FOR POMPEO
Charindra in Morning Star, 28 October 2020, entitled “China a Predator …”
Visiting US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo today (28) called China a “predator” and the US a friend of Sri Lanka. “We see from bad deals, violations of sovereignty, lawlessness on land and at sea that the Chinese Communist Party is a predator. The United States comes as a friend and a partner,” he said at a press conference held at the Foreign Ministry.
Meera Srinivasan in The Hindu, 28 October 2020 : “China is a predator, Pompeo tells Sri Lanka,” …. thehindu.com/news/international/us-vision-of-sri-lanka-very-different-from-predator-china-pompeo/article32962148.ece
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday slammed China for operating as a “predator” in Sri Lanka, while the U.S. came as a “friend”. He made the remark during his visit to Colombo, amid a heightening geopolitical contest playing out in the island nation.
“We see from bad deals, violations of sovereignty and lawlessness on land and sea that the Chinese Communist Party is a predator, and the United States comes in a different way, we come as a friend, and as a partner,” Mr. Pompeo told a media conference in Colombo, winding up his 12-hour trip, the second stop on his four-nation tour spanning India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia.
The Chinese Embassy in Colombo was quick to respond to Mr. Pompeo’s attack. “Sorry Mr. Secretary @SecPompeo, we’re busy promoting #China-#SriLanka friendship and cooperation, not interested in your #AlienVsPredator game invitation. The US can play two roles at the same time as always,” the Embassy said in a tweet from its handle.
The U.S.’s growing concern over China in the region — which dominated the Quadrilateral dialogue, or ‘Quad’ Foreign Ministers’ meet in Tokyo early October — appears to have figured prominently in Mr. Pompeo’s meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was also a U.S. citizen earlier, until he gave it up last year to contest polls in Sri Lanka. An official media release from the President’s office said Mr. Rajapaksa, in his meeting with Secretary Pompeo, underscored Beijing’s crucial assistance to Colombo in the post-war years and reiterated that Sri Lanka is “not caught in a debt trap”, in addition to welcoming more American investment.
Chinese delegation
It was in line with his message a top Chinese delegation visiting Colombo earlier this month. Pledging to pursue a China-style development model, Mr. Rajapaksa told the delegation from Beijing that he wished to disprove the prevalent “debt trap” analysis of Sri Lanka’s borrowings — totalling over $5 billion — from the Asian giant.
Also read | India-U.S. 2+2 dialogue: U.S. to support India’s defence of territory
Further, President Rajapaksa in his meeting with Secretary Pompeo “stressed that he is not ready to compromise the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation in maintaining foreign relations whatever the circumstances may be,” his office said in the statement.
While India and China’s competing strategic interests in Sri Lanka are well known, the tension between the U.S. and China escalated around Mr. Pompeo’s visit, even before the open diplomatic clash on Wednesday. Responding to U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dean Thompson’s remarks ahead of Mr. Pompeo’s visit, the Chinese Embassy in Colombo issued a statement, saying the U.S. was using the visit to “interfere in China-Sri Lanka relations, and to coerce and bully Sri Lanka”.
Reliance on Beijing
Even as government critics flag the Rajapaksa administration’s growing reliance on China for economic help — a $500 million Chinese loan was sanctioned in March and Colombo is negotiating another $700 million loan — the Sri Lankan President told Mr. Pompeo that Colombo’s foreign policy was “based on neutrality”. Sri Lanka, over the last decade, has borrowed heavily from bilateral partners and multilateral agencies, and is due to repay $4.5 billion next year.
Also read | 2+2 Ministerial dialogue: India to sign geo-spatial cooperation BECA with U.S.
While Chinese loans account for 10% of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, international sovereign bonds — in which U.S. is a key investor — account for nearly 40%. Although Sri Lanka, particularly the Rajapaksa camp, has resisted the U.S.’s position on its human rights record, the U.S. remains Sri Lanka’s single largest export market.
In his remarks to the press, Mr. Pompeo said the State Department has offered “substantial counter-terrorism assistance” to help Sri Lankans bring those behind the Easter terror bombings to justice. “These Easter Sunday attacks represent the kind of sectarianism that Sri Lankans are ready to leave behind forever.”
Further, referring to President Rajapaksa’s “victory speech” following his big election win last year, stating he is President of all citizens, not of only those who voted for him, Mr. Pompeo said the U.S. was “counting on” those words to hold true. “We fully expect that Sri Lanka will fulfil its pledges to take meaningful, concrete steps to promote accountability, justice, and reconciliation,” he said.
REACTIONS from Fair Dikum aka FAIR DINKUM
- More lies from Pompeo
- Pompeo has claimed a victory in SL cementing US-Sl ties. He doesn’t say anything about discussing China with SL government ….. But his reception in the Maldives was much better as he announced the opening of the first US embassy in the Maldives and talked about strong US security presence in South Asia.
- SEE https://www.state.gov/the-clean-network/
SOME CAUSTIC COMMENTS in FACEBOOK WORLD
Sanjiva Wijesinha: “Pompeo: Overimportant, over-rated, overweight and over here!”
Hugh Karunanayake: “Don’t take Pompeo seriously. In three weeks time after the US Prez elections he will be a nonentity. The Last Days Of Pompei!”
Odile Melder: “Power battles and a little pawn!!”
Guided by Anoma Seneviratne, see https://www.aljazeera.com/…/pompeo-in-india-on-first…
Charindra in Morning Star, 28 October 2020, entitled “China a Predator …”
Visiting US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo today (28) called China a “predator” and the US a friend of Sri Lanka.
“We see from bad deals, violations of sovereignty, lawlessness on land and at sea that the Chinese Communist Party is a predator. The United States comes as a friend and a partner,” he said at a press conference held at the Foreign Ministry.
