Beijing chose the “esoteric” timing to sanction Pompeo and 28 other officials, after the 46th U.S. President Joe Biden was sworn in, in the early hours of the 21st Beijing Time.
Just after Biden was sworn in, Beijing authorities issued a statement announcing sanctions against 28 officials from former U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration, including Pompeo. The reason is that they “seriously violated China’s sovereignty” and ordered that they be banned from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau, in the future.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says China has committed ethnic cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity against the Uighur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. In a statement, he condemned China for imprisoning more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and forcing them to work, birth control and restrict their religious freedom.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement in the early hours of 21 May, saying, “In the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States have planned and promoted a series of crazy acts out of selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China, disregarding the interests of the Chinese and American people, which have seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs, harmed China’s interests, hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, and seriously damaged China-US relations.
“The past few years”? It’s been years, why wait until now? Waiting until after Trump left the White House to return to his Sea Lake estate in Florida and his Secretary of State Pompeo left to become a civilian?
The officials sanctioned by the Chinese side are not low in rank, in addition to the outgoing Secretary of State Pompeo, former White House Trade Adviser Navarro, former National Security Advisers O’Brien and Bolton, former Undersecretary of State Klach, former Deputy National Security Adviser Bomen (Pottinger), former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stalwell, and former health Secretary Azar, who visited Taiwan. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Craft, who had a video call with Tsai a few days ago, is also on the list, and her term ended on the 20th.
But are Beijing’s sanctions a step too late, at least, some netizens commented, a cadre of officials such as Pompeo in the Trump Administration all changed terms, “Yesterday it was the Secretary of State, today it’s a civilian, what’s the use of sanctions?”
In contrast, the U.S. sanctions against Beijing officials are very different, real, all in office, including the 14 Chinese National People’s Congress all vice chairmen sanctioned on December 7 for imposing Hong Kong’s national security law, the Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and other senior officials sanctioned on August 7, respectively, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office Xia Baolong, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office Zhang Xiaoming, Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, Luo Huining, at the level of a full ministry. Director of the State Security Office in Hong Kong, Mr. Zheng Yanxiong, the Secretary for Justice of Hong Kong, Mr. Cheng York-wah, the Secretary for Security, Mr. Li Ka-chiu, the current Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tang Ping-keung and other senior officials of the HKMAO. The latest are You Quan, Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, who was sanctioned on January 15, Sun Qingnuo, Deputy Director of the State Security Office in Hong Kong, Tam Yiu-chung, member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the CPC, Choi Chin-pang, Director of the State Security Division of the Hong Kong Police Force, and two Assistant Directors of the State Security Division of the Hong Kong Police Force, Kan Kai-yan and Kong Hok-li. All of them are incumbent senior officials and therefore represent the Beijing regime to a greater or lesser extent.
Now that the Trump administration is gone and the U.S. has entered the Biden era, what is the point of sanctioning officials from the previous administration? Some netizens ask, “Do they want to travel to China? Do they want to send their children to school in China? Do they have money in Chinese banks?” However, the sanctions order also includes the relatives of 28 officials, with special emphasis on prohibiting them from “doing business” with China, which Beijing may feel has captured the essence of the matter.
Some analysts believe that Beijing ordered sanctions against Secretary of State Pompeo and other key officials only after the Trump administration left office because it was afraid that doing it before the Trump administration left office would incur harsher sanctions and had to hold back until after they stepped down. Beijing makes a distinction between those who are leaving, those who are leaving and those who are going to take office. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Wednesday called Pompeo a “doomsday clown,” but she did not use the same tone with Secretary of State-to-be Blinken, warning him to “correctly view China and the U.S.-China relationship. “.
Blinken, a candidate for secretary of state in the Biden Administration, told a Senate hearing on Jan. 19 that while he does not agree with all the methods Trump is using, President Trump is doing the right thing by taking a tough stance on China.
AFP reported on Jan. 20 that Biden’s future ministers were each tough on China during the Senate hearing Tuesday, leaving no room for those who accuse the Biden administration of showing weakness toward China.
AFP added that future Secretary of State Blinken also said that “we can win the race against China.” He even used the rhetoric favored by Trump and his cronies to describe super-rival China as “the most significant challenge to U.S. national interests”!
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