. 21, the pandemic seemed to be brought under control in February, but then intensified rapidly. Factors including a continued rise in imported cases, mass gatherings, the introduction of the virus into high-risk workplaces and densely populated areas, and limited testing that led to covert and asymptomatic transmissions, accelerated the spread of the virus in February and March.

   -- New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed to a research by Northeastern University showing that the first strain of the novel coronavirus entering his state was not from China. The New York Times quoted American experts who confirmed that most New York coronavirus cases did not come from Asia.

   -- Statistics from several major Canadian provinces showed that the virus was introduced into Canada by American travelers. A study by France's Pasteur Institute found that the source of the virus strain transmitted locally was unknown. Russia reported no imported cases from China. Data from the Australian Government Department of Health showed that the proportion of imported cases from Northeast Asia was extremely small. Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases said the pandemic that spread in Japan after March did not originate in China.

   -- As the New York Times pointed out in an article titled Why is the U.S. exporting coronavirus, the United States, with the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, is continuing to deport thousands of immigrants, many infected with the coronavirus. In late April, the Guatemalan government reported that nearly a fifth of the country's coronavirus cases were linked to deportees from the United States. Seventy-one of 76 deportees tested positive for the coronavirus.

   10. Mike Pompeo: The world would be much better if doctors in Wuhan had been allowed to raise the alarm about the outbreak of a new and novel virus.

   False.

   Fact check: On Aug. 3, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of medical journal The Lancet, wrote in an article in The Guardian, saying that Chinese doctors quickly warned their government and their government warned the world, but Western nations failed to listen to those warnings. To blame China for this pandemic is to rewrite the history of COVID-19 and to marginalize the failings of Western nations.

   -- The novel coronavirus is unknown to mankind. It takes a process to study and understand it. As one of the first countries hit by the virus, China undertook a closed-book exam, which means developing effective prevention and control measures requires more careful research beforehand. Jumping to conclusions without research shows no sense of responsibility to science and to the people.

   -- China has been open, transparent, rapid and effective in its response to COVID-19, with no cover-ups or delays. On Dec. 27, 2019, Dr. Zhang Jixian, director of the respiratory and critical care medicine department at Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, reported suspected cases. After that China took rapid actions, carried out etiological and epidemiological investigations, and blocked the spreading of the epidemic. China's information sharing has been timely. Starting from Jan. 3, 2020, China provided epidemic updates on a regular basis to the World Health Organization and foreign countries including the United States. China carried out international cooperation, shared the genome sequence of the virus with other countries at the earliest time possible, and shared its epidemic prevention and control experience. The United States ignored the warnings from China. Now out of political motives, it is wantonly questioning China's transparency. Such a move is utter disrespect for the tremendous efforts and sacrifices of the Chinese people.

   -- After the COVID-19 outbreak, the vast majority of Chinese medical workers, bearing in mind their supreme mission of safeguarding the lives and health of the people, rushed to the front line of epidemic prevention and control without hesitation, raced against time to rescue patients, fought against the disease, and created one medical miracle after another. Their professional ethics, professionalism and strong will are highly recognized by people from all walks of life in China. The Chinese government has unveiled a slew of measures to protect and care for medical staff and commended them with awards and honors. Zhang Dingyu, head of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, and Zhang Jixian, the doctor at Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine who first reported the COVID-19 cases, have gotten a merit award. Many medical staff and medical teams were honored with the May Fourth Medals, and eight medical workers, including Li Wenliang, were honored posthumously. Recently, Zhong Nanshan was awarded the Medal of the Republic, while Zhang Boli, Zhang Dingyu and Chen Wei were awarded the national honorary title "the People's Hero" to honor their significant contribution to the fight against COVID-19.

   -- U.S. politicians have put politics above science, ignored the reality of their incompetence in fighting the epidemic, and repeatedly criticized the epidemic prevention and control advice raised by Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci said he and his family had received death threats and had to get extra security. Recently, over 3,000 U.S. public health experts signed an open letter, criticizing the efforts of White House officials to discredit Fauci. Calling the COVID-19 pandemic the greatest challenge the United States has faced in its history, the open letter said the attempt of the White House to discredit and marginalize Fauci is a dangerous distraction. The Washington Post commented on July 20 that under the guidance of the U.S. government, many Americans believe scientists and mainstream media have exaggerated the severity of the pandemic or even fabricated the pandemic, and that resistance to scientific experts has become part of the political agenda. A New York Times report cited the experience of Dr. Helen Y. Chu, the U.S. whistleblower, and a team of researchers, saying that faced with a public health emergency on a scale potentially not seen in a century, the United States has not responded nimbly. The professional advice of Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was unkindly treated by senior U.S. health officials. He was ousted from his position after refusing to allow wide use of the medicine in accordance with government orders. The official website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped updating in early March and deleted relevant data on the number of people tested for the novel coronavirus and the number of deaths.

   11. Mike Pompeo: The massive imbalances in the U.S.-China relationship have built up over decades. Chinese trade abuses sucked supply chains away from America, cost American jobs and strike enormous blows to the economies all across America.

   False.

   Fact check: In today's era of globalization, the interests of all countries are deeply intertwined. The formation and development of the global industrial chain and supply chain is the result of the joint work of market rule and the choice of enterprises. China and the United States have become each other's most important trading partner and investment destination, as well as a community of shared interests deeply connected by industrial, supply and service chains.

  -- The Sino-U.S. relationship is defined by equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. It has been based on mutual benefit from the very beginning. China owes nothing to the United States. In Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, China receives capital, technology and management experience from the United States, while the United States has gained market share in China and occupied the high end of the global industrial chain and value chain. Both countries have benefited greatly from their cooperation with each other. Through complementary and mutually beneficial cooperation with China, the U.S. economy has achieved faster growth, American families have saved significant costs of living, and American companies have gained handsome profits. Both China and the United States have achieved remarkable development and progress through cooperation, bringing tangible benefits to the two countries and their peoples.

   -- Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation is essentially mutually beneficial and win-win. China and the United States are each other's largest trading partner and important source of investment. In 2018, their bilateral trade exceeded 630 billion U.S. dollars and the stock of two-way investment exceeded 240 billion U.S. dollars. Statistics of the U.S.-China Business Council in May 2019 showed that between 2009 and 2018, China was one of the fastest-growing markets for U.S. goods exports, with an average annual growth rate of 6.3 percent and a cumulative growth rate of 73.2 percent, much higher than the average growth rate of 56.9 percent to the rest of the world. By the end of 2018, Chinese enterprises had invested 73.17 billion U.S. dollars in the United States. Chinese investment in the United States has made positive contribution to the development of local communities, and the increase in jobs and tax revenue. During COVID-19, China once again became the largest trading partner of the United States. In May 2020, bilateral trade rose to 46.5 billion U.S. dollars, and China's holding of U.S. Treasury bonds exceeded 1.08 trillion U.S. dollars.

