US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s China policy speech that was delivered last week in the Richard Nixon library undermined a legacy left by the former president’s historic visit to China half a century ago. 

The speech was full of lies and prejudice held by the former spy agency chief, demonstrating a toxic atmosphere of immense hostility and obsolete cold war mentality that shrouds Washington.

Alleging that China is a threat for the US economy, liberty and even “the future of free democracies around the world,” Pompeo spared no effort to stigmatize and smear China and in the meantime mislead the international community into containing China.

The speech for making explicit the government’s views and strategy, however, contained no real strategy to deal with China. Richard Haass, the president of the US Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out in an article in the Washington Post that Pompeo was not only “undiplomatic,” but also failed to suggest “a coherent or viable path forward for managing a relationship that more than any other will define this era.”

Although Pompeo did not to mention the cold war in his carefully prepared speech, his sinister intention to pull China and the US into a new round of confrontation has been fully revealed. Even if Pompeo insists on becoming the “common enemy of mankind,” he should also consider whether the US could afford to start another cold war. 

Dan Coats, former US director of national intelligence, said, “A new cold war between the US and China would be something else entirely. It is difficult to see how it could be fought effectively, not to mention successfully.”

History will make it perfectly clear eventually that all attempts that go against the desire of the Chinese and American people to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and insist on reversing the trend of history will never succeed. 

During the past nearly 50 years, both China and the US have gained a lot from good Sino-US exchanges. However, US politicians like Pompeo have obviously forgotten the basis of the exchanges and deliberately undermined the relations for their own political gains.

Chinese Consul General in Houston Cai Wei said after the consulate closed, “Although the direction of history is sometimes tortuous due to the interference of a few people, the friendship between the Chinese and American people will not be interrupted and no one can stop it.” 

China and US should conduct rational communication. Beijing will never allow a few anti-China elements to overturn decades of successful exchanges and cooperation between the world’s two biggest economies. This is not only the hope of the Chinese and American people, but also the hope of mankind. Whoever blocks this hope will be engraved on the pillar of shame in history.