Pompeo's fact-twisting China speech versus the truth
Preface
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his recent speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, negated every aspect of China-US 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 US 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 US 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."