I am glad that GR has reiterated in no uncertain terms that its neutrality is not for sale to the highest bidder especially for the ‘mess of pottage’ that comprises the MCC and SOFA grants. Mike Pompeo was a director of the CIA during the ‘cold war’ years with the Soviet Union and he is utilising the same yardstick to pursue an economic power that is much more resilient than the former Soviet Union. In this he is bound to fail as unlike RW and My3, GR is made of sterner stuff with a reputation in a no nonsense pursuit of economic benefits for Sri Lanka sans a military alignment with the USA and newly manifested ‘QUAD’ alliance.
Though still a military power the economic power of the USA is waning and hence it’s proposition to ratchet up the military power with the ‘QUAD’ agreement that Sri Lanka has rejected outright. Despite all the negative publicity of the calumnious ‘debt trap’ propaganda peddled by the USA and its allies China has been a long term friend of Sri Lanka and is much more reliant than the ‘fair weather’ friendship of the USA. The outright loan of $400 million and a further $700 million that is pending approval on low interest is worth far more to Sri Lanka whose economy has been blighted by COVID than the measly $400 for the MCC and SOFA with a plethora of economic and military strings attached that will render Sri Lanka a satrapy of the USA in the long run.
Sri Lankans should not be fooled by Mike Pompeo’s words. He is a repulsive man who resorts to platitudes in words such as “freedom” and “peace” to sow division, inspire hate, and to advance neoliberal ideologies around the world that only benefit the US.
A socio-linguistic study into Pompeo’s use of language is urgently demanded as it would reveal it to be psychological warfare against ordinary Asians. Asians must understand how this overblown buffoon operates. Take one example: Deconstruct the way he labels China a “predator”, and the US “a friend.” I felt a chill down my spine when I heard Pompeo declaring the US was a “friend” of Sri Lanka which reminded me of the proverb, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” The word “friend” is disarming and often used in psychological warfare. There are no friends in international relations, only interests. A friend can be an enemy.
So, beware of Pompeo’s words. Mankind is choking on them.
Pompeo’s tour of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Indonesia and Vietnam, as with all of his tours around the world in 2020, is a US government campaign of waging psychological warfare using the language of lies to revive US hegemony as the dominant global force and to sabotage China’s economy, which in turn, sabotages the economies of all Asian countries. A vibrant economy in China benefits us all, including Australia.
Pompeo words are obscene propaganda. In Jakarta yesterday, Pompeo delivered an extraordinary venomous anti-China speech to the youth-wing of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama organisation playing the Muslim card and declaring: “The gravest threat to the future of religious freedom in the Chinese Communist’s Party’s war against the people of all faiths…” He went on to make a scathing attack on China using psychological warfare techniques straight out of the CIA Training Manual to manipulate Indonesians into becoming anti-Chinese, and pro-American.
Indonesians should not be fooled by Pompeo’s lies. He is no position to lecture Indonesians on respecting religious freedoms which he has never practiced himself. The regime he belongs to and speaks for, that is, the US government banned Muslims from entering the United States, labelled Mexicans “rapists,” and ran the greatest human rights abuse centre against Muslims the world has ever seen who were tortured and persecuted in Guantanamo. Many Muslims sent to Guantanamo were innocent, wrongly persecuted, while the US tried to convince the world with a lie the tortured carried out in Guantánamo Bay was necessary as legitimate counterterrorism. Muslims were strapped naked to a crude gurney and waterboarded and subjected to sleep depravation involving painful shackling and then being doused with water, sometimes for two to three weeks at a time. The list of torture activities committed against Muslims in Guantánamo Bay is extensive and shows how depraved the US government can be, and every Indonesian should learn about it and not be fooled by Pompeo. He cannot lecture China about religious freedom.
Finally, the establishing of a US Embassy in the Maldives may well pave the way for a greater US military presence in the Indian ocean, possibly the establishing of a US military base on an island in the Maldives so US war ships can patrol the waters around Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government must keep a watchful eye over future US developments in the Maldives which might well impact on Sri Lanka.
With regards to the link to the State Department above concerning the US’s “Clean” 5G Network, it should be noted that Pompeo has spent 2020 going around the world, in the midst of a global pandemic, bullying all countries to cease trading with China, including sabotaging agreements countries may have with Huawei. Pompeo claimed the CCP would have direct access to systems using this technology, although Huawei have rejected US claims that it is required to comply with directives of the CCP. The US have provided no evidence to support their claims about Huawei’s 5G network.
The US alternative to Huawei is their “Clean” 5g Network. Here, the word “clean” is another one of those disarming words taken out of the CIA Psychological Warfare Manual. There is nothing clean about it. As we know from the Snowden revelations, which the US are now persecuting him, the US hijack all technologies in secret, and pass laws to force companies to comply with the directives of US intelligence organisations.
The US “Clean” 5G network is a very dirty network that enables the US to shut down the power grids of any country using the technology and to spy on anyone using it.
The US modus operandi is to make money selling their technology to other countries, sabotage their competitors, and to use their technologies to control any country foolish enough to buy it. It is not a new practice. For example, when the Malaysian government concluded a F-16 deal with the US and the supersonic air-fighters were delivered to Malaysia, the Prime Minister of Malaysia was surprised to discover the US had removed the source codes and combat capabilities. This means the Malaysians cannot program the attacking systems of the F-16 fighter planes without first getting the Americans to programme the planes. Should Malaysia have to go to war, the F-16s will prove to be an expensive dud.
The US made a fat load of money on the deal but used their technologies to neutralize Malaysia’s defence capabilities. Malaysian Air Force can only fly them at air shows. They cannot use the F-16s in combat because the US refused to give Malaysia the source codes when they sold the aircraft to Malaysia.