China as a rogue actor

To all those duds who read Times of India, Indian Express, NDTV, The Hindu etc and think that China won the war of perception after Galwan Valley face-off and India lost the narrative, read what USA is saying about China. It's calling China a rogue actor which has unleashed terror on the free world and has destroyed world economy by unleashing Covid Virus. 

Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State in his virtual address on "Europe and the China Challenge" during the 2020 Copenhagen Democracy Summit said, "The PLA (People's Liberation Army) has escalated border tensions with India, the world's most populous democracy. It's militarising the South China Sea and illegally claiming more territory there, threatening vital sea lanes. For many years, the West, in an era of hope, believed they could change the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and improve the lives of the Chinese people along the way.

"Along the way, the CCP took advantage of our goodwill while assuring us they wanted a cooperative relationship. As (former Chinese politician) Deng Xiaoping said, ''Hide your strength, bide your time.'' I've talked in other venues about why this happened. It's a complicated story. It's no one's fault

"Over decades, European and American companies have invested in China with great optimism. It outsourced supply chains to places like Shenzhen, opened education institutions for PLA-affiliated students and welcomed Chinese state-backed investment in their countries. But the CPC decreed an end to freedom in Hong Kong, violating an UN-registered treaty and the rights of its citizens. This is one of many international treaties the party has violated.

"General Secretary *Xi Jinping has greenlighted a brutal campaign of repression against Chinese Muslims, a human rights violation on a scale we haven't seen since World War II.* Now, the PLA has escalated border tensions with India.

"The CCP isn't just a rogue actor in its own neighbourhood. It lied about the Corona Virus and let it spread to the rest of the world, while pressuring the WHO to assist its cover-up campaign. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, and the global economy has been decimated.

"Even now, months into the pandemic, China has not provided access to live virus samples, facilities, or information about patients in December in Wuhan.

"China is pushing disinformation and malicious cyber campaigns to undermine governments and to drive a wedge between the US and Europe. 

"It's saddling developing nations with debt and dependency. It''s strong-arming nations to do business with Huawei, an arm of the CCP's surveillance state. It''s flagrantly attacking European sovereignty by buying up ports and critical infrastructure from Piraeus to Valencia.

"We must take off the golden blinders of economic ties and see that the China challenge isn't just at the gates; it's in every capital. Every investment from a Chinese state-owned enterprise should be viewed with suspicion.

"Europe faces a China challenge, just as the United States does, and just as our South American, African, Middle Eastern, and Asian friends do. As I said earlier this week to my EU counterparts, I know there's fear in Europe that the United States wants you to choose between us and China.

It's the Chinese Communist Party that's forcing the choice. The party wants you to throw away the progress we in the free world have made, through NATO and other institutions - formal and informal - and adopt a new set of rules and norms that accommodate Beijing."