   -- American enterprises have invested in more than 70,000 businesses in China, with annual sales of 700 billion U.S. dollars, and 97 percent of them are profitable. There are only two single markets that account for more than 10 percent of Apple's global revenue. One is the U.S. market, with a total revenue of 96.6 billion U.S. dollars, and the other is the Chinese market. In 2017, General Motors' sales in the Chinese market accounted for 42 percent of its global sales, and were 1 million units more than the sales in the U.S. market. Qualcomm's chip sales and patent license fees in China accounted for 57 percent of its total revenue. According to a survey conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China in May 2020, 84 percent of American enterprises are unwilling to withdraw from China, 38 percent of American enterprises will maintain or increase their investment in China, and China is still the most favored market for American enterprises.

   -- Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation has brought tangible benefits to the American people. For more than 40 years, bilateral trade in goods between China and the United States has increased by more than 250 times, supporting about 2.6 million jobs in the United States. About 72,500 U.S. enterprises have invested in China and most of them have benefited a lot.

   According to the 2019 State Export Report released by the U.S.-China Business Council on May 1, 2019, U.S. exports to China supported more than 1.1 million jobs in the United States from 2009 to 2018 and 97 percent of the U.S. companies surveyed said doing business with China was profitable. Chinese investment in America had spread across 46 states, directly creating more than 140,000 jobs in America. Trade between China and the United States saved each American family an average cost of 850 U.S. dollars per year, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the household income in America. According to the U.S. Travel Association, Chinese tourists spend an average of 7,000 U.S. dollars per trip to the United States, including air tickets and accommodation.

   -- The main causes of unemployment among certain groups in the American society are the mistakes of U.S. economic policies and the lack of redistributive and reemployment mechanisms in the context of technological progress and economic restructuring. Arthur R. Kroeber, a member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, told the Asia Society that the problem with the hit to American employment over the past few decades was the failure of the United States to adjust its domestic policies in a timely manner. A report by the Cato Institute, a U.S. think tank, noted that U.S. manufacturing job losses and worker losses had little to do with Chinese imports.

   -- According to a Cato Institute report, American consumers have benefited greatly from Sino-U.S. trade. From 2004 to 2015, due to imports from China, U.S. consumer price index dropped by an average 0.19 percent annually, effectively easing inflation in the United States. Sino-U.S. trade helps, not hurts, American manufacturers and workers. It is estimated that out of every U.S. dollar Americans spend on "made in China" products in 2018, 56 cents went to American companies and workers, and importing Chinese products has helped American manufacturing become more competitive, invest more and innovate more.

   -- The United States unilaterally provoked a trade war with China, and this will ultimately damage its own interests. The Peterson Institute for International Economics projected that raising tariffs on imported automobiles would cause about 195,000 U.S. workers to lose their jobs. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that due to the additional tariffs imposed on 250 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese exports in 2018, U.S. consumers would have to spend an extra 52.8 billion U.S. dollars every year. That is 414 U.S. dollars more in expenditure for every American family.

   Recently, 160 American companies submitted a joint letter to the U.S. Congress, demanding the cancellation of the additional tariffs on China, saying that in 2019, due to the additional tariffs, the U.S. public paid an extra 50 billion U.S. dollars, which is 1,277 U.S. dollars on average for each household, and the market value of U.S. listed companies shrank by 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars.

   -- The U.S. attempt to forcibly "decouple" the Chinese and American economies, cut off the global industrial, supply and value chains, and disrupt the global economic and trade pattern poses the biggest threat to the safety of the industrial and supply chains of the two countries and the world at large. Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg and former Assistant Secretary of State Phil Gordon argued that the Trump administration has overlooked the benefits that two generations of Americans have reaped from importing affordable consumer goods, low-cost inputs for high-end manufacturing exports, and growing U.S. export surpluses in services and agricultural products. The trade war or "decoupling" pursued by the Trump administration would hurt American workers, farmers and consumers. According to a study by Moody's Analytics, Trump's trade war with China has already cost the United States an estimated 300,000 jobs and an average of around 600 U.S. dollars per household from higher prices.

   12.Mike Pompeo: China ripped off America's prized intellectual property and trade secrets.

   False.

   Fact check: China is a big country in terms of innovation and intellectual property (IP), and has kept strengthening the protection of scientific innovation and intellectual property. China is now among the world's leaders in terms of the scale and growth rate of innovation input. Its R&D expenditure had grown from 300.31 billion yuan in 2006 to 1.96779 trillion yuan in 2018, recording an average annual growth of 17 percent and rising from the sixth to the second in the world. China has the world's biggest number of researchers. China's IP offices have received the highest number of patent applications for nine years in a row. China has also registered rapid increase in international patent applications and grown into the world's second biggest filer of international patent applications via the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) System. The annual WIPO report recognizes China as a main driving force for intellectual property development in the world.

   -- In recent years, China has continued to take effective measures, introduced a number of policies and measures to strengthen intellectual property, and intensified law enforcement and protection, which have produced remarkable results. The decision to amend the "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China" has substantially raised the cost of infringement and violations. China has released the "Guidelines on Strengthening Reform and Innovation in Intellectual Property Trials" and the "Guidelines on Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property," emphasizing the need to promote coordinated advancement of intellectual property protection and enhance the overall level of protection. China has joined almost all major international intellectual property treaties. In 2019, the country scored 78.98 points in terms of public satisfaction over intellectual property protection. According to the 2019 "Business Confidence Survey" report released by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, around 60 percent of the 585 EU companies interviewed regarded that China's administrative and judicial protection of intellectual property had been significantly strengthened. The International Intellectual Property Index report released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in March 2019 specifically pointed out that China has made outstanding achievements in improving the online sales environment and drug patent enforcement. In the World Bank "Doing Business 2020" report, China lifted its ranking to the 31st slot, and made to the list of the top 10 improved economies for the second year in a row.

   -- The Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress held an antitrust hearing on July 29 this year. When asked whether they believe the Chinese government is stealing technology from American companies, the CEOs of Apple, Google, and Amazon all said that they had not experienced such cases.

   -- Yahoo News quoted U.S. government officials as saying that "U.S. President Trump gave a secret order that gives more powers to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for cyberattacks." This secret authorization makes it easier for the CIA to conduct covert cyber operations without the White House approval. Since the secret order was signed, the CIA has implemented at least 12 operations. On March 3 this year, Chinese cyber security company Qihoo 360 discovered that APT-C-39, a cyberattack organization of the CIA, had conducted cyberattacks on China for 11 years. During this period, China's aerospace companies, scientific research institutions, petroleum industry, large internet firms and government agencies have all suffered attacks to varying degrees.

   13.Mike Pompeo: The Chinese Consulate-General in Houston is a hub of spying and intellectual property theft.

   False.

   Fact check: The United States fabricated false charges and forcibly closed the Chinese Consulate-General in Houston, with the aim of pushing for a "decoupling" between China and the United States. It is an important part of the U.S. strategy to suppress China and is strongly opposed by the vast majority of rational Americans.

   -- The Consulate-General in Houston was the first Chinese consular mission opened in the United States following the establishment of China-U.S. diplomatic ties. In the past 41 years, it has worked hard to promote friendship and cooperation between the two peoples, and enhance mutual understanding and all-round cooperation between the two countries in various sectors. While COVID-19 raged on in the southern U.S. states, the Consulate-General donated masks to Houston and Harris County, and assisted Shanghai Municipality, Shandong Province and Shenzhen City of China in donating medical supplies to Houston.

   -- The composition and number of the staff at the Consulate-General in Houston was open information to the U.S. side. To accuse the Consulate-General as the hub of Chinese spying and intellectual property theft runs against the common sense in diplomacy. Reports from Cable News Network (CNN), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), The Houston Chronicle and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) showed that closing the Chinese Consulate-General prior to the election was a measure by Trump to "play tough on China", hold up his declining approval rating and turn China into a convenient target to vilify and shore up votes. The New York Times questioned the assertion that "the Houston Consulate-General had a history of engaging in 'subversive behavior' and was the 'epicenter' of research theft in the United States", and believes that there is no evidence to support this allegation. Shocked by the decision of the U.S. government, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner expressed his hope that whatever the friction may be between the United States and China [it] can be resolved peacefully and that at some point in time the Consulate-General will reopen.

   -- An editorial of The Houston Chronicle said China is the second-largest trading partner of the Houston region, and the region has benefited greatly from having the Consulate-General in the city. For more than 40 years, the Chinese Consulate-General has served as a symbolic bridge, facilitating travel, trade and cultural ties between Houston and China.

   14.Mike Pompeo: Many Chinese students and employees come to the U.S. to steal intellectual property.

   False.

   Fact check: The United States cooked up false charges against the normal scientific, cultural and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation with China based on the presumption of guilt. Such actions run counter to its self-proclaimed ideas of openness and freedom, the public commitments made by U.S. leaders, and the global trend of personnel exchanges, and have caused serious and negative impact on people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

   -- The past four decades have seen growing cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, with over 5 million mutual visits recorded every year. Exchanges and cooperation in education and scientific research, in particular, have yielded fruitful results and benefited both countries. China has been one of the most popular destinations for American students in the past 40 years, during which more than 330,000 American students have come to China to further their study. China has also been the largest source of overseas students for the United States for 10 consecutive years. In the 2018-2019 academic year alone, the number of Chinese students in the United States totaled 370,000, accounting for one third of the country's international students. In addition, as the statistics of the U.S. National Science Foundation suggest, China and the United States are each other's largest collaborating country in internationally co-authored papers and their interdependence far exceeds other countries.

   -- It is in the interest of both sides to boost exchanges and cooperation in areas like science and technology. As shown in Global AI Talent Tracker, a report published in mid-June by the Paulson Institute's in-house think tank MacroPolo, America's big lead in AI is inseparable from China's talent pool, with nearly one third of these researchers completing their undergraduate education in China.

   -- In his book The Gift of Global Talent, William Kerr, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, said that inventors with Chinese descent accounted for over 10 percent of patents in the United States. In 2018, for example, Chinese students in the United States reached 370,000, bringing about 20 billion U.S. dollars of benefits to the U.S. economy. Turning a blind eye to the contribution of Chinese students and researchers and acting in disregard of the objection from their own scholars, American politicians are putting their own country's interests at stake.

   -- After the U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out the announcement to bar international students taking only online classes from obtaining visas or maintaining current visas, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a lawsuit against the action, contending that the order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, because the policy lacked reasonable justification and the public was not given notice to comment on it. Universities and institutions of higher learning across the country have joined Harvard and MIT in the lawsuit or filed lawsuits on their own. Many of them describe the new visa rules as "policymaking at its worst," "cruel and reckless" and "deeply misguided."

    -- For some time, the United States, out of its ideological bias, has made Chinese students and researchers the target of surveillance, harassment and willful detention, and fabricated absurd charges like "espionage" against Chinese scholars under the presumption of guilt. These U.S. actions have seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and severely disrupted normal cultural and personnel exchanges between the two countries. Such practices are outright political persecution, which not only goes against morality and justice, but also hurts the United States' own image. MIT President Rafael Reif said in an open letter to the university in 2019 that the "unfair scrutiny" targeting Chinese would "create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear", bringing harm to this world-renowned research university and the United States.

   15.Mike Pompeo: China sends propagandists into the press conferences, schools, research institutions in the U.S.

   False.

   Fact check: These remarks have fully exposed the ideological prejudice of the U.S. side. Media organizations should not be judged by the political systems and ideologies of their countries, but the objectivity, authenticity, fairness and impartiality of their news reports. Each country has its own national conditions and ways of media management and operation. The United States should not judge other countries' media by its own standards and based on its own ideology. Chinese media organizations in the United States have always followed local laws and observed professional ethics. They have carried out news reporting normally and have never interfered in the internal affairs of the United States. Over the years, they have played an important and positive role in enhancing the objective understanding and friendliness of the Chinese people towards the United States.

   -- In recent years, the U.S. government has imposed unwarranted restrictions on the normal news reporting of Chinese media outlets and their staff in the country. It has continuously escalated discrimination and political suppression against Chinese media and restricted their freedom. In December 2018, CGTN America was registered as a "foreign agent" under orders from the U.S. Department of Justice. On February 18, 2020, the U.S. State Department designated five Chinese media outlets, including Xinhua News Agency, as "foreign missions" and demanded personnel, property and other information from them. On March 2, the U.S. State Department announced that from March 13, the five Chinese media outlets designated as "foreign missions" have to slash the number of Chinese nationals permitted to work in America by 60, a 40 percent cut in staff members, which means de facto expulsion of the Chinese journalists stationed in the country.

   -- The United States has for a long time imposed discriminatory visa policies on Chinese journalists. U.S.-based Chinese journalists are only granted single-entry visas, which means they have to reapply for visa after they leave for China or for a third country, and nine Chinese journalists have not been able to return to the United States after leaving the country. In contrast, the United States gives multiple-entry visas to journalists from other countries and regions. When applying for U.S. visa, Chinese journalists are often requested to provide substantial amount of additional documents. Meanwhile, it has become a common practice for the U.S. side to prolong and indefinitely delay the approval process and even deny the application in the name of administrative review. Statistics show that from 2018, more than 20 Chinese journalists have had their visa application indefinitely delayed and even denied. Some Chinese journalists applied for U.S. visa in mid-December 2019, but so far have not received any feedback from the U.S. side and their passports have not been returned either. In May 2020, the United States limited the duration of stay for U.S.-based Chinese journalists, including those based in the United Nations, to 90 days, which means they have to apply for a visa extension every 90 days. If the extension application is not approved, the journalists will be forced to leave America. This new move has seriously disrupted the normal reporting work of the Chinese media.

   -- At present, there are about 500 foreign journalists based in China. China has provided active assistance to facilitate their work and life. Normally, the applications of foreign journalists for the extension of press cards get approved within 10 workdays. For a long time, U.S. journalists in China have been able to travel to and from China many times with their valid certificates without applying for new visas. In 2019 alone, U.S. resident journalists in China traveled to and from the country more than 700 times. China welcomes media outlets and journalists from all countries to report in China in accordance with laws and regulations, and will continue to facilitate and assist their work.

   -- As of July 2020, a total of 28 U.S. media outlets have sent resident journalists to the Chinese mainland, with 34 offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. They have hired 29 U.S. journalists, 34 non-U.S. journalists and 135 employees. In addition, there are more than 20 U.S. media outlets operating in Hong Kong, with more than 400 staff. These U.S. journalists are free to attend press conferences held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ask questions without restriction. In recent years, some U.S. media outlets have concocted a lot of "fake news" with distorted facts, and pointed fingers at Xinjiang and Hong Kong affairs. They are sparing no effort to smear and attack China and even attack China's political system. China opposes ideological prejudice against it, opposes the fabrication of fake news under the pretext of so-called freedom of the press, and opposes acts that violate the professional ethics of journalism.

   16.Mike Pompeo: Chinese companies do not answer to independent boards, and many of them are state-owned and have no need to pursue profits. A good example is Huawei.

   False.

   Fact check: The fourth national economic census of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that by the end of 2018, there were 15.61 million private companies in the country, up 178.6 percent from the end of 2013, and 84.1 percent of total enterprises were private ones, up 68.3 percent. The number of state-controlled enterprises were about 242,000, accounting for only 1.3 percent of total enterprises.

   -- Creating wealth and profits are the natural pursuit and the most important functions of businesses. NBS statistics revealed the following profits made by China's major industrial enterprises (with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan each) in 2019: 1.64 trillion yuan by state-controlled enterprises, 4.53 trillion yuan by joint-equity enterprises, 1.56 trillion yuan by foreign as well as Hong Kong-, Macao- and Taiwan-invested enterprises, and 1.82 trillion yuan by private enterprises.

   -- In China's economic system, the private sector contributes to over 50 percent of tax revenue, over 60 percent of GDP, over 70 percent of technological innovation, and over 80 percent of urban employment, and accounts for over 90 percent of the number of enterprises.

   -- Huawei is a leading private enterprise, and 100 percent employee-owned. The Chinese government has no shares in Huawei, which adopts an employee shareholding scheme involving 104,572 people through its trade union. Only Huawei employees are eligible to participate, and no government departments or organizations have any shares in Huawei.

   17.Mike Pompeo: Huawei is not an innocent telecommunications company but a national security threat to the U.S.

   False.

   Fact check: Over the past three decades, Huawei has grown from a small company to one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment suppliers, providing quality services to over 3 billion people in more than 170 countries and regions. The company has brought enormous business opportunities to the global telecommunications industry and won a good international reputation. Each year, Huawei makes nearly 80 billion U.S. dollars of purchases globally from 13,000 suppliers in more than 140 countries. Purchases from the U.S. alone was nearly 19 billion dollars.

   -- Huawei strictly abides by local laws wherever it operates. The company has long been expressing its readiness to sign no-backdoor and no-eavesdropping agreements with any country, set up cybersecurity testing centers and open itself to testing. This is enough to prove Huawei's innocence and transparency. So far, not a single country, a single company or a single individual has been able to produce solid and conclusive evidence to prove that Huawei poses a security threat to them. Huawei funded a cybersecurity testing center in the United Kingdom and opens itself to testing by UK experts. No other companies in any other country could do this, and no U.S. companies could act in such an open and honest way.

   -- Huawei owns a total of 87,805 patents worldwide, of which more than 90 percent are invention patents, including 11,152 core ones granted by the U.S. authorities. According to the latest statistics from German market intelligence company IPlytics, Huawei has declared the largest number of 5G essential patents, accounting for 15.05 percent of the total number of declarations. The Patent Index 2019 of the European Patent Office suggested that Huawei was its top applicant that year, with its declared 5G essential patents outnumbering all U.S. companies.

   -- The U.S. government has, with no factual basis at all, abused state power to willfully oppress and sanction Huawei under the pretext of national security. This is nothing short of economic bullying. For the United States, the so-called national security is nothing but a code name of hegemony.

   -- In an analysis titled Huawei and the Mantra of Security published on July 20, 2020, Xulio Rios, director of the Spanish Observatory of Chinese Politics in Spain, said the repeated use of national security to discredit Huawei looks like a good story. He mentioned that the truth behind the U.S. pressure on its allies to block Huawei is that "Huawei's technology is highly competitive and places China ahead in the marketplace." They are trying to curb China's development by classifying Huawei as a "security" threat.

   -- Jeffrey Sachs, the economics professor at Columbia University, agrees that targeting Huawei is never simply a security concern. "The U.S. concocted in my opinion, the view that Huawei is a global threat," he said, noting that the U.S. has leaned very hard on its allies...to try to break the relations with Huawei. "The United States lost its step on 5G, which is a critical part of the new digital economy."

   -- According to U.S. media reports, the U.S. Rural Wireless Association (RWA) estimates that 25 percent of its members had Huawei or ZTE equipment in their networks. Replacing the equipment would cost 800 million to 1 billion U.S. dollars, which means certain U.S. rural areas may lose basic communications facilities. Banning the purchase of Huawei and ZTE equipment or services by rural operators, as advocated by some in the U.S., could end up harming the interests of American businesses and consumers.

   18.Mike Pompeo: Countries should become Clean Countries so that their citizens' private information doesn't end up in the hand of the CCP.

   False.

   Fact check: The U.S. administration has generalized the concept of national security, resorted to the presumption of guilt and state power to hold down Chinese enterprises, and intervened in the economy with political means. All this has run counter to the free market, fair competition and entrepreneurship that the U.S. has been advocating globally for many years, seriously disrupted the order of the market economy, and violated WTO rules. These acts have undermined the open, transparent, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, affected the development prospects of the global 5G and digital industries, and damaged the common interests of all countries in the world.

   -- The Chinese government has never asked, and will not ask its enterprises or individuals to violate local laws, and to collect or provide data, information and intelligence of foreign countries through the installation of "backdoor" or other ways.

   -- The Chinese government attaches great importance to the protection of personal privacy of citizens and has been committed to improving laws and regulations on the protection of personal privacy. Chinese laws and regulations, such as its Civil Code, the Cybersecurity Law and the decision of the NPC Standing Committee on strengthening online information protection, have clear stipulations on the collection, use and protection of personal information.

   -- After the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. adopted the USA Patriot Act that requires Internet companies to provide users' information on a regular basis. The "Prism Gate" incident has exposed that under the monitoring of U.S. intelligence agencies, U.S. citizens have no personal privacy in their phone calls, communications, documents, voice mail and other data. The phone calls of leaders of countries, who used to be very close allies of the United States, have also been eavesdropped by the U.S. for a long time. Facts have shown that it is the United States that has carried out the largest network surveillance and espionage operations in the world, and the U.S. is the largest "hacker empire" in the world. For this, the United Nations adopted the resolution "Privacy in the Digital Age" initiated by European countries.

   -- In May 2019, the Der Tagesspiegel of Germany reported that after years of scrutiny by the British government, the German Federal Office for Information Security, the European Commission and other agencies, no obvious "backdoor" has been found on Huawei equipment. However, security flaws are often found in the equipment provided by the U.S. company Cisco. Since 2013, Cisco has been involved in at least 10 cases, which are more in line with the description of the so-called "backdoor".

   -- There are security flaws in Cisco's devices, and many "backdoor" incidents have been reported. Cisco deliberately sold video surveillance technology containing serious security vulnerabilities to government agencies, and was sued by video surveillance experts of its distributor NetDesign. In 2019, Cisco eventually paid 8.6 million U.S. dollars to settle claims for its act of "leaving backdoor" .

   -- As early as in 2014, Apple admitted that it could extract personal data such as SMS, address book and photos of its mobile phone users through the backdoor of Apple's mobile phone system. Its CEO Tim Cook said publicly that "China has never asked us to unlock the iPhone, but the U.S. has asked for it." Facebook was also revealed to have a backdoor to its users' accounts.

   19.Mike Pompeo: China has set up concentration camps in Xinjiang.

   False.

   Fact check: There are no so-called "concentration camps" in Xinjiang, and its vocational education and training centers were established in accordance with the law. The centers are similar in nature to community correction programs of the United States, the Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP) of the UK, and the deradicalization center of France, all beneficial attempts and positive explorations for preventive counter-terrorism and de-extremism. They are consistent with the principles and spirit of a series of counter-terrorism resolutions, including the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

   -- It is a practice with ulterior motives for some U.S. politicians and media to call Xinjiang vocational education and training centers "concentration camps". The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a non-governmental organization supported by the U.S. government, has come to the absurd conclusion that 10 percent of Xinjiang's 20 million population are detained in the so-called "concentration camps", simply based on its interviews with eight people and rough estimates.

   A survey by Grayzone, a U.S. news website, revealed that Adrian Zenz, a pseudo scholar, had fabricated the rumor that the total of detainees in Xinjiang exceeded 1 million based on a report by Istiqlal TV, a Turkey-based exile media organization. According to Grayzone, rather than being an impartial news organization, Istiqlal TV has advocated separatism and received all kinds of extremists. Even Adrian Zenz himself admitted that he was uncertain with his estimate.

   -- For some years, Xinjiang has been a victim of terrorism and extremism. According to preliminary statistics, between 1990 and the end of 2016, ethnic separatists, religious extremists and violent terrorists have plotted and carried out several thousand acts of terrorism, resulting in the death of a large number of innocent civilians, the killing of several hundred police officers, and huge property losses.

   Thanks to the law-based anti-terrorism, deradicalization and vocational education and training in Xinjiang, there have been no violent terrorist cases in the region for more than three years, and people of all ethnic groups have acquired a notably stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.

   -- Vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang have focused on the main problems facing the trainees, such as low proficiency in spoken and written Mandarin, lack of understanding in the law and occupational skills, and influence by religious extremism to various degrees. A curriculum that includes standard spoken and written Mandarin, legal courses, vocational skills and deradicalization has been developed, aiming at eliminating the root causes of terrorism and religious extremism.

   The centers strictly implement the basic principles of respecting and protecting human rights enshrined in China's Constitution and laws, fully respect and guarantee the trainees' personal freedom and freedom of religious belief, the right to use their spoken and written languages, and the customs of different ethnic groups. There are access to various living facilities, and legal and mental counseling rooms. All trainees are covered by public pension and medical insurance schemes, and are entitled to free health examination.

   So far, all the trainees involved in the courses of standard spoken and written Mandarin, legal courses, vocational skills and deradicalization have graduated, and been employed with the help of the government. They are living a much-improved and happier life.

   -- In October 2019, more than 60 countries, including over 30 Islamic countries, addressed the UN General Assembly in support of China's policy in Xinjiang. None of the few countries that criticized China's policies was an Islamic country.

   Since the end of December 2018, Xinjiang has been visited by more than 70 groups of UN officials, foreign diplomats in China, representatives of relevant countries to the UN Office at Geneva, media reporters and religious groups. The number of these visitors, who come from over 90 countries, exceeded 1,000. They noted that Xinjiang's anti-terrorism and deradicalization efforts were consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN in fighting terrorism and safeguarding basic human rights, and should be fully recognized and learned from.

   -- Many foreign diplomats, experts, scholars and media reporters, after a personal visit to the vocational education and training centers, said the Chinese government had introduced a number of preferential policies and measures to improve people's livelihoods in Xinjiang in line with local conditions, benefiting the people of all ethnic groups with prosperity and vitality. Before visiting Xinjiang, they had thought that the centers were "concentration camps". However, after seeing with their own eyes how the trainees studied and lived at the centers, receiving skills training and attending various activities based on their interests, they realized that the so-called "concentration camps" were all lies maliciously spread by Western politicians and media.

   20.Mike Pompeo: China walked away from its promise to the world on Hong Kong.

   False.

   Fact check: The central government has been unswervingly implementing the policy of "one country, two systems". Since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, this principle, along with "the people of Hong Kong administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy, has been effectively implemented and made widely recognized achievements. "One country, two systems" has been proven to be the best institutional arrangement to maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability. The central government will continue to uphold the integrity of the "one country, two systems" policy, and ensure its faithful implementation.

   -- The legal basis for the Chinese government to govern Hong Kong is China's Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR. The Sino-British Joint Declaration is not relevant in this regard. As China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, all provisions concerning the UK under the Joint Declaration had been fulfilled. The basic policies on Hong Kong stated by China in the Joint Declaration are its policy declaration, which have since been fully embodied in the Basic Law enacted by the NPC. China's relevant policies have not changed, and will continue to be adhered to.

   -- At the 44th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council held between June 30 and July 17, when a small number of Western countries smeared China on Hong Kong-related issues, over 70 countries supported China's legitimate position and condemned the act to use Hong Kong to interfere in China's internal affairs. This reflected the common voice and just position of the international community. It is not hard to tell who wins over support of the majority.

   -- Hong Kong has been one of the world's freest, open, prosperous and dynamic regions. From 1997 to 2019, its GDP increased from 1.37 trillion to 2.87 trillion Hong Kong dollars. Over the years, Hong Kong has maintained its status as an important global financial center. By the end of 2019, the total value of Hong Kong's stock market approached five trillion U.S. dollars, closely trailing that of New York, Shanghai and Tokyo.

   -- According to the annual competitiveness rankings compiled by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development, Hong Kong has moved up the chart since its return to the motherland, and has for four times claimed the first or second place between 2015 and 2020.

   -- By 2019, Hong Kong has been rated as the world's freest economy for 25 consecutive years by the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation.

   21.Mike Pompeo: The CCP has tightened its grip on Hong Kong, where democracy and freedom are suppressed.

   False.

   Fact check: For more than 150 years under the British colonial rule, there were no democracy in Hong Kong, as none of the governors were elected by the Hong Kong people, and its legislators were directly appointed by the governor for most of the time. In sharp contrast, after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) enjoys executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication, in accordance with the Basic Law of the HKSAR. Hong Kong people have been running their own affairs in the HKSAR with a high degree of autonomy. Hong Kong residents enjoy unprecedented and extensive democratic rights and freedoms, which is an undeniable truth for all people without prejudice.

   -- It is enshrined in the constitutions of more than 100 countries that the exercise of basic rights and freedoms shall not endanger national security. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights makes it clear that freedoms of religious belief, expression and peaceful assembly, the right to a public trial and other rights may be subject to restrictions that are necessary to protect national security, public order among others. There are similar provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights. What has happened in Hong Kong over the past year clearly reveals that it is impossible for Hong Kong to achieve prosperity and stability without safeguarding national security. During the turbulence over the amendment bill last year, the rioters flagrantly preached "Hong Kong independence", engaged in mass illegal violent activities, vandalizing facilities and attacking innocent civilians. They challenged the governance of the HKSAR government and escalated their violent terrorist activities. External forces became emboldened in their unlawful meddling in Hong Kong affairs. These have gravely threatened the life and property of Hong Kong residents and undermined investor confidence. The main reason for the instability and chaos was that the foundation of national security was not firm enough. The enactment of the law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong is aimed to plug loopholes in the HKSAR national security legislation.

   -- The legislation only targets four types of offences, namely, secession, subversion, terrorist activities and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security. It is designed to deter and punish a handful of criminals seriously jeopardizing national security, and to protect the overwhelming majority of law-abiding Hong Kong people. All efforts and law enforcement relating to safeguarding national security will be conducted in strict accordance with legal provisions, mandates and procedures. The legislation will not affect the rights and freedoms, including those of speech, of the press, of publication and of assembly that Hong Kong residents enjoy under the law. It will enable them to better exercise their lawful rights and freedoms in a secure environment.

   -- The enacted legislation will not affect the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents under the law. It will not affect the HKSAR's independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication. There will be no change to the policy of "one country, two systems", the capitalist system practiced in the HKSAR, the high degree of autonomy, or the legal system of the HKSAR. The legislation will better safeguard the lawful rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents, ensure its high degree of autonomy, and create conditions for resolving deep-rooted problems concerning its economy and livelihood. It will contribute to Hong Kong's rule-of-law and business environment, address the concerns in the business communities on social turbulence, and create better conditions for people around the world who are willing to work, invest and live in Hong Kong.

   -- The legislation meets the aspiration of the people. Nearly 3 million Hong Kong residents signed up in support of the law in just eight days. An online signing campaign against external interference by the U.S. and other forces have got support from 1.65 million people in half a month. The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and other chambers of commerce made announcements to support the legislation, pointing out that it is monumental in Hong Kong's future development and will help restore social stability. None of the 4,000 regional headquarters and offices of multinationals operating in Hong Kong left the city. The Hang Seng Index kept opening higher and maintained an up-trend after the implementation of the legislation and despite the U.S. announcement of revoking Hong Kong's special status. All these have directly reflected that the legislation is favored by the financial market.

   22. Mike Pompeo: China's military grows stronger and more menacing.

   False.

   Fact check: China is a socialist country with a strategic choice to follow the path of peaceful development, an independent foreign policy of peace, and a cultural tradition of "valuing peace as the most precious". All this made China unswervingly pursue a national defense policy that is defensive in nature.

  -- The development of China's national defense is necessary to safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests, to defend its unity and territorial integrity, and to maintain international and regional peace and security.

   -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has always actively fulfilled the international responsibilities as the military of a major country, and promoted the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind with real action. It has made all-out efforts to advance international military cooperation in the new era, provide more public security goods to the international community, and contribute to building a better world of lasting peace and universal security. Since 1990, the Chinese military has participated in 26 UN peacekeeping operations and sent more than 40,000 peacekeeping military personnel, making it the largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping missions among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Over the past 30 years, groups of Chinese peacekeepers have braved difficulties and dangers, bringing peace and hope to the conflict areas and the local people. This year, all 410 officers and soldiers of the 18th batch of Chinese peacekeepers at the UN Interim Force in Lebanon were awarded the UN Peace Medal of Honor, and more than 100 officers and soldiers of the 23rd batch of Chinese peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were awarded by the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

   -- During the COVID-19 outbreak, the PLA actively carried out international cooperation against the epidemic with defense departments and militaries of many countries, contributing to the international public health security and a global community of health for all. During the outbreak, the PLA has sent military anti-epidemic expert groups to four countries including Laos and Cambodia. It has provided epidemic prevention material assistance to defense departments and armies of more than 20 countries such as Pakistan, Russia and Thailand through air force transportation and other means. It has held video conferences with defense departments and armies of 10 countries such as Russia and South Africa to exchange epidemic prevention and control experience.

   -- Unilateralism by the U.S. undermines international order and its bullying behavior challenges norms governing international relations, posing the greatest threat to the world peace and stability. According to public information, the U.S. military budget for 2019 topped 716 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for over 40 percent of the world's total military expenditure and equivalent to the total of the nine countries following it. The U.S. defense budget accounted for 3.5 percent of its GDP in 2019, while China's annual defense expenditure accounted for less than 2 percent of its GDP in the past 30 years, which is lower than not only the world's major countries, but also the world average of 2.6 percent. China's per capita military spending is even lower, only accounting for one twenty-second of America's, one ninth of Britain's and one fifth of Japan's.

   -- With hundreds of military bases around the world, the U.S. has been war-free for only 16 of its 240-plus years of history. The U.S. has imposed "regime change", instigated "color revolutions" and exerted maximum pressure, causing regional turmoil and people's suffering. Since 2001, the U.S. has illegally launched wars and military operations against Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries, which cost more than 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars and resulted in more than 800,000 deaths and tens of millions displaced.

   23. Mike Pompeo: The purpose of the People's Liberation Army isn't to protect the Chinese people.

   False.

   Fact check: The PLA is the people's army that loves and serves the people. Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that our army is the people's army, and our national defense is the national defense of all the people. The PLA has always born in mind its fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly by keeping the people in mind, always standing with the people and fighting for them forever. Whether it is earthquake relief, flood emergency rescue, or fight against the epidemic, the people's army has always been in the forefront, fighting day and night, to protect the people's lives and property without hesitation. The closely linked relationship between the army and the people, likened to that of fish and water, is an inherent feature of the PLA.

   -- Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the PLA has resolutely implemented the decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee, the Central Military Commission and President Xi Jinping, by acting on orders, bravely shouldering heavy burdens, daring to fight hard battles, racing against time and fighting against the diseases. Over 450 medics from medical universities of the army, navy and air force of the PLA rushed to Wuhan, the hard-hit city in central China's Hubei Province, and over 10,000 medics of the PLA devoted themselves to fighting the epidemic and protecting the people's lives and health. They have played an important role in and made outstanding contributions to the epidemic prevention and control.

   -- Since June, floods have hit some provinces in southern China. The PLA and the People's Armed Police Force have dispatched 29,000 officers and soldiers to the frontline to fight floods, building dams, rescuing the trapped and resettling the affected. They act as a commando at the critical moment, safeguarding the people's lives and property.

   -- The PLA takes participating in poverty alleviation as a major political task, and shares the CPC's concerns, serves the country's interests and brings benefits to the people with a strong sense of responsibility. By the end of May, 4,100 poor villages, 293,000 poor households and 924,000 poor people that the PLA targeted to help had all been lifted out of poverty. The PLA's achievements in poverty alleviation is a demonstration of "the people's army loves the people" in the new era.

   24. Mike Pompeo: China makes unlawful claims in the South China Sea, trampling on international law.

   False.

   Fact check: China has exercised effective jurisdiction over relevant islands, reefs and waters in the South China Sea for over a thousand years. China's sovereignty and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea have been established in the long course of history, and are solidly grounded in history and law, conforming to international law and practice. As early as the 2nd century BC in the Western Han Dynasty, the Chinese people sailed in the South China Sea and discovered the South China Sea islands in the long course of activities. China is the first to have discovered, named, and explored and developed the South China Sea islands and relevant waters, and the first to have continuously, peacefully and effectively exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over them, thus establishing sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and the relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea.

   -- Many foreign documents also recorded the fact that during a long period of time only Chinese lived or made a living on the Nansha Islands. The records of the Chinese fishermen living and working on the Nansha Islands were kept in documents including The China Sea Directory published in 1868 by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of the United Kingdom, The Asiatic Pilot, Vol. IV, published by the United States Hydrographic Office in 1925, the French magazine Le Monde Colonial Illustré published in September 1933 as well as Japanese literature Boufuu No Shima (Stormy Island) published in 1940.

   -- China's longstanding exploration, development and sovereign jurisdiction over the South China Sea islands have long been acknowledged by its neighboring countries, which conforms to the principles of customary international law. China has resumed the exercise of sovereignty and other lawful rights and interests over the relevant islands, reefs and waters in the South China Sea in accordance with the post-World War II (WWII) international order and relevant territorial arrangements established in the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation, and has maintained and consolidated international law in the South China Sea since WWII, which has been recognized by many countries in the world, including the United States. After WWII, China recovered the Nansha Islands and resumed exercising continuous and effective jurisdiction over them.

   -- In 1948, the Chinese government officially published the dotted line in the South China Sea, reaffirming its territorial sovereignty and relevant rights in the South China Sea. For a long time until the late 1960s, no country, including those littoral countries around the South China Sea, had ever questioned China's sovereignty over the Nansha Islands. Later, due to the discovery of petroleum in the South China Sea, some countries began to raise territorial claims to all or part of China's Nansha Islands.

   -- Since the 1970s, some countries began to send troops to occupy certain islands and reefs of China's Nansha Islands. So far, a total of 42 islands and reefs in China's Nansha Islands have been illegally occupied by other countries.

   -- None of the working oil drilling rigs in disputed waters in the South China Sea is China's. China's oil and gas exploration, fishing and other activities in the South China Sea are carried out in waters under China's jurisdiction. China is committed to working with littoral countries concerned to shelve maritime disputes and promote joint development of oil and gas resources for mutual benefit and win-win results.

   -- With the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the situation in the South China Sea remains stable in general. The consultations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea have made steady progress. China and ASEAN countries are willing to conclude the consultations on the COC at an early date, showing their firm conviction to formulate regional rules and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.

   -- With regard to the award rendered on July 12, 2016 by the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration, China has solemnly declared that the award is null and void and has no binding force. China neither accepts nor recognizes it. China's above position has sufficient legal basis. Territorial issues are not subject to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In 2006, China made a declaration under Article 298 of the UNCLOS that maritime delimitation disputes are excluded from the compulsory dispute settlement procedures. By virtue of the principle of sovereignty, the jurisdiction of any international judicial or arbitral body over an inter-State dispute depends on the prior consent of the parties to the dispute. Despite China's opposition, the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration imposed jurisdiction over matters without China's prior consent, seriously violating the principles of sovereignty and consent of the States concerned. The Arbitral Tribunal lacked legitimacy, impartiality and jurisdiction. The process was a political farce and the award was on flimsy legal grounds, challenging the norms of international law and impairing the solemnity and authority of UNCLOS. Tom Zwart, a well-known professor of law from the Netherlands, said the award by the Arbitral Tribunal will be regarded as the fruit of a poisonous tree in East Asia, and it will fail to garner recognition and support.

   -- China's position and proposition on the South China Sea arbitration has won widespread understanding in the international community, and nearly 120 countries expressed their support.

   -- The United States refuses to join the UNCLOS in order to uphold its maritime hegemony and maintain its hegemonic status to the greatest extent.

   -- The South China Morning Post published an article titled "It's the U.S. stirring the pot in South China Sea" on July 28. The article pointed out that the U.S. has no standing with the UNCLOS because it has never ratified it. Don't people find it bizarre that the U.S. thinks it can sit in judgment over other countries' disputes? It seems a rather transparent attempt to hijack those disputes to further Pompeo's own not-so-hidden agenda, the article said.

   25.Mike Pompeo: China made the world's key waterways less safe for international commerce.

   False.

   Fact check: As a matter of fact, China has been making great contribution to the global maritime trade security. China has always been committed to building a maritime community with a shared future. China has been involved in escort and humanitarian actions in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters for a long time. China has also been pushing forward to jointly build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and fully participating in making and implementing the ocean governance mechanism and relevant rules within the United Nations framework, to fulfill the sustainable development goals related to oceans and seas.

   -- China has been taking actions in safeguarding global maritime transportation security. According to relevant UN Security Council resolutions, China sent naval fleets to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters for regular anti-terrorist and anti-piracy escort missions. Up till now, China has dispatched 35 fleets escorting more than 6,800 merchant ships, more than half belonging to foreign countries and international organizations. The safe and highly efficient escort missions by the Chinese naval fleets have won trust and recognition of merchant ships from all over the world. More and more foreign merchant ships have actively sought Chinese naval escort. A Panamanian merchant ship captain sent a mail to the Chinese naval fleet, expressing sincere thanks for the Chinese help.

   -- China has been developing international cooperation through ocean. The Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark has carried out nine overseas missions, covering a distance of over 240,000 nautical miles. It has visited 43 countries and regions, providing free medical services for more than 230,000 people. The ship has also participated in disaster rescue operations and international military drills. Dubbed "the ship of life" and "the ship of friendship", it has left behind many touching stories of Chinese warmth and assistance.

   -- China has made remarkable contributions to the epidemic prevention and control in international shipping. During the COVID-19 outbreak, China's Ministry of Transport compiled and issued operational guidelines on COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control for ships and crew, and emergency rescue and treatment guidelines for infected seafarers. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recommended the Chinese solutions to its 174 member countries. The guidelines have been a typical practice of China sharing experience in fighting against the epidemic and uniting with the international society to combat the severe challenges brought by the epidemic on international shipping.

   -- From 2013 to 2016, China salvaged at least 3,396 Chinese and foreigners in distress from vessel accidents in the South China Sea area. According to the characteristics of the sea area and the actual conditions, China has set up rescue stations in Guangdong and Hainan, and deployed professional salvation vessels on duty. Since July 2018, Nanhaijiu 115, Nanhaijiu 117 and Nanhaijiu 116 salvation vessels have taken turns on duty in the southern sea area of the South China Sea. They have completed 17 rescue missions, saving 37 lives and salvaging five vessels in distress, with the value of the saved property reaching around 39 million yuan. According to a Reuters report in January 2016, some shippers believed a greater Chinese presence in the South China Sea could actually improve safety. One shipper in Singapore said that, "If China is to base search-and-rescue assets on the (disputed) islands then there would potentially be faster response times, improving the chances of rescue and survival."

   -- Starting from May 2015, China successively built five large-scale lighthouses on Nansha islands and reefs. China has been providing comprehensive navigation services, and undertaken functions concerning navigation support, maritime search and rescue, navigation safety, fishery production, as well as the preparedness and reduction of maritime natural disasters. All these efforts have greatly enhanced the navigation safety support capability in this sea area. Since October 2018, China has started operating marine observation centers, meteorological observation stations and the Nansha Atmospheric Environment Monitoring Station in relevant Nansha islands and reefs, providing more public services to further safeguard the navigation safety in the South China Sea as well as life and work in the littoral countries.

   -- The United States introduced the Freedom of Navigation (FON) Program in 1979 ahead of the signing of the UNCLOS. Challenging the new maritime order, the move aimed at maximizing the freedom of the U.S. military power rampaging through the oceans. The so-called FON Program is not in conformity with the universally-recognized international law, disregards the sovereignty, security and maritime rights and interests of many littoral countries, and seriously jeopardizes regional peace and stability. Its essence is to advance American maritime supremacy under the pretext of "freedom of navigation", which has been opposed by many members of the international community, especially the developing countries.

   -- The United States is the most destabilizing factor to the global maritime security, often intercepting and seizing merchant ships and oil tankers of other countries, frequently threatening naval blockade on other countries and main shipping lanes, constantly organizing military exercises in the "disputed waters," and provoking regional tensions. Some U.S. military experts even touted the use of privateers to attack Chinese merchant ships.

   26. Mike Pompeo: To help deter China from aggression, the U.S. has created a Space Force and has ramped up its freedom of navigation operations out and throughout the East and South China Seas, and in the Taiwan Strait as well.

   False.

   Fact check: Aggression and expansion are never in the genes of the Chinese nation throughout its 5,000 years of civilization. China maintains continuity and stability in its foreign policy, and earnestly upholds international law including the UN Charter and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. China has never expanded its sovereignty claims, and is committed to negotiation and consultation to settle the territorial and maritime disputes with neighboring countries based on respect for historical facts and international law.

   -- China respects and supports all countries' freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, and actively safeguards the security of international shipping passages. In fact, the South China Sea is currently one of the world's safest and freest sea passages. About 50 percent of merchant vessels in the world and one-third of international maritime trade pass through this sea area. More than 100,000 merchant ships sail through it annually. The navigation and overflight in the South China Sea have never been a problem. However, the United States has been using the pretext of "freedom of navigation and overflight" to undermine the sovereignty and security interests of littoral countries, and jeopardize regional peace and stability.

   -- Since taking office, the current U.S. administration has equated the "freedom of navigation" with the freedom of military action and carried out more than 20 so-called "freedom of navigation operations" in the South China Sea. This year, the United States has sent nearly 3,000 military flights over the sea area. According to a "South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative" website report on Aug. 5, a U.S. Air Force E-8C surveillance plane was seen reconnoitering as close as 59.27 nautical miles (about 109.77 km) off the coast of south China's Guangdong Province at about 21 o'clock. In July, the E-8C aircraft appeared six times in two weeks in the sea area to conduct reconnaissance operations. The United States also sent two aircraft carriers to these waters for military exercises while calling on its allies and partners to send warships and join it in making waves in the South China Sea. These practices by the United States have posed a serious threat to regional peace and stability and don't serve the interests of all littoral countries in the region.

   -- Outer space belongs to all mankind. China calls for the peaceful use of outer space and opposes weaponization or an arms race there. This serves the common interests of all countries and is a shared responsibility. China is committed to jointly safeguarding lasting peace and tranquility in outer space, and opposes making it a new battlefield. The United States, in contrast, has described outer space as a new war-fighting domain, built a Space Force and a Space Command, and planned to deploy anti-missile weapons, which will trigger an arms race and increase the risk of weaponizing outer space and making it a battlefield